Sixth Sense

This morning I am rummaging around in my tea cupboard to find something more tantalizing than the teas pushed up front that have over time lost their allure. I find tucked quietly in the back an old box of jasmine tea that my husband and I had bought on our trip to Hawaii a year ago, or so.

Perfect.

I add the richly scented tea bag to a mug of steaming hot water, and my senses are met with not only the most delicate odor of jasmine, but, much to my surprise, the cool Hawaiian night, when he and I sit together, drinking our tea.

And I feel transported back. This man is ever-present this morning, as I inhale the rich aroma of this tea we've shared together. I feel us there, in the quiet of a tropical paradise, our bodies draped on sofas, relaxing into the night like spoiled cats; content, feeling lovely and different; still lit from the sun, still feeling the the novelty of sea and sand on our bodies.

And in this moment I exist between both worlds, just for a moment, feeling my body relax into both places, into a deep state of well-being. My breath deepens, and a smile forms over my lips. I hold the tea close, eyes closed, and take in the rich odor and the hot steam, over and over again, suspended in the experience.

Oh the rich sensations that we take into our human form...with all the power to take us back to an exact moment in time...such simplicity: the scent of fragrant blossoms, the taste of chocolate, the sound of a symphony, the feel of the body of another intertwined with yours, just so. I renew my awareness of this magical essence, that like any physical aspect has become all too familiar, and as a result, all too taken for granted.

This morning I open my spiritual eyes to the mystical that is nowhere outside of myself.

And the body takes on deeper significance, as my greatest tool. For it is our experiences with our senses that ground us into the present moment.

The moment with my husband, in beautiful Hawaii, was marked in time by the richly scented jasmine tea that we sipped as our children slept; the sensations from the physical experience helping us to sink into the deep reaches of the evening, to quiet us, to give the ordinary something extraordinary; the steaming cup warm in our hands, the tea soft on our tongues, and delicate to our palate.

The experience of this tea takes me back, while at the same time creates a new moment in my present, somehow bridging the two; creating a chain of experience, all grounded into time as I open to receive the wonderful odor of this tiny white flower.

I receive the gift of this moment. I give thanks for the body that grounds me into my experience, and I take notice of this moment, that links all past and future with an experience of awareness, expressed miraculously in the present, as rich sensations living through each tiny physical part of my being.