13. We Got to Stay Four Days

“We got to stay four days”,

said a girl in braids and bathing suit to me.

I looked back at her and smiled,

we were both on vacation,

and in that moment, we were free!

We had our portion of the good life,

the sun, the sand, the smell of the sea.

Perfectly curated shops and markets,

stretched as far as our eyes could see.

She said - “We got to stay, for four days”.

And with some sadness she smiled down at me,

from perched atop her Momma’s back,

like she was climbing on a tree.

I didn’t know how to respond,

my plan - went no further than my smile.

But what fumbled out of my mouth

I wish I’d thought on for a while.

This girl was maybe 7 or 8, with braided pigtails

tied up with those marble balls.

Her older sister - kept her hair natural.

I wish the words I spoke had been

more inspired-and-less-factual.

Because I clumsily said smiling back,

“I think we get to stay four days too”.

I’m not even sure on that math,

I didn’t take time to think it through.

She seemed well loved. Within a tribe.

Family. Four generations of women

headed home in a cramped-up ride.

To make room they offered me their extra waters,

but I polite-fully declined.

As for bottled waters I too was oversupplied.

But I wonder… if my eyes reflected the sadness

of the vacation ending dismay?

How we all longed for more ‘vacation’

free from worry, free from suffering.

Free! For just another day.

There was a sharing in the air

as we were untethered from life’s cares.

The weight of her words

they caught me totally unawares.

After my ‘four-days’ we were all back home

in life as we had known it.

I wish instead, right there, we’d hatched a plan.

Each gone back to a power-system and over-thrown it.

Because Life… should be lived free!

Freed from fear by

Just What Is within each present moment.

Freedom is ours!

It’s our preferences…

that make us forget we already own it.

We labor all year long for a couple weeks.

For homes, for stuff, for our ‘four days’.

Human consciousness though

exists to manifest love

not to chase this year’s

borrowed clothes and borrowed stays.

I helped the grandmother pack up her tent,

and wished them blessings on their way.

But I can’t forget her bittersweet smile

and young voice say…

“We got to stay for four days”.

Book: "Into The Now", (presale) by Arch Cowan Jones

Website: Intothenow.org

Instagram: IntoTheNowOfficial

Youtube: __________

12. Fireworks

Imagine with me for a minute if you will

a ride you could describe as the epitome of a thrill.

Let your memories return to

a great fireworks show.

Screaming out through open skies

fireworks tend to go… just where they go.

Red, white, green, and blue

they stretch out into the night.

their streaks and movements not criticized.

Not described as wrong, or right.

The Designer fills each shell

with hopes for the show

but the beauty is when they explode,

they tend to go… just where they go.

Though it may seem kinda silly,

I have an analogy to tell.

The Universe as all we know it

is just a cosmic mortar shell.

As God donates God as our experiences,

our communities, our friends

and lights the fuse on Life, while we realize

Pop.

Ride.

End.

But could it be within the show

the sparks could become Conscious?

So that we’d stop inventing ‘hells’

and piling them upon us?

Conscious sparks instead would Become!

In accord with diverse Divine design.

Fireworks of consciousness

would be the literal glory-cloud of the Divine.

What if mankind began to see God

as the infinite toroidal mortar shell?

From the quantum to the cosmic

that’s the story it all seems to tell.

Fireworks… Well, We…

We tend to go just where We go…

Because We sometimes forget that We…

We… co-create the show.

Book: "Into The Now", (presale) by Arch Cowan Jones

Website: Intothenow.org

Instagram: IntoTheNowOfficial

Youtube: __________

11. Passing Days

We have a cat named Marley.

She’s made of stardust… just like me.

When she talks to me in the morning

I think she knows she’s truly seen.

Sort of like my lime trees,

they get stressed

And they miss their sun.

It all adds up to the same old line.

It is all - truly One.

If Creation could speak to us,

I wonder what it all would say?

The trees, the birds, the fish.

I bet they’d ask us to change our ways.

Because the future we are pursuing

Will eventually silence the birds.

And trees will become novelties,

as mechanical lungs breathe our words.

But maybe there’s another way.

A way of Being that reconnects us with the Earth.

