Today i want to write about my role models for optimal living. Yesterday i went over to my friend ilima's house to have an early dinner and hang out with her and our friend Jolynn. Each of them are wonderful, and they have extraordinary children. Two in particular are my teachers. Jahpa and Isaiah. They maintain the gift of allowing life (love/joy/the energy of the universe) to flow through them. And together, they give each other permission to be breathtaking in their joy of life. Phenomenal in their unbounding energy. Amazing in their continuous play. Don't get me wrong. All of us are flowing the energy of life (or we wouldn't be here). But most of us, especially adults and even most children over the age of two, are allowing other people and the culture to slow us down, to muck up the pipes.
Not Jahpa and Isaiah. They do not stop playing. And they make EVERYTHING they're doing fun. At one point (and right in the middle of some fun wrestling play), Ilima asked them to go fetch wood for the stove. Not missing a beat, the boys went outside with Jahpa's big sister SummerRain and made a game of it. Had a blast doing it. Effortlessly. Joyfully.
I watched them fishing with magnetic paper fish they had drawn and cut out from construction paper. Rolling all over the amiable cat Kiki. Climbing on top of SummerRain and playing horsey. Riding Jahpa's baby sister Hawea's tricycle. All the time whooping and laughing uproariously. There was no lull in their stream of joyful activity. As soon as they started to lose a little steam from what they were doing, one of them came up with something else to do, something even more fun. I marveled, watching them: this in the last few hours of a TWO DAY date. Wow.
They exemplify living life to the fullest. Extracting the most fun possible from any given moment. Folks, i believe this is what we're here to do. That's why these boys are my teachers. This is who we all are at our core. Brimming with energy, lit up, on fire, laughing from the belly, joyfully romping through life.
The first time that i bonded with Jahpa he was 4 years old. i had come to visit them in their other homeplace on the beautiful island of Kauai, and he and i were hanging out alone on the deck. We saw some birds and started talking about them, excitedly. It turned out, we shared a deep wonder and love for our flying friends. I think we both sense the freedom and beauty, ease and joy that birds (and all critters) exemplify for us. We've appreciated each other ever since and I treasure our friendship.
I met Isaiah before that and was struck by his sense of awe and joy in the natural world. He took me on a hike 4 or 5 years ago in the woods around his house. He showed me fungus and leaves and interesting sticks. We marveled at alien-looking bugs together. We jumped on big rocks over sweetwater creeks. I was enchanted with this big blue-eyed golden elfboy.
After I bonded with Jahpa, who had recently moved here, i knew that these two nature-loving, fun-seeking boys had to meet. So i invited them both over to my sunny one-room house, and it was play at first sight. I had the pleasure of watching them romp together all day. The only time they sat (picnic style on the wooden deck) was when I fed them mac 'n cheese. Four years later they're still at it. And i continue to experience deep joy (in Yiddish, naches) from my foreseeing of their great friendship, and more so, from the moments when i am blessed to be around their play.
I remember another early date we all had together. I drove us to a still operating flour mill nearby. They had fun running all over the grounds. And then they discovered a really huge old apple tree. For the next 3 or 4 hours they climbed all over the tree, ate apples, threw apples at people, fed people apples, and laughed and giggled at their own antics. A beautiful sight to behold.
A few years ago, Jahpa came to my painting studio and saw a painting i had recently finished. He said oh, a hummingbird. The painting (like most) had streamed through me from the inner dimension and i did not consciously know what it was about (and hence had given it no title). Jahpa saw what it was immediately and as soon as he said those words, my inner being went YUP. That's it.
I call it Hummingbird Arise. Thank you Jahpa and Isaiah!
Here it is (also see Paintings Gallery 3):
Comments