Epicurean Samadhi
A beautiful September afternoon
I walk in the hills above the city
Admiring the art of wispy clouds overhead
Framed by the upper branches of ancient firs and oaks
Reunited again with my family of creation
Strolling through the Rose garden breathing fragrant air
The tangible sense of connection reaching beyond my horizons
A simple picnic overlooking the city
Mt. Hood hovering over a field of misty clouds
Our own ethereal Olympus seated majestically in the next
dimension
I begin my feast… a solitary apple
Crisp green tinged with red striations
An apple offered from an ancient tree on a friends land
An apple not cultivated but offered without condition from
its source
A fruit, an offering of communion, a gift of itself
My awareness also a gift, I will not simply consume
I will commune, merge with the gift I am now offered
I will receive the grace extended to the gift in the fruit
I bite into the flesh deeply deliberately slowly
Its lifeblood envelopes my tongue with sweet nectar
I receive the sacred alchemy birthed in the tree
I taste the suns energy
It’s furious life streaming through the heavens
To find it’s receptive mate in the leaves of the apple tree
The energy cascading through branch and trunk
Pushing into deep roots causing them to seek
They burrow deeply hunting for the elements
Elements of water, mineral, nutrients
Nutrients offered up as the last gift of creatures in their
passing
The final gift of a fading glory
Then the yang of this cosmic energy draws the dark treasures
up
Back through the growing community of roots
Back through trunk and branch to the womb of the tree
Here the magic of creation brings together the seed
The love child of sun and earth and water and flesh
The precious seed encased in the nectar of her creation
As her promise is received in my own flesh
I am aware that this has been the gift in every apple
But perhaps for the first time in my life
I have been fortunate enough to recognize the gift
And finally say thank you
