Uup-eez



dalai-on-lap-meditation-pencil-cartoon-sketchWhen my kids were little they use to stand at my side and scrunch their little stubby fingers closed and open repeating the mantra “Uup-eez.  Uup-eez.”  I suspect it was a combination of Up Please.  Or maybe it is a universal word of the hippie generation – those of us who toted our tots on our hips.  However it came about, in my mind, the call to arms seemed to be a human quality … that was until today’s meditation.

As I sat in full lotus on top of an oak kitchen chair that was facing a southern window there was a small stream of morning light warming the top of my head.  My hands had fallen into a natural mudra on my thighs and I was beginning to settle into the space all around me.   Just then I was tipped nearly off my delicate perch as Dalai jumped up into my lap.  With my eyes still closed in dogged bliss, I could only feel her body pressed against mine as she sat up tall and leaned into my solar plexus.  Her cold paws gripped my bare footed toes for balance as she no doubt was contorting her body as to peek out the window in hopes to catch a glimpse of the bunny residing in our back yard.

Soon the rest of the house was stirring with footsteps and Dal found other interests and playmates to amuse her.  One last bump off balance for me, and she bounded away.

After my zazen, I swiveled the chair around back to the dining room table and crouched with my knees to my chest as I helped my son with his homework project.  We poured through library books looking for something more he could use for a website he was constructing.  My mind was busy at the task at hand until all of a sudden I felt the scratch of sharp small claws on the side of my shin.  A small whimper from a not too tiny dog signaled she wanted for me to lower my knees so that she could once again have a seat to settle into.  As I looked in her beady brown eyes with a head half cocked in confusion – where had my lap gone? — she pawed at my legs gently and I could hear in my mind’s eye the echo of a toddler’s voice saying “Uup-eez.  Uup-eez.”  And as always, I picked her up, because they are only young once you know.

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