When we alchemize that “Let there Be”,*

breathed the mountains, the streams, you, and me.

No, nature is not “the point”… of life.

This ground is our brother, sister, mother.

Beyond the veil of foolishness,

of treating Her as ‘other’…

Human consciousness grew

in a field of spin, we know it as Earth…

way, way, back to times unknown.

But mankind now ravages our soil.

We treat Her as victim… not as Home.

It all goes back to ‘otherness’.

The weapon of evil in these present times.

But what do I know…?

I’m sitting in a sunroom

talking to cats and spitting rhymes.

How do I tie this one off?

I’m not sure where this poem’s going.

How can Oneness grow from otherness?

Maybe more composting?

And less mowing?

Ok, that line just didn’t cut it,

I’ll have to think up another.

Earth… is pleading with us

to treat Her more as brother, less as other.

So go outside. Breathe in deep.

Let your conscious presence - run and play.

Because all you’ve ever truly owned

are present moments, in passing days.

Book: "Into The Now", (presale) by Arch Cowan Jones

Website: Intothenow.org

Instagram: IntoTheNowOfficial

Youtube: __________

10. Allison’s Tree

I planted a little tree in the front yard for my wife.

I won’t tell her what kind of tree,

no matter what her offering price.

Because this tree, was a gift, it was the gift of life.

A cooperation with God, to do something sweet.

I planted a thoughtful-tree you-see

and the dance… is wait and see.

Will it fruit?

Will it flower?

Or will it open up in shade?

To know its fate she’ll have to wait,

for that surprise I will not trade.

She’ll ask from time to time

“What kind of tree is it”?

I only say… “It’s a magic tree”.

It’ll turn out to be magic

if somehow it survives me.

I saw this little tree.

The biggest of her sisters still left at Kroger.

A limb broke off in the truck.

It jammed into the window driving over.

Digging out an old stump was… fun. I finally managed.

Then tossed in several kinds of dirt.

I had to prune off the limb I damaged

…and that part it kinda hurt.

But amongst the oaks though this tree is tiny!

Is it possible? Could it have shrunk?

It looks more like a stick, hardly passing for a trunk.

It’s become just like a playground,

for the neighborhood chipmunks.

My moments as loving caretaker

are as far as I get to go.

Will Allison’s tree Christ forth with life?

Or die this winter, I do not know.

Hands dirty, inspecting leaves,

holding a watering can.

I wonder what God sees,

in the limbs and leaves of man?

And does both a ‘Divine-will’…

and a ‘Cosmic-karma’

steer life’s unfolding plan?

I hope we are given

enough time here on Earth

so one day we are blessed to see.

What will be of Our future?

And what will be of Allison’s tree?

Book: "Into The Now", (presale) by Arch Cowan Jones

Website: Intothenow.org

Instagram: IntoTheNowOfficial

Youtube: __________

9. Oak Box

Spirit shared with me a picture of an oak box.

Not a box that closes, it had no hinges… had no locks.

This box it sat wide open. A capacity to be filled.

But all that fits within it,

is what’s been given, not what’s been willed.

This box once stood a tree.

Living, breathing, into the sky.

But whether axe, or saw, or age

all that breathes will one day die.

This box is me. I am this box,

as far as purpose goes.

In three dimensions I am alive.

But this form will not survive,

and I already feel the curtains start to close.

The box too once lived,

and yet now remains a capacity for others.

Humanity’s purpose is to grow open

to all that Just What Is uncovers.

What is man?

But destined, to one day once have been.

And what is God? But all that is.

Our fundamental Fabric and our Friend.

Therefore, while I breathe,

I will make We… the biggest box I can.

An open box not grown from oak,

but from the consciousness of man.

The box was empty of preferences.

It existed in openness, great-big, and wide.

We are destined… to be filled!

And present moments grow taller sides.

Book: "Into The Now", (presale) by Arch Cowan Jones

Website: Intothenow.org

Instagram: IntoTheNowOfficial

Youtube: __________

8. Buffalo

Buffalo run headlong into storms.

Fear is not conditioned, as a buffalo’s norm.

And likewise, when learning to ride a bicycle,

you can’t save your day by turning the wheel away,

away from crashing into the painfully physical.

