#MicroPoetry|April ’19 Reflections

We love to dream. Dreams are often a catalyst for a musing or two in these verses. Yet sometimes it is easy to get lost in the lofty idea of peaks attained and summits ascended. This verse plays with the idea – the reminder – that it is in small moments, often in conversations within community, that seeds are born. They are not planted to be lofty, initially, but in the midst of others, they serve to remind of the interconnected reality that every day dreams can be attained.

What does it mean for us to set goals?
How present are we in the learning that unfolds in the midst of the doing?
What might we recognise if we fully engage in Now and not necessarily remain focused on what might be?
It’s often a tension when aspiration and being present dance with one another. Finding that balance is important for that sense of success or worth that beckons when goals are pursued.

Life’s a funny thing – even funnier when we consider the ups and downs as part of the richness offered to us. Sometimes we would prefer to stay put, put down roots and hold on tight in even the midst of change. This is certainly not a bad thing; in fact it is pretty central to being able to nurture well-being and community. It can, however, distract that change is the constant in our lives. How then to celebrate achievements and recognise more is to come feels like a balance toward which to strive.

I like the idea of resilience and the images that arise when you think of it as tenacity and being term stalwart. Whether it’s a Jack Pine standing over a lake dressed in the Canadian Shield or bison grazing through deep snow in winter’s midst, I think it is one of the ancient virtues that easily gets lost in the consumer-instant-gratification culture we currently call home.

Turn on the news, listen to the radio, watch your online feeds, and it can feel scary, dangerous and overwhelming out there. Yet I do not think that is where we want to be individually or collectively. I am also not convinced that is the state of the world. I just need to think of even the small city in which I live. Hundreds of thousands of people interacting, connecting and caring for one another every day – stories that go unnoticed and unreported. So, what if we focused on life as art and saw in one another a creation irreplaceable? What if that was the story we told … as it seems to be the true one that inspires care, compassion and love.

There is indeed a romance about the power of creating. It is certainly an act that inspires us to translate dreams and imagination into something that we can see, taste and touch. In this place of possibilities and potentials, it is easy to forget the work that follows after the creative process. We can build stuff, but we might forget about the need to sustain and maintain. This verse endeavours to celebrate this important act which, in itself, is also a blessed pursuit.

We are indeed drawn to beauty that sometimes smacks us with wonder. Humpback whales as they breach the water’s edge or majestic mountains that make the horizon seem surreal, perhaps even like a movie backdrop. In this focus on the grand, it is easy to lose site that these big things simply remind us that we are surrounded by beauty. Looking with eyes that see in the everyday holiness is a spiritual discipline that reminds us that all is One.

Spiritual practices, whether you jog or mediate, draw or garden, are ultimately about integrating. Too often we see our mind, spirit and body as existing in some sort of competition. One needing to be fed which, in turn, leaves our other centres hungering. Yet mindful intension and rituals, practices and commitment, allow us to recognise that feeding only one part always leaves us spiritually malnourished. In this musing, I am exploring the outcome when we begin to integrate our full selves – the awakening to connexions between us and all of Creation are indeed a wonder!