Touching Peace. A poem I wrote in 1991

Touching Peace
1999 Alaska
Lynn/Lati Noel

When I touch life with deep awareness and mindfulness I touch all moments.
Past, present and future. There is no greater joy or peace I find in this life than
the moment of being fully aware of life.

I have experienced this life as many have. As many will, and as many do.
We are one. So why would we not share the same experiences. I know my past,
my present and future... they are one. All meeting in the same time and place
within my spirit. I am one with all things.

The way I experience life has not always been this way. Like others.
I used to worry about many things. Money, jobs, bills, mortgages, friends,
lovers, family. Much of my life was consumed with catching up, trying to
get or stay ahead. Rarely did I feel I was breaking even emotionally or financially.

Within the moment I find myself within all things. I know I am here in Alaska.
My feet touching the snow. My face in the sun. Eyes closed. I breathe in the
air not as an unconscious act but with awareness. I feel the air passing over my lips, across my tongue, into my throat, filling my lungs. My chest begins to expand slowly.

Once my lungs are full I pause for a brief second to feel the fullness within.
How I have taken in the world. I slowly begin to exhale. As I empty my lungs I release myself from all but the moment. I see myself standing in the snow. The snow begins to melt and becomes a river. t first I find myself on the water or more properly. I am a wave. I was out of control as I curled within the currents and crashed on rocks and other obstacles.

I have traveled the river for many miles as a wave. I am more than a wave.
I am the river. I am the water. This was not something I knew without awareness. As the water I am all things. Touching all things. It is a global prospective.)

I touch a friend who is dying in this life. She is not dying but continuing.
She will live within me as she will live within all who know her.
I am there beside her now. I can see her smile and feel her warmth thought
we have never met in person. She is the water.

I touch a stranger. Like the wave he is riding on. Angry with his world. Blaming,Selfish angry as the wave. He struggles fighting his way. He's stuck now in the snow. I watch him cursing, yelling at his wife for his mistakes. She begins to cry as the wave washes over her. She to becomes the wave. Struggling within the water.

I see a man a woman and their children. They are the wave. I watched as the Father and Mother let the smile of their child go unnoticed. The child went to play with his brother. The two laughing children were told to shut up so the parents could watch TV. They are the wave.

The water runs through us all. This water of life. It has no beginning... no end.
It is continuous. It is the past, present and future, it is the moment when all things are possible...
even becoming the river.