But you must steer the front-wheel, toward impending falls.

Sorta like Dante and Virgil’s epic crawl.

Down through the belly of satan, was their way outta hell.

Lao-Tzu spoke of water eternally seeking the quantum.

Jesus Christ poured out moments as servant of all.

He taught to be the guest who sits first at the bottom

before being raised up, raised up to the head of the hall.

Or take the example of driving through a winter snowstorm,

when tires slide, and the back end loses grip.

Control returns by steering into the drift.

Heaven’s construction could require another

sixty decimal orders of magnitude. Or it could be swift.

But, to run into… that storm.

Will require a planetary consciousness shift.

Or the competition over separate preferences

will be realized as our existential cliff.

Unless We now. Each turn-around,

unite in love by transcending the egoic mire.

But from here and now…

that’d all be quite a feat.

This game of ‘otherness’ is coming down to the wire.

A Buddha was once asked; “How may escape this brutal heat?”

He said “there is freedom… in the heart of the fire.”

*Thanks to the collective teachings of – Rich Froning, Alan Watts, Dante Alighieri, Lao-Tzu, Jesus Christ, Nassim Haramein, Mother Nature, Boyd Varty, James Finley, and the Buddhas.

Book: "Into The Now", (presale) by Arch Cowan Jones

Website: Intothenow.org

Instagram: IntoTheNowOfficial

Youtube: __________

7. Worries of the World

I yelled out “I love you!”

She was headed out to pick up our son,

down the steps she walked away.

I hate that I do this, but I immediately fretted,

“how did that land?”

This compulsion, to think the worst

to worry she’s mad – and to start to plan.

Internally projecting potential failures

has always been my instinct.

Spin up a mental worst case

then worry out ways to protect against it.

Instead of picturing her smiling

assuming, she’s thinking fondly of me.

That my verbal gesture landed softly,

that her offer, to cover pickup

was a gift. And she gave it for free.

Then again the next morning I had a fright

stepping out the back door.

I thought I locked myself – outside

at five-something in the morning.

Frantically I reached back for the door in utter panic!

I just locked myself – outside,

everyone is asleep… Damnit!

Just to realize that of course the door was still un-locked.

Adrenaline though… had already flooded my chest,

Heart,

Reeling,

Shock.

This has always been my torture,

presuming I’m stuck outside, for another hour-

or that a relationship is sinking.

To instantly assume the worst

mash the fight-button and start my thinking.

There’s a problem, and no one else to help

everyone-else is soundly sleeping.

I wonder, am I alone,

or do others face this battle?

Or am I being way too honest?

Of our neuroses, should we not tattle?

At this point in the journey,

I’m not into holding back.

In hopes next time that I’ll remember,

and not give in, to the lie… of lack.

Could I find a new rhythm?

Where I always assume the best.

Stay present to Just What Is.

And take it easier on my chest.

No longer consumed by fears and emotions

the lies that ego conditioning

constantly hurls.

But instead live a life of hope

live “in the world,

not of the world.”*

* Jesus of Nazareth, John 17:14-18

Book: "Into The Now", (presale) by Arch Cowan Jones

Website: Intothenow.org

Instagram: IntoTheNowOfficial

Youtube: __________

6. Blue Jays

Bruce Springsteen once sang

“if you’ve ever seen a one-legged man… you’ve seen me.”*

Well, I once saw a family of blue jays,

some bound to the ground.

Some flew on the breeze through the trees.

And I saw ants too.

Ants always seem so destructive.

But not nearly as destructive as man.

Is earth now treating us humans?

The same way I treat an invading ant-clan?

To protect my home, I’ll get out the TERRO.

Is Mother Earth… also getting out Her Raid?

Because She’s tired of being exploited for ‘likes’,

tired of this egoic consumerism charade?

You see these two blue jays

seem to have been born missing tail-feathers.

Or maybe all blue jays are born this way?

Maybe they all develop sheltered under tables?

As they await tail feathers, to then fly away.

Do all young blue jays hide away on homeowner’s patios?

And do all their parents, and all their parent’s friends

scream into defensive positions from the trees as they descend?

