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This is a Friendly Mystery

Standing in my friend and neighbor Kate’s kitchen, washing vegetables, chopping, looking out the window above her sink at the rain coming down soaking the lush spring green trees and bushes, a familiar feeling came over me. I felt comfortable and at ease, at home. It was sweet to be so relaxed and doing something as simple as prepping the fixings for a brown rice salad with Lemon Tahini dressing while listening to music. The background was filled with her contented smile and my new favorite song on repeat – Glorious by MaMuse who says their website is “what a meadow would sound like if it could sing.”

We were just chatting and keeping company, every once in a while breaking into a sing along. Oh what a day! Glorious! The stove top was cooking; steaming sweet potatoes, ripe corn, zucchini, Walla Walla Sweet Onions, carrots, and the rice was heating up, too. I had a fleeting thought while looking out the window at all the greenery, “Oh. We are indoors eating the outdoors.”  I felt warmed by the togetherness, the simplicity of being. All was well.

I recognized the feeling of that moment, remembered it somehow. It reminded me of easy-going days of the sixties. It was the sweet uncomplicated innocent companionship of hanging out together listening to tunes, cooking veggies, just chilling on a rainy afternoon.

Out of the blue I turned to Kate and heard myself say out loud, “I am a child of the sixties.” She quipped, “If the shoe fits wear it.”  “No,” I continued, “I mean that I really embrace that about myself, being from the sixties.”  I then shared the memory of a lecture from a former boss about keeping that part of me a secret because “if people knew they would think less of you.”

“I love that about myself,” and I shouted “I EMBRACE IT! I have always embraced it. I love that I lived, fully lived the sixties.” It made me smile.

Then it hit me.

“Oh my god,” I said, “I just realized that word ‘embrace’ comes from a story about a waiter’s smile; I’ve been using it for weeks.” “Waiter’s smile?” Kate looked at me quizzically. “Yes, waiter’s smile,” I said. “A story that a client told me about a waiter at a Mexican restaurant whose smile was so beautiful that it was like an embrace.” The word embrace had been on my mind for weeks due to that story.

He and his wife were out to dinner and their waiter had a remarkable demeanor – “His presence was like an embrace,” he told me. The waiter’s being, the care that he took, well, their entire experience that evening was like being embraced. All because of their waiter’s smile, which was itself an embrace. My client must have used that word eight times in five minutes.

That encounter made an important and lasting impression. It was simple yet meaningful. I had wondered out loud, “Is that how you’d like your clients to feel? How you’d like them to experience you and your work? As being embraced?” Sounded like a mission statement.

For days afterward I found myself telling and retelling that story. “Could you imagine,” I would say, “if everyone with whom you worked, every client, student, customer, citizen, colleague…if they all felt embraced?” I was deeply touched and moved. I carried that story everywhere sharing it with wonder and joy. How simple. How clear. How deep.

And then, right there, right then, in that  present moment in Kate’s kitchen, it had arrived during our neighborly “dinner date” bringing along with it a smile. And I felt embraced. I really got it, that deep feeling of being embraced. Oh what a day! Glorious!

And if that weren’t enough…

I realized that that story about the waiter came from the client who had given me the CD containing the song that we were listening and dancing to right now. Gulp. A second order embrace.

Suddenly everything felt aligned

Lush with full awakening

Every vertebrate in rhyme

A nourishing meal of meaning

A clear river of perceiving

A tasty morsel of magic

Served right before we dined

Don’t you just love when that happens?  Embrace it! All is well. This is a friendly mystery.

Glorious

Written by: Karisha Longaker

Lyrics

Oh what a day! Glorious!
Gather ‘round
There’s nothing better
Than a friend
Oh what a day! Glorious!
The smell of rain
Has hitched a ride
Upon the wind
I’ve got good friends
To the left of me
And good friends
To my right
Got the open sky above me
And the earth beneath my feet
Got a feeling in my heart
That’s singin’
All in life is sweet
Oh what a day!

Oh, what a day! Glorious!
All the clouds
Have gathered round
The tops of trees
Oh what a day! Glorious!
Pitter patter
Fallin’ rain I can’t believe
All that’s green
Lifts up its leaves
Singin’ water come on in
We’ve been waiting all these days
Prayin’ you would come to quench
Every yearnin’ in our bones
Water, life with you begins
Oh what a day

Home is believing
Home has wings of faith
Home is a clear river
Of perceiving
All is well
This is a friendly mystery

Oh, what a day! Glorious!
Baby blue jay
Squawkin’ in the cherry tree
Oh, what a day! Glorious!
Deep in the night we had a raccoon robbery
Pitter patter little paws
Have left their footprints all around

Pitter patter evidence
Some fruit has fallen to the ground
Pitter patter sings my heart
At the thought of what’s to come
Oh, what a day!

Home is believing
Home has wings of faith
Home is a clear river of perceiving
All is well
This is a friendly mystery
All is well
This is a friendly mystery

Oh, what a day! Glorious!
Under the sky we slept last night
Just you and me
Oh, what a day! Glorious!
The waning moon
Our cycle is almost complete
We’ve got good friends to the left of us
And good friends to our right
Got the open sky above us
And the earth beneath our feet
Never fear-the birds are singin’
Even endings can be sweet
Oh, what a day!
Never fear–the birds are singin’
Even endings can be sweet
Oh, what a day!