Life is short; Eternity is not.

I did not think up the above – a sign on the church building. Quite an impression.
Currently not in a contemplative mode as having just come back from Seattle, the suitcase still sits unpacked, souvenir gifts undelivered.
As soon as I unpack the spoils of the Northwest, I must pack for a trip to the East… photos from Seattle still yet to downloaded, much less organized
while I prepare to embark on yet another memory making journey. It’s all about making fond memories – life is about experiences and relationships, good and bad, the full range.
It’s the truth for me –

Life’s about the journey; not the destination.

Japan

Today I pass the time reading
a favorite haiku,
saying the few words over and over.

It feels like eating
the same small, perfect grape
again and again.

I walk through the house reciting it
and leave its letters falling
through the air of every room.

I stand by the big silence of the piano and say it.
I say it in front of a painting of the sea.
I tap out its rhythm on an empty shelf.

I listen to myself saying it,
then I say it without listening,
then I hear it without saying it.

And when the dog looks up at me,
I kneel down on the floor
and whisper it into each of his long white ears.

It’s the one about the one-ton temple bell
with the moth sleeping on its surface,

and every time I say it, I feel the excruciating
pressure of the moth
on the surface of the iron bell.

When I say it at the window,
the bell is the world
and I am the moth resting there.

When I say it at the mirror,
I am the heavy bell
and the moth is life with its papery wings.

And later, when I say it to you in the dark,
you are the bell,
and I am the tongue of the bell, ringing you,

and the moth has flown
from its line
and moves like a hinge in the air above our bed.
– Billy Collins

He is referring to Buson’s haiku… that goes like this:

釣鐘（つりがね）にとまりてねむる胡蝶（こてふ）かな
蕪村

A moonbutterfly sleeps peacefully on a big temple bell.

Tough to translate this – due to the extreme brevity that contains so much… it’s the imagery of a beautiful stillness under the moonlight (otherwise, he would not have seen the moth – no flashlight in the 1700’s) where a moth lies quietly on a large temple bell. Unfamiliar with Haiku, one might think – so what? Well, that’s haiku – you have to use your mind, more specifically, your imagination has to go to work (which in turn is good for your mind:) If you have ever seen a large (weighs mega-tons) metallic bell at a Japanese shrine or a temple… the image becomes that of tenderness and sweetness due to the contrasting images – the dark heavy solid gigantic bell that vibrates when struck vs. the light small fuzzy unsuspecting … moth, noth…nothing – mothing-like moth. Seen in a moonlit temple ground. It is also somewhat amusing because when the bell is struck, the vibration would be so great – one wonders what would a moth do – go into shock? or flutter away knocked out by the vibe? A concern goes out for this tiny stealthy creature currently enjoying the quiet, the peace… the stillness. Sometimes we are suddenly shaken not knowing we too were blissfully without knowing, just hanging out on something we thought was solid and stable like a rock. Turns out – Things are not so solid and static – things are dynamic and quivering with energy yet to manifest.

With Haiku – less is more. Less said, more conveyed.

An image to follow…