This is my last week in San Jose, Calif., before coming home. I’m sitting on a bench on top of a steep hill in an enchanted space, which we call Marmot Park in honor of the ground squirrels who are the true landlords here.
I arrived here at a low ebb, dragged down by taking on too much bad news from too many places — the worst from my own country. I came to take a break to commune with the ultimate life force. A spirit that, as Ralph Waldo Emerson described, “does not build up nature around us but puts it forth through us, as the life of a tree puts forth new branches through the pores of the old.”
As I settle into meditation, one of those ground squirrels, Russet and I call marmots, emerges from her den. Not spooked by me, we sit like two statues under the pale glimmer of the winter sun.
Oblivious to the threat from hawks, coyotes or humans who might be lurking nearby, she gives me a master class in how to be fully present.
I feel a rush of well-being, a contact high from the marmot’s bliss, as we sit together in primal silence, broken only by the occasional staccato drumming of an acorn woodpecker, buoyed by an emotion beyond happiness. It seems impossible in these trying times, but what I’m experiencing is pure joy.
The Franciscan Priest Richard Rohr suggests silence is “the very foundation of all reality.” He tells us, “it is from stillness that all being comes and to which all things return.” Without this depth, our lives become superficial, drifting like foam on the surface of the sea.
Rollo May, the groundbreaking existential psychologist, adds: “Happiness often ends up in a placidity on the edge of boredom. Happiness is success. But joy is stimulating; it is the discovery of new continents emerging within oneself.”
In these chaotic times, it’s paramount that we unearth the enchanted land hidden within us. We deserve the joy that blossoms forth when we stop thinking and start breathing — connecting to the primal rhythm that is our birthright, rather than the fool’s gold foisted upon us by talking heads and weasely algorithms.