I finished reading "The Garden of Evening Mists" by Tan Twan Eng this evening. I read it slowly, until I got close to the end. It's not the kind of book to be read quickly. It is a book that wants to be savored, both for the writing itself, and for the story.
Some books transcend the ordinary, and this is one such book. Both through the language and the story, one feels uplifted by the reading of it. It is a book that triggers deep thought and that pierces deep emotion. It is a story of love and memory, of tragedy and healing. It is a story that has its way with those who read it, in a way that only few books manage.
I wept my way through the last few chapters. Not because they were sad as much as that they touched my own truth and experience so deeply. The tears were tears of surrender and recognition. Tears for myself and tears for all of creation.
Our world is one that holds such extremes of experience. There are times when my love for the world and the experience we are afforded by our time here is so strong that my being finds it hard to contain. Reading this book has illicited this deeply loving response from me. When I reach this place within myself, the love I am filled to overflowing with is unlimited and all inclusive. I am able to look at the world with total acceptance and gratitude, both for the beauty and the horror. It is a place within me that is able to see and receive all that life has to offer. It is a place that is strangely quiet, with no edges or angles, only complete expansiveness.
The book reminds me of all those whom I have loved in my life and the gift each one has been to me. Those who have gone and those who remain. Those I have walked away from and those who have walked away from me. Those who have hurt me and those whom I have hurt. Those who have given to me and those who have taken from me. Those who have enriched me and those who have left me empty. This love extends to everyone I have ever come into contact with and had interaction with, no matter for how long or how briefly. Each one has contributed to me in ways I have not always understood or been able to receive. And, my life would be less without each and every one.
A book that takes me to the depths of gratitude and remembrance that this book has taken me is exceptional indeed. It is not often that we are gifted with a book that transcends the dimensions of life and allows us to access our unlimited nature of being. This book has done that. This book has changed my reality. This book has changed my perspectives and modes of thinking. This book has lifted me up and helped me to see differently. This book has left me better for the reading of it.
We forget sometimes how we are able to affect each other. How what we say to each other is able to either uplift or crush the receiver of our words. We forget how impactful our actions can be to another. How we are able to increase them or diminish them with what we do. We forget the power of our love and our attention. We forget the impact of small kindnesses. We forget the scars we are able to inflict upon another due to our carelessness and our selfishness. We forget the wounds our own unhealed wounds can cause in another.
We are living in a time when many people have forgotten their connection and how their actions and their words are able to affect the entire collective in very hurtful ways. In such a time, it is of primary importance for those of us who are able to remember our connection to all life, and our ability to lift each other up instead of tearing each other down, to help remind all of those who have forgotten.
It is my dream and my prayer that we are all able to remember how powerful we are and how deeply we affect those around us and the whole collective. None of us exist in a void. And, it is my dream and my prayer that through the remembrance of each of us we trigger remembrance and awareness in those who have forgotten. May we all align with the oneness of all Life and live our days in love and acceptance. May we each see this Life for the gift that it is and live our days in that knowing. Thank you, thank you, thank you.
