Mantra #5 - Acknowlegment

Today I acknowledge the here, here, here that is now.

I write in a local coffee house. Today my heart sank when a small boy I recognize from other times here enters with his mother. I remember he can get wild, and now he sits on the sofa right next to where I am writing. He has a plastic gun that fires Styrofoam bullets, and his mother, obviously there to get out of the confines of her house is ignoring him. She's met up with her girlfriend, a striking woman with long black hair and lashes.

The little boy will not be ignored. As his mother gets involved in talking, and I turn toward the story I am working on, he runs from one end of the coffee shop and back. He aims his little gun and shoots a plastic bullet in my direction. His mother doesn't notice.

Desperate, he aims at a paper glass full of milk at close range. It takes him several attempts, but finally the Styrofoam bullet upsets the glass of milk, spilling it everywhere. All the adults, and there are only adults there excepting him, stare in his direction. Now his mother notices and goes to him saying, "no, no, no," and he looks at her with a pleased look. He has finally been acknowledged.

To children "no" is the equivalent of "hello, I see you," and in that respect they will take what they can get, even if it means upsetting a glass of milk. It is the acknowledgement that matters, the confirmation of being alive.

As we go through our day today, let's focus on the importance of that "hello," if only with our eyes, to everyone and everything we contact. Let us remember to nod at the rest of existence, to give it all that mental "hello, hello, hello" that confirms everything is alive and being around us.

It is all here, and we are here, here, here, and that is reason for acknowledgement and celebration.

Today I acknowledge the here, here, here that is now.