Dive bombing the man who lives there.

Protecting awkward, fragile, overgrown chicks

from this human and all of his cares.

To be fair I did once relocate one of these adolescent birds

to the lawn using the back of a chair.

But that was before…

of this whole blue jay fiasco I became aware.

I just acted on dumb-instinct like a dare

Gotta fix the problem,

get the blue jay up and out of there.

Our patio doesn’t even have stairs.

But up in the trees when I sat to meditate about 2:00.

I came to learn these two hopping,

squawking, no tail-feathered jays

had a crew. They came out of the blue.

Seemed like nothing they wouldn’t do.

Blue jays buzzing my ears and then flying away.

At that moment, all I could do, was what I set out to do. Pray.

Intending to influence the energy of our shared environment.

And undo the threat they saw in me.

Breathe some peace up into the air

and from panic let peace set them free.

I prayed “God, help the blue jays with no tail feathers.

And those with wings… busy protecting them too.”

Who knows what’s blowing in on this weather?

It’s gonna take a miracle for us jays to make it through.

And with that the volume did actually dim.

The protective jays settled onto their limbs.

Breathing In: I relaxed body and mind.

Breathing Out: I enjoyed a smile.

Breathing In: I am present… no more grind.

Breathing Out**: I am in awe of eternity growing wild.

Book: "Into The Now", (presale) by Arch Cowan Jones

Website: Intothenow.org

Instagram: IntoTheNowOfficial

Youtube: __________

5. The Shape of Life

We all know a one-dimensional reality is a myth.

And two dimensions..? That doesn’t make sense at all.

Three dimensions are too often mankind’s top floor.

But I’ve heard there’s something like 9 dimensions or more

described by philosophers and psychedelic explorers.

I have come to see that each moment

is a point inside of a fractal.

A meta-dimensional toroidal fractal.

The cosmic umbilical cord to God.

And this very moment. This one…

is just an energetic node or a pod.

You and I, each play a uniquely necessary role.

In realizing glory, life to the full, right here and now!

To walk the path of Christ.

Is to turn the other cheek.

Smile into the teeth of the scowls.

To seek the kingdom of heaven in this moment’s abundance,

whether joy or suffering compels.

Is to lay aside attachments, distractions,

separate ego-consciousness.

and conjure up no more of our own hells.

So, the shape of life, heaven

takes form as we realize and allow

the ‘kingdom of heaven’

to be made of ‘Just What Is’.

In smiles and tears. Joy and sadness. Here and now.

Blood sweat across the Christ’s brow.*

The meta-dimensional fractal reDivinizing of matter

we experience it… in forms. In life and in death.

But eternity is a fractal, a ladder.

In what’s given here and now each next breath.

*Luke 22:44

Book: "Into The Now", (presale) by Arch Cowan Jones

Website: Intothenow.org

Instagram: IntoTheNowOfficial

Youtube: __________

4. In You… I AM…

As the word of God thunders forth,

it creates a resounding chorus.

God’s-breath rending life

from the quantum’s potential

obviously does not happen quietly.

Matter Being birthed

as darkened vacuum spins

into bright consciousness!

Our Creator has an echo,

it’s God’s resonance in Us.

But we then stumble out from birth

as victims of misplaced worth.

Awareness trampled by the ‘mind’,

confused so fast by ‘space’ and ‘time’.

We learn worldly games and

some of us learn how to win.

But the ante for that table

is a spirit scraped to thin.

Awakening though is realizing

we ourselves we are God’s breath.

Word poured into matter;

and we blew along as what was left.

We are not just our thoughts

or the egos never-ending monologue.

Yet consciousness is being lost in a meme of

‘self-hood’ like a-boiling-pot-of-water-frog.

Pure awareness though is free to love Just What Is,

not just the preferences of the mind.

Consciousness does not breathe

and is not bound by ‘space’ and ‘time’.

Jesus Christ showed the path

when the cup He would not pass.

I’ll try to reverberate that cadence,

till in YOU… I AM… at last.

Book: "Into The Now", (presale) by Arch Cowan Jones

Website: Intothenow.org

Instagram: IntoTheNowOfficial

Youtube: __________