True Home

Even though she was fresh from the hospital and now in physical therapy, Liza urged the morning meditators to continue. She knew how much the shared time meant to her. Their gathered energy expanded her meditation event from the power of one to fairly infinite power in the company of others seeking peace. The group was a gentle force for harmony that, like a gentle spring rain soaked the room with its growth potential. She heard the door open and in stepped tall Leif with hardly a sound but the brush of fabric on fabric as he effortlessly folded himself onto the black cushion Liza provided for those who preferred to sit on the floor. No one exchanged eye contact. Olivia followed in her clean overalls paired with a gingham shirt, leaving her shoes outside the door, and plopped down rather loudly on her cushion. Then Otis, his bald head shining in the candlelight, silently took a chair. A fresh breeze flew in through the opened door. All present and accounted for except Sarah, as Otis soundlessly closed the old farmhouse door and Liza, seated in front of the fireplace on a small bench set on a black cushion, invited the sound of the bell.

Listen, listen, she quietly said. The wonderful sound of this bell brings us back to our true home.

For those with their eyes still open, on the coffee table set the Buddha as a flower--a vase with a single maroon-colored purple-heart stem with its tiny pink flower peeking out at the top. Nothing showy. The leaves made a starkly defined design that flowed from the narrow top of the Japanese vase. When Liza arranged a bouquet, there was always, unlike a commercial arrangement, space to spare among the blossoms. Space to breathe.

Leif found it hard to concentrate that morning for the flurry of his worries about his job as therapist. He felt the company pushing him aside, about to make him redundant. His office had been moved to a less desirable spot in the building. There was an officer, newly divorced and in a personal rage, who seemed to be gunning for him. Out of what? Envy because Leif's clients all loved and appreciated him? Or was it the man's own grief for a long marriage gone bad? One that could have been saved.

At the sound of the opening bell after the incense offering, Olivia settled in happily, at first conjuring Bruce's handsome face, then letting her thoughts go, to swim in the holy sea of morning.