water and sand

here i watch my grandkids, callie, 8 and conrad, 5,  playing in a small bay at cape cod.  the salt marsh is not dense here and the small body of water is clear to the bottom where small crabs, snails, and all sorts of tiny living things crawling or swimming. many children chill their bodies in this body of blue and green, they scoop up little tiny crabs and are extactic with their finds. and the sounds of their joy filled the bright sunny day.

can we be content like the children at the edge of the sea and playing in the water and sand?? that questioning struck me because we have evolved as the most advance creature on earth, where story and play seemed to have gotten very complicated and burdensome. can we still find simplicity and peace without the constraint of our interllect? where is the beginners’ mind? how and where can we find that wilderness in our being? yes, i’m not talking about return to childhood, but a return to a kind of innocence that can unlock us and bring us closer to spontaneous play and response to the elements surrounding us. sometime i can get to that place when i do my paintings or write poetry, but most of the time, the simple water and sand are not attainable. my dream of meeting like-minded folks is meeting those who can inspire me to play, to embrace a kind of freedom that’s not really new, but ancient… a kind of Tao of living.