Of Microbursts, Paddleball and Yoga Studios

Mark and I established a new record in paddleball on Wednesday:  367.  We haven't been playing as much this week, primarily because of my continuing problems with my feet.  So we were pleased at our new record.

It was timely because we temporarily lost one of our paddles on Wednesday afternoon.  I went running after our lunch break while Mark went on down to the beach.  Upon my return, I learned that there had been a powerful microburst in my absence.  It had been very windy that morning, but this was a wind that scattered everything.  Mark said one of our beach chairs went sailing through the air as high as the tree tops.  Flip flops, paddleball paddles and other items had been picked up and scattered here and yon.

Mark had retrieved everything except one of the paddleball paddles.  After our friends Troy and Jean-Pierre had unsuccessfully searched for it as well, we concluded that it was simply lost forever.  Then, about an hour or so later, Troy noticed it sticking straight up out of the sand further down the beach.  Apparently, it had been blown out into the water, then had washed up on the beach, a little worse for wear.

Our "yoga studio" continues to change.  Awhile back, I wrote how it had been decimated by high waves and powerful surf.

Before the waves

After the waves

Now, however, it's back bigger than ever.

This phenomenon reminded me of a passage from Eckhart Tolle's book, A New Earth.

"There are many accounts of people who experienced that emerging new dimension of consciousness as a result of tragic loss at some point in their lives. Some lost all of their possessions, others their children or spouse, their social position, reputation, or physical abilities. In some cases, through disaster or war, they lost all of these simultaneously and found themselves with “nothing.” We may call this a limit-situation. Whatever they had identified with, whatever gave them their sense of self, had been taken away. Then suddenly and inexplicably, the anguish or intense fear they initially felt gave way to a sacred sense of Presence, a deep peace and serenity and complete freedom from fear …  

“When forms that you had identified with, that gave you your sense of self, collapse or are taken away, it can lead to a collapse of the ego, since ego is identification with form. When there is nothing to identify with anymore, who are you? When forms around you die or death approaches, your sense of Beingness, of I Am, is freed from its entanglement with form: Spirit is released from its imprisonment in matter. You realize your essential identity as formless, as an all-pervasive Presence, of Being prior to all forms, all identifications. You realize your true identity as consciousness itself, rather than what consciousness had identified with. That’s the peace of God.  The ultimate truth of who you are is not I am this or I am that, but I Am.”