A Quiet Moment's Thoughts
Driving can be almost automatic. Meditating is quite another thing....I think.
What I think I thought wasn't really thinking at all....
There really is a perpetual motion machine!
It is our brains.
If you think yours goes to sleep, too, try to forget that.
It has been described as a muscle.
Do you think your muscles go to sleep, or take naps?
We are living beings, cells are dying, new cells are born.
Nerves are firing, juices are flowing, the heart is pumping.
And you thought the brain was like a light switch?
Don't give that idea another thought.
You don't have to, that thought is already stored away.
It doesn't have to be thought brand new again.
Along with all the lessons you have ever learned.
All the lessons you think you can't remember,
All the faces you have ever seen,
That thought is there along with some thoughts
Your brain thought up on its own from pieces of thoughts.
Like waves along the shore, even when the sea is calm,
The brain waves continue until you die,
And even then they defined your death.
Rest the brain, just as the rest of your body rests.
Nourish and protect the brain with what it needs,
And it will serve you continuously, splendidly,
Solving problems you may never know you had,
Doing it unconsciously without troubling you
Because another part of your brain was active
Solving a problem, storing thoughts and observations
Some you were consciously aware of at the time.
Why is a joke a joke? Why is a photograph stirring?
Why is a concerto different than a piano lesson?
Think about such questions and the answers are there.
Fine tuned, the brain is working reliably like a clock.
Damage it by way of trauma or a stroke and it still functions
It just doesn't observe time and motion and consequences
As well as before.
It can play tricks, have hallucinations, apparitions, false memories,
But while it may have doors that are shut
And inaccessible areas, life as it has become goes on,
Perhaps muted, perhaps dulled, perhaps chaotic or distracted
By other thoughts and thinking.
But some of what you think you thought,
Wasn't really thinking at all.
It was inspiration, called for or unbidden,
Recognized or not, satisfying or terrifying,
It just was.
Direct it when you can or must.
Some glands can be summoned by the brain
To put it into overdrive, accelerated thought.
The brain can interpret approaching darkness
And direct another gland to boost the quality of sleep.
But it is working still, preparing to tell you
What part of a day you are waking to,
How thirsty you are, and where you need to go first.
Undamaged, it will direct the rest of your day,
Evening, and night.
Always working well for good or for ill,
And all that is in between.
Work it when you can.
Train it to serve you differently.
Learn which thoughts have cautions,
And appreciate its many gifts freely given
Until it startles you one last time.
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© 2015 Demas W. Jasper All rights reserved.
