I lay in bed last night listening to the patter of rain and the syncopating drips of water from the leaves. The even sound of my husband’s breathing provided the backdrop. I noticed that all those things come and go. Rain for a while, rain gone. Steady breathing for a while, then his body shifts, the rhythm changes.

The body-mind arrives on the planet, and then one day it leaves. Coming and going. We complicate this by calling it birth and death, but if we don’t invest thoughts and meaning–and instead stick very close to our direct experience–isn’t it a simple coming and going?

© Skye Blaine, 2011