On a Classical note

Auckland Museum Atrium

There has been a heavy northeasterly running today bringing a deluge of spring rain with it.

I have been inside doing seasonal things too – spring cleaning this morning.

As I work I have been practising keeping my mind still.

Max Bruch’s No 1 G minor violin concerto helps. His rich melodic line encapsulates all that we hope to express through the Homestead project: a passionate and intuitive engagement with life.

While I was cleaning I found a coin lying forgotten in a box of mementos. It dates from the time of Vespasian. 

That coin was the second item from the Classical world to come across my line of vision this morning. 

The first was a couple of lines from the Meditations of Marcus Aurelius, written on a card some time ago and left inside another book:

“...bear in mind that every man lives only this present time, which is an indivisible point, and that all the rest of his life is either past or it is uncertain.”

Well that was definitely on theme don’t you think?

Just before I saw those words I had been listening to my breath. It is an effective way to still the mind, by giving it something tangible and rhythmic to focus on.

After hunting out our copy of the Meditations I found a second piece of advice from that great Stoic leader:

“No longer let thy breathing only act in concert with the air which surrounds thee, but let thy intelligence also now be in harmony with the intelligence which embraces all things.”

Isn’t it amazing how life so totally supports even our smallest effort to connect with it?

There is no question this is so. Nor is there any question that the life expressions that were Max Bruch and Marcus Aurelius live on beyond form, space and time. 

Their advice still speaks to us, the music still moves us lovingly into relationship and they steer us still, unerringly, toward the Path of Wisdom. My thanks to them both.

Spring at Highwic, Auckland