Ever have one of those days? How about one of THESE days...

A long-term client of mine gifted me the beautiful book pictured above when we completed our counseling relationship last year. For every day of the year, the book offers an amazing photo of people and/or places across India accompanied by words of wisdom from masters such as Krishnamurti, Gandhi, and Svami Prajnanpad. Today I decided to read the "June 15^th" passage before sitting for morning meditation...

Wakefullness is the way to life.

The fool sleeps

As if he were already dead

But the master is awake                                                                                                            

And he lives forever

To be awake is to die and be reborn

So awake, reflect, watch

Work with care and attention

Live in the way

And the light will grow in you

Opposite the passage was an amazing photo of a mother from Gujarat with her baby wrapped in a maya sling at her belly. Having just entered my third trimester, I felt deeply connected to the image and the passage. I continued my morning rituals, all the while contemplating the ideas of birth, death, and rebirth; as well as considering what I must die to in order to honor the light that I am as well as to become the best mother I can be to the "light" growing inside me. And then I got in the car...   

Apparently I left the windows of my car open after I returned from water birthing class last night. Due to this oversight, my car was filled with Canadian Soldier Bugs this morning. (My apologies to our friends from the Great White North, I really think that is their official name...) Most of the bugs had died during the night (which left little corpses on my dashboard and in my center console) some were still flitting around inside the car.

Anywho, both the recently departed and the currently agitated insects were causing a bit of distraction as I was driving to work this morning. So much so, that I almost didn't notice that traffic had come to a complete stop in order to allow a pair of geese to walk their newborn offspring across the street. I came to a screeching halt in time to prevent any damage to my car (or the geese).

The force with which I stopped my vehicle caused a few of the tiny insect corpses to slide off of the dashboard into the strawberry-pineapple-yogurt-protein-smoothie I was drinking on my way to work. As the pause in traffic was providing me with time to contemplate whether I was going to pluck the floating carcasses out of my glass and finish breakfast, or simply cut  my losses, the compilation CD I was listening to during my commute (which just happens to be entitled "Funny Shadow Mix", and just happens to have been created by the other [better?] half of the most transformative relationship I've ever been in) transitioned from Stuart Davis' "It's all Just Because" to "Practice Dying". (I know, right!?!)

Just as I noticed the irony of all the birth-death-rebirth messages flooding my awareness, the geese finished their crossing and we were all on our ways. I took a moment for one, long, inhale to take in all that had just occurred before commencing my commute. (Oh, and I finished the smoothie)

The Universe must truly trust that I am a morning person to offer me so much insight all before  8am.