Tuesday, April 29, 2014

Mary Oliver, Dream Work, and Synchronicity

I was walking down Commercial Street in Province Town after purchasing  a collection of poems by Mary Oliver, entitled Dream Work in a cozy small bookstore I think she once owned.  Being enamored by both by her poetry and dream work, it occurred to me that I might be able to match up my photographs taken this week in Province Town with her dream images.

Walking a few steps further,  I had a strong and sudden urge to photograph a bronze Buddha beckoning to me from a storefront window. Just as I snapped the shutter, I saw my reflected image merge with the Buddha (that’s me wearing black and white patterned do-rag and yellow-green coat).

Merging with Buddha: Province Town 4/29/14
Being embraced in this manner by the Buddha resulted in a warm feeling of happiness and release from my everyday concerns. I felt I was now on the path and wondered what other connections were waiting to be made, what other synchronicites might be lurking. It came to mind that Mary Oliver might have written about the Buddha?  A quick check of Google told me she had, that she had written The Buddha’s Last Instruction which begins:

Make of yourself a light “
said the Buddha,
before he died.


I think of this every morning
as the east begins
to tear off its many clouds

of darkness, to send up the first
signal - a white fan
streaked with pink and violet...


Cape Cod Bay From our Bayshore Lodging
Connecting these dots gave me a warm feeling of belonging , confirming my worldview that more we look, the more we see everything is connected. 

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