October 30, 2012

You can almost feel guilty about having such lovely fall days when a great portion of the country is having devastating weather.  I wonder if people in northeast have that feeling when there are hurricanes here along the Gulf, probably, it seems like a very human thing.  It seems strange to think of hurricanes happening where it is cold; I can imagine that only adds to the misery of it.  With so many people affected, it's easier to pray for everyone than try to single out anyone.  I know people all over the country are sending help and prayers to the storm ravaged areas.

It seems today that I wanted a poem that included everyone and everything . . . that there should be no separation between parts of the country, between one person and another . . .

To Be Found

We are always looking for the mirror

by which we might see

our true Self

Look closely.

There is no place that mirror is not

Yet the vastness that we are

cannot be captured

in a single image

Through that One, see all beings

We are always listening for the voice

by which we might hear

our true Heart

Listen closely.

There is no place that voice does not resound

Yet the vastness that we are

cannot be captured

in a single sound

In that one tone, listen

as the whole universe sings back to you

The need to be seen, heard

 through sacred reflections, and earthly echoes

 is the guiding impulse of our basic sanity

Surrender.

While looking and listening,

as we must and as we will

remember

the One

who looks and listens

Become the inward mirror of your searching eye

the inner echo of your true heartsong

become the very Beloved you seek

There is nothing you are not

Nothing.

Willow Pearson

It makes me think of particles, you know, the subatomic kind, where you act on one, and at a distance its twin reacts, a very strange phenomenon.  And yet true I think, we are all connected, whether we want to be or not, sometimes we do, sometimes we don't.  That phrase, "there is nothing you are not/Nothing."  Kind of scary, yes?  We want to be the nice things, the day-born moon, the spring flower, the saint, but we are also the storm, the vulture, the sinner.  Hard to pick and choose just what to be when we are so much everything, when we long to be what we see as good and important and graceful, but wish not to be bad, or insignificant, or clumsy, yet who can't see all of that in themselves.  I would like to be that very Beloved but I always fall short, it's a good thing someone who is beloved is beloved all the way, unconditionally, that when you are loved by the capital "B" Beloved, it's everything about you that is loved, the whole you, the part that rises up and the part that falls down.  That love is all-inclusive, and sees our human soul that contains everything that is human, even the parts we would disown, and still loves us, and that is what saves us from despair, that we are so loved.

Today I hope the people affected by the storm know there are people willing to help, send prayers, and the truest words ever spoken are . . . "This, too, shall pass."  I know from experience it seems like forever, but it does pass, and things return to something approaching normal, and even some good things might come of this.  The very human way of putting one foot in front of the other may be the only response you can have to daily life and something this big as well.