Tides Clocks Optimist

There are three songs I enjoy so very much whenever they play on the station I listen most to on the music platform of Pandora, all of which are instrumental & string-based. The three songs (which you can click on to listen to on YouTube if you like) are:

Tides by Garth Stevenson
Clocks by Eklipse
& Optimist by Zoe Keating

I took special note of these three songs and jotted them down in my journal to help me keep track of them. Applying a poetic lens to the titles and the depth of feeling each song evokes, this post is my writer’s attempt at seeing if I can harmonize them together to share a story of woods living.

Tides. As in the ocean’s change. Not only change but big change. It’s slow at first, and at the very start nearly imperceptible, but when an ocean tide goes out or comes in it changes everything on the immediacy of the shoreline. Tides can remind us that some things, many things, are outside of our sway and control. Life also has its tides. So does the wilderness of the woods. So too do we as a spirit, heart & soul walking around in this physical & mental human form.

Woods living is putting me in closer touch with how the shifting tides of life-chapters, as shown by way of example through nature’s changes in weather & season, are part of, not separate from, what it means to be alive. The trees and animals are teaching me how to go with the flow a little more, even when what’s flowing is not to my preference or liking. Having closer contact with un-peopled outdoor surroundings, where the intrusions of vehicular sounds are minimal and the gear-turning of commerce is not on close-by display, is a boon to my ability to connect with deeper insights.

Clocks. One brand of trouble many of us face is that we are unskilled and underdeveloped at holding two or more seemingly opposing things at the same time. We are often caught and stuck in dualistic thinking. We regard pairings such as ordinary/sacred; spiritual/sexual; being/doing; activity/rest; individual/collective; solo/social; work/play to be in competition with each other, when the truth is they are two sides of the same coin. We think there is a choice to be made between these and other pairings, when really what is needed is to integrate them into the totality of what it means to be fully human.

For example, in order to develop emotional intelligence and the wisdom of maturity, we must put effort into holding the truth of how everything changes and lots of stuff is outside of our control alongside the truth of how structure, schedules, plan-making, and the choicefulness of our actions are how things happen and get done. Both things are true. Life involves tides and it also involves clocks.

Jack Kornfield said: The trouble is you think you have time. This is one of favorite quotes & teachings. I hold it close and use it as a regular reminder not to rush but also not to wait.

Optimist. In a translation of a poem by an early Buddhist nun by the name of Uttama, there is a part that says:

You are your mother. You are your daughter.
One moment gives birth to the next.
What we do is who we become.

What we do is who we become. Where we live and what we are surrounded by on the daily is who we become. What we watch on a screen, read in a book, listen to through a podcast or hear through a song is who we become. The people we interact with most regularly are also a big part of who we are. Our actions are the ground on which we stand. Everything we do and everything we don’t do matters and makes a difference, which I consider to be very good news. Because it means transformation, healing, growth & learning are possible. With the efforts of self-cultivation, we can assist ourselves to experience liberation from suffering. 

In my view, to be an optimist doesn’t mean to be idealistic. It means having a willingness to be open to what is actually and truly possible, which often lies beyond conventional mechanisms of thought. Optimism is the ability to think creatively, deeply, and artistically. Optimism centers around having confidence in ourselves and compassion & understanding for other people. When we dip a toe into the wellspring of the insight of interbeing, optimism is what rises up within us as a natural result. It’s also what gives us courage to pursue a different way of life then what we’ve been shown and taught.

Remote woods living is changing the lens through which I look & see through. The foundation upon which my life is built is changing too. I’ve said it before and I will continue to say it so long as I find it to be true: there is no loneliness in the woods (which is a line I lifted and slightly adjusted from a great non-fiction short story by John Lane called Natural Edges). The forest is a rich place and offers and provides good company.

Lately I’ve been noticing an improvement in my ability to mono-task. And it’s not been an intentional undertaking. I am ingesting the teachings from my forest surroundings as a natural response to where I live. I’m still an expert multi-tasker, just to be clear, but I am starting to be able to do certain things as my sole activity that I wasn’t as able to do before when living in town. And also with a little more ease; less rushed & frantic. Mono-tasking also involves not just doing one thing at a time but also being with what we’re doing while we’re doing it.

Once again I offer the reminder that there is no need for us to choose between these states of being. Both multi-tasking and mono-tasking have their place, importance, and relevance. Both are necessary skillsets, I think, in creating a good life. Personally speaking, as a professional multi-tasker, I can use all the mono-tasking support I can get to help balance me out.

Zen based practice is all about mono-tasking. When we eat we just eat. When we walk we just walk. When we chop wood we chop wood. When we sit in meditation we are truly present with and for ourselves. This doesn’t mean we don’t make plans for the future or do the important work of healing our wounds from the past. It means that we can practice to toggle back and forth between these realms of wilderness within and around.

We mono-task at certain times and multi-task at others. We abide by the tides and also listen to the ticking clock. We tend to the necessary logistics of living while staying closely tethered to the poetics of life. We see life as it is and practice to love the world anyway. Because side-by-side with war, discrimination and hate is the incredible goodness of people, beauty of nature and wonders of the cosmos, which are all well beyond words & measure.

We press pause to practice to be here now in this precious present moment, doing whatever it is we’re doing, amid all the time we spend learning & healing from our past, thinking about tomorrow & planning for our future.