I like my brain.  I don’t really know what it is, but that’s okay.  And then there’s my mind … a deeper mystery.

I’ve been on the planet for 77 years.  That’s a lot of moments.  Some of them return, in random fashion.

I’ve just decided to sit here in Izy Coffee and see what images bubble up over the next half hour.  Maybe lots.  Maybe none.

In the spirit of analysis, I’ll time myself.  It’s 10:22.  See you in thirty minutes.

***

10:52.

Here’s what entered me:

Pole vault

Bill Crothers running the 800 metres race in the 1960’s (I was there)

A girl laughing at me when I fell on the ice

Standing up Jean Deeth on a date when we were teenagers

Wearing my Superman outfit as I drove from Lethbridge to Calgary, Alberta, Canada

Two burning candles near each other

Shimmering down … from head to toe

My mouth opening now (it is)

A red coat

Couples holding hands

A waterbed, sinking into it

People with their heads down, frowning

Pulling the covers up to my chin

…

At this point I started meditating, even though I was in a coffee shop, with the sounds of a coffee machine, background music, customers and street noises.

…

Gentle raindrops

The skin of my face melting, dripping off my chin

Downward, sinking into

My arms growing longer to the sides

Leaking from the corners of my mouth

Singing “The Sound of Silence”

A snake slithering

My arms going limp

Bowing

Someone speaking Turkish?   Just the flow of sounds

Lying on my back, dying

Yannick, my mailman

Bruce Springsteen

Anne With An “E” TV series

Anne’s face

“Kindred spirits”

The sound of a tram … a past train journey

Grandpa’s farm, a train in the distance passing from right to left, billows from the steam locomotive

Grandpa’s cigar

Grandpa’s stories on the stone porch

Lips

Floating on my back on a river

A long waterfall

…

Quieter now, deeper into the meditation

…

A tiny brook in a Canadian mountain meadow

A cell phone ringing … A faraway voice saying “Go away”

Skin cells falling off

Falling face down into an abyss, smiling

Travelling down a blood vessel as it becomes smaller

My head falling backwards

People laughing far away

Someone hammering

Coffee machine

Pop music in the background

***

Well, that was fun!

Thank you, dear mind

Let’s do it again sometime