Riding Metro-North. With Holy Cow.

~ Live & Learn

Morning. Today. 5:01 a.m. First train to Grand Central.

Dark Sky reports 33° F, feels like 25°.  Feels like: Not Spring. March 5th.  Spring backward. Falling and stumbling forward.

I wedge myself into a two seater, nudging the occupant awake. (Same occupant who was sprawled across two seats).  He’s annoyed. I’m annoyed that he’s annoyed. I’m way more annoyed. 

I glance up at the few unfortunates standing in the vestibule. Now they should be annoyed.

But for the low throb of the annoyances, and the giant overhead heaters blowing through the vents, the train car is silent. No talking. No whispering. No paper shuffling. Nada. Silence.

It’s as if Jack Kornfield blew the whistle and yelled Go: “It was the silence, stopping and taking a breath, opening the heart, seeing that the whole planet, and everything on it, is holy.”

And at that moment, the lead-weighted shoulders are freed.

The soles of the feet, through the leather soles of my lace-ups, feel the vibration of the steel of wheels on the steel of the tracks, bumping along with the rhythmic skip of steel on steel at the ties.

The seat under me is soft and shifts with each rail tie.  The train car rocks, my body sways ever so slightly left and right and then back again. My knees gently knock on the seat in front, first right knee then left.

Feet, knees, palms, seat — sensations are elevated.

I close my eyes. Drift off, and float along on Kornfield’s holy train.

His holy car. Holy Cow.

I awaken to the conductor’s announcement: “This station is Grand Central. Please mind the gap between the train and the platform.”

Meditation? Nah.

Mediation is not for real men.

Notes:

43 thoughts on “Riding Metro-North. With Holy Cow.”

  13. DK…you never take these journeys alone. You know that don’t you?
    Think: Pigpen in a comic book frame….dust, dirt, debris following closely as his blanket drags behind when “lace-ups” fall to path…
    Think: the clan that binds…on your heels…

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  14. “The soles of the feet, through the leather soles of my lace-ups, feel the vibration of the steel of wheels on the steel of the tracks”….❤️

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  16. “He’s annoyed. I’m annoyed that he’s annoyed. I’m way more annoyed.” Favorite passage in the post…absolutely cracked me up. You are too funny by half, pal. You get your britches in a twist and then go all Zen in spite of yourself. I do believe there’s hope for you yet! In the meantime, we enjoy the evolutionary process vicariously… 🙂

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  17. I love the way you write…I am so glad you are not numb to the day to day…that you are grateful and that you share with us the sacredness of the gift of each breath…

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  20. Your galopping ‘annoyance’ cracked me up. When one of my sisters is REALLY mad at somebody (and it doesn’t take that much….), she calmly says: I’m pretty soon going to be ever so slightly mad/furious/annoyed with you! And God help the poor sod who can’t read those words carefully and in full anticipation of what’s to come, if the ‘mad-making’ continues….. oh the wrath!

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