#MicroPoetry|April ’21 Reflections

Books and libraries hold a significant place in the mythology of learning and knowledge. They are storied tales that possess the mystical and magical. Beyond the literal, they act as metaphors that can inspire us individually and collectively.

Our lives can be seen through this metaphor. A journey in which each experience is a book or chapter. Each new thing not just information, but a gift of learning. Being present to such revelations, ultimately, leads to the possibility to recognise the wisdom we possess.

How do we come together?
What is a shared identity?
What values foster compassion to ourselves and one another?

In these times of pollical incivility and us/them tirades, it is easy to get caught up in tribalism. Such a spiral too often leads to a sense of connexion that is, ultimately, perpetuated by violence.

There is, however, another way. By fostering in ourselves and modelling gratitude, another deep river can help us navigate ways to recognise our connexion. But this connectivity is more than tribal. Gratitude, as a practice, reveals in all things we are One. In so recognising this intrinsic truth compassion follows.

There’s never enough time …

What if we saw that not as a deficit or uttered as a lament?

Embracing time as an extension of our intention leads to questions of disciplines and practices.

At what do we long to excel?

When we identity our passion and interest, time becomes fluid as we commit to bringing longing into our Being.

Finding ways to calm our being is central to the inward journey. In a world filled with a constant din and distractions how we are able centre ourselves becomes an important practice to explore. In order to recognise our own challenges and the work to further integrate fully as human is never a simple journey. It is one that holds the possibility to not only reveal ways that we may heal from our own hurts and wounds, but so too offer care and compassion to others without a sense or need to fix others. Being calm of mind allows us to begin to perceive with an awareness that sees in all things the threads that bind us to one another.

I believe one of the central tasks for the spiritual journey is to take that inner work and seek and model healing in the world. If the inward exploration stays internal, then the suffering of the world only becomes something to avoid and to further entrench inside of ourselves. Finding the balance between reflecting and doing must be a practice that we commit to in order not only help ourselves awaken, but to journey with those who long for such liberation but may not know how to begin on their own.

Humility, wisdom, and knowledge are interