“Daily there is beauty. The wildflowers still exist, even nameless. They know their own names and those are beyond human knowing. Ask me the name of the month and I could say October when it is June, but there is bread and butter. Pleasure. I listen to the thunder, look at the dew in the flowers. There is joy even in such vulnerability, such fragility. There is even happiness.”

Linda Hogan, in “Waking”

In her essay “Waking,” Linda Hogan recalls the experience of regaining consciousness after an accident. She talks about her new consciousness as “waking.” The waking she experiences is both incomplete and whole, simultaneously. Incomplete in that there are large random gaps in what she remembers and knows. Whole in that she awoke to a deeper consciousness than she previously knew. Now, she travels to distant places and visits ancestors. Now, she knows ancient stories. Now, she measures time by knots in rope. She feels every morning. She notices every wildflower. Details are often blurry, but her joy and happiness are not in the details. Reality is big enough to include all that.

Waking Right Now

There is no better time for waking than right now. Dawn as possibility. Connection with wisdom. Faith in depth. Seeing the smallest detail and the broadest landscape. Smelling an approaching storm and a pot of coffee. Tasting the bitterness of dark chocolate and the sweetness of a peach in July. Touching cookie dough and cat’s fur. Breathing in Now. Living our Why. Releasing conflict. Creating tomorrow’s shape.

That is where Hogan guides us. In exploring her new consciousness, and valuing legend and mystery, she welcomes true consciousness. Real has softer edges. Truth swims and dances. Beauty is everywhere. Perhaps even chaos knows order in this other space. I have to think right now is the perfect time to wake up.

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