#MicroPoetry|April ’18 Reflections

Easter is an amazing event. Too often it gets marked as part of a yearly holiday checklist, whether in the secular or in Christian contexts. Once it arrives, we move on to the next calendar event. With that in mind, in this verse I was exploring the eternal reality of Easter as a moment always happening.

Whenever love appears, often in the midst of fear and anguish, Easter begins again. Acts such as compassion and courage are the just two of the outward actions that point to the Easter moment in ours lives. This moment can occur more than once and reminds us that new life or resurrection is not the completion of a journey but the next step in love awakening within us.

Perfection – as a consumer concept – is impossible to ever realise. In a culture that finds validation in the external act of consumption, we are and always will be set-up for failure. The spiritual journey, however, as an act of awakening is not about no blemishes, scars or stumbling. Perfection, when framed as becoming more human, takes on a paradox that challenges the superficial version that too often distracts from the inner journey. In this musing, I play with the idea of perfection as the journey toward wholeness.

The metaphor of a mirror’s reflection is helpful to explore the choices we make in our daily lives. How we choose to be to another directly influences how others choose to be to ourselves. It is not always easy to be aware of this in our day-day being. This verse explores that point – that our intention affects our world – in a way that hopefully invites self-reflection and conversation.

What is leadership to you? I think this topic is one that requires intentional discussion today more than ever. How we understand the role leaders play – whether directive or facilitative – requires us to discuss the ways they can limit or enable the communities to thrive. Here I engage in that discussion by exploring that it is both a call and is built upon the choices made prior to living into the role.

Why are we here?
What is my purpose?
What should I do with my life?
You know, those easy existential questions: right? They are intimately connected with the spiritual journey and can be found to have parallels and connexions, regardless of faith or belief system. I think, at the core of the question, is a longing to create. As such, I am musing about how the act of creativity, regardless of how it is lived, is not our own call, but one that we collectively share.

I love the idea of letting go. Whether that is stuff that we collect or stuff that we have inside of us, often these things upon which we hold become our focus and can distract us from recognising others and the ourselves. By recognising, I mean the insight that we are enough and that we share so much more with one another than the illusions that keep us apart. This – in turn – feeds that sense of rightness and ego. Letting them go, however, can be greatly liberating. This #MicroPoetry navigates the potential of dropping those things that do not lead us to places of revelation and awakening.

Words such as freedom and liberation are central to the Christian exploration of faith. They are grounded in ideas of justice and have often been used to illustrate the ways people are oppressed and marginalised. There is also a spiritual value to them, in that our own individual awakening cannot begin if we benefit from others or others benefits from us. This verse explores the shared manner in which freedom is only fully realised when we are all liberated.

I love the image that we are treasures of immense and even immeasurable value. I think I like it particularly because it plays, even challenges, the central theme of what we value in our culture. In a consumerised world, where what you wear, or buy, is supposed to both validate and communicate status, recognising our own value is internal and does not require qualifying of supplementing. If we are not only enough, but valuable beyond count, what might our days and interactions with one another look like? Here I am musing about this as an act of giving radically.

Wisdom and information are often confused with one another. I think this has only increased – this blurring if you will – with the advent of the internet. Imagine the wonder that pretty much all of human knowledge is available simply by saying “Okay Google …” Yet access to data and information has never meant one knows what to do with it, to reflect on the implications of what it might tell us. I think this is the point where wisdom begins. Again, this abundance of knowledge does not mean that by simply consuming it or memorising it that wisdom dawns. This verse suggests that, in fact, She appears and is not bound, but can as readily dance into our lives while watching an ant crawl from there to here, as much as by sitting in a classroom digesting information …

I am not sure it is a binary, but there is definitely paradox when we recognise there are times when we explore growth and others when safety is our focus. There is further paradox when we recognise that growth sometimes occurs in failing and safety sometimes leads to choosing to take risks. Here I explore this paradox as a dance in which we find ourselves as we explore life as an intentional spiritual journey.

What if joy offered us a choice to let go burdens that we carry?
What if we recognised that life – in its celebrations and challenges – is experienced not by exterior influences, but by how we orient and embrace the vagaries and paradox?
This verse endeavours to explore that happiness is a choice we get to make. How we respond to life’s journey, especially when we recognise that there are trials and festivities, hopefully serves to inspire us to claim our agency.

Dreams are often a pop culture reference that can range from the motivational to the trite. We all have them and to explore them, to make then happen depends on many factors that range from drive, support, serendipity and privilege. Yet regardless of being attained, it has been my experience that their very pursuit, especially when willing to learn from failure, reality becomes something new regardless of “success.”