It's A Marvelous Night for a Moondance

A few days ago I visited the National Quilt Museum in Paducah, Kentucky. The quilts, like most other works of art hanging in galleries, are so spectacular that you can view them day after day and attend to something different each time you visit. This last time was no exception since it was my second visit in 3 months. Many fine quilts caught my eye but 'Moon Dance', by Judy Coates Perez from Chicago, was the star of the show for me.

I know that 'Moon Dance' is not a traditional looking quilt but I was drawn to it because of the story I saw in it. And.....I know that my interpretation is not what the artist had in mind when she created this award winning quilt, but there was a story in me that needed to be recognized and this quilt was the instrument of the universe calling my attention to my lesson for the day.

In my life, I have a history of holding onto people and circumstances I treasure way too tightly. It is called attachment and I do it well. At the root of attachment is seeing others and other situations as separate from ourselves and so attaching is a way of holding on. The opposite of attachment is not to be so detached that you don't form relationships at all. The opposite is valuing each circumstance for what it is, appreciating it and letting it enrich your life and at the same time, letting go of it- realizing that you cannot control it or keep it- recognizing that you really are not separate from that situation. You already have it.

"According to the Buddhist point of view, nonattachment is exactly the opposite of separation. You need two things in order to have attachment: the thing you’re attaching to, and the person who’s attaching. In nonattachment, on the other hand, there’s unity. There’s unity because there’s nothing to attach to. If you have unified with the whole universe, there’s nothing outside of you, so the notion of attachment becomes absurd. Who will attach to what?" -- Buddhist teacher, John Daido Loori

I want the things in my life to stay the same because that imagined stability brings me comfort. Let me have the same job forever, enjoy the same friends forever, live in the same place forever.....nothing is forever and the only thing that remains unchanging is the truth that things change. It is a good thing. Creatures living in stagnant water die.

The red bird on the quilt can change by flying wherever the whim takes it. The deer has the choice to enjoy the red bird right now for what it can bring to his life because the deer knows that sooner or later the bird will move on....or....the deer can feel sadness, anger, disappointment, or abandonment when the bird actually does fly away. It might seem that they live in two different worlds: one on the ground and one in the air, and that the things they have in common are few. I reality they are both a part of each other. Yes, the deer could expect that because the two of them have shared a portion of life, the bird will choose to remain in the tree right above its antlers forever. In truth, the bird will eventually fly away because that is what birds do. And that is what birds are supposed to do.

Life is stressful, yes. But it is so because humans wish to control people and situations to hold them close, not realizing there is nothing outside of ourselves in the first place. What could be closer than that?