Tonight, I wanted to begin by saying that I would have been away for about 10 days and

it's really great to be back here and see all of you.

I was on one of the first vacation slash retreats I've had in quite a long time and it was

really a treat because I got to slow down enough so that I actually could watch clouds

that were going very slowly and watch them move through the sky and feel the breeze

and see the change of light through the day and listen to birds and feel myself walking

on the earth and it was the kind of thing where I just really was not on my way anywhere.

And part of what happened was I sensed this ever deepening well-being and was remembering

the line from Zen Master Doge and who says that to be enlightened is to be intimate with

all things and how much we have to step out of our familiar cocoon of thoughts and really

slow down, really pay attention to feel that intimacy and it was one of those re-realizations

I've had many many times that this longing for intimacy we have and how it requires

just kind of quieting and it requires coming into our bodies and our senses.

There is no way that we can be connected with our inner life and with each other and with

the earth and care about our inner life and each other and the earth.

If we're not in our bodies and I don't know if as I say this you're checking to see

okay am I here or not you know but we leave a lot so really our bodies live in the present

moment our senses live in the present moment so right now if you're aware of sounds and

if you're aware of sensations, feelings, you're here, you're on that path of intimacy

of connection and if you're accepting what you're aware of, if you're aware of it and

there's no resisting that's the beginning of being in love, being awake.

So I got inspired to lawyers away to talk about how our body and our senses really are

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