Just in time for Halloween, orange fingers of the stinkhorn fungus are poking out of the ground as if some rotten body is trying to escape its grave.
Since we ourselves know that we are walking toward our own graves, where do we find escape?
Some religions have beautiful stories about spending eternity with your loved ones. Or perhaps we might imagine sitting on a cloud, playing a harp, and strumming "for ten thousand years," as the beautiful song Amazing Grace suggests.
Those of us with a more materialistic view may lift an eyebrow when we hear these happy-ever-after "stories".
Pema Chodron has a book entitled The Wisdom of No Escape and the Path of Loving-Kindness. If we recognize that we have no escape from the ups and downs of life, and no escape from the grave, then our only recourse is the Golden Rule: Being as kind to others as we want them to be to us.
The orange finger fungus poking out of the ground points upward.
Relax into the space that is all around you.
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