Epicurean Samadhi

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