I needed a ride to the LAX airport and an Indian girl friend of mine offered to take me. When it was time to go, a strange car pulled up in front of my house, and the father of her daughter got out and informed me that my friend had been called into an unexpected meeting - that he was to drive me instead.
It was a harried drive to the airport. I wondered if he had ever driven anyone there before: he was in the wrong lane in the Sepulveda tunnel, causing a near accident when he moved at the last minute; he kept cutting off buses or sitting tentatively behind cab lines; we had to turn around and re-circle the Departures twice. It occurred to me I may miss my flight.
He talked nonstop the entire time. He kept saying that we do not live in a material world at all - that we are spiritual beings in a spiritual world, but we don't always know that. When he finally reached my terminal, he bowed to me, hands in prayer and said "namaste." I did make my plane to the yoga retreat where I was headed, but what I didn't realize at the time was that the yoga was already happening - right there, right then with my driver.
I saw him again this morning in the park by my house meditating. I was annoyed at first because he was sitting right in the spot where I go to meditate myself. Then I noticed his face; he was deep into it, and I realized just how much of a presence this unassuming gentleman really was. I sat next to him and meditated with him. It felt good.
When I opened my eyes he was gone, but I never heard the footsteps.
I've been thinking about change. I'm realizing how I've been strangling myself with schedules and plans and regimens for my enlightenment - for pleasure. It's my tendency, to want to control joy. Of course the only way to get to that place is to let go of the plan, to step aside and realize it's already here, happening. It's time to relinquish the strait jacket and allow the unexpected delights to register. It's time to stop strangling the happening.
"Today I will make no decisions by myself..." That's the scary line from A Course in Miracles that seems appropriate. It's time for that.
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