What do you want to do today?

Some of my friends have asked me if I have been able to occupy my time with meaningful activity up here in Nantucket. I do not believe in a hierarchy of human activity, conquering the world is not better than being engrossed in a DVD or riding a bike. We take ourselves and our careers so seriously, and denigrate fun and games as trivial pursuits. Our nature is to seek pleasure and to dance and sing. Each one of us is a small speck of life on a spinning rock in one solar system among billions of stars in our galaxy out of billions of other galaxies in a vast Universe. And yet, we believe that driving a Prius, or getting elected to something or other will somehow be a giant step for mankind and an invaluable accomplishment for us.

So, when the question is asked about meaningful activity, I answer with a resounding "YES" because everything I do is meaningful to me, wherever I am. Yesterday I walked for several miles which is not something I usually do "at home." I played with my grandchildren and watched them flit effortlessly from one activity to another leaving a wake of scattered toys behind . I tasted the date bars they made with their mom. The Kitty and I walked hand in hand down Main Street looking in store windows. We went to a private club as guests of Jennie and Mark and sampled some bistro food... lobster rolls, pulled pork sliders, blue cheese burgers, and the ubiquitous chowder. We looked at the beauty of the clubhouse building that dates back to the early 1900s. Some buildings in town go back hundreds of years. The Universe is a little older.

When you are in the moment and paying attention everything is meaningful. What is the sense of an ordinary day? And what makes it not ordinary? When you are standing on an empty beach, looking out at the waves, feeling the sand under your feet, smelling the air, under a clear blue sky, in silence but for the crashing waves and the gulls, you paradoxically do not feel smaller, you feel as one with all of creation, and as big as the Universe. And that to me, is meaningful. So simple yet so profound. To quote Dan Millman in "Peaceful Warrior" "There is never nothing going on and there are no ordinary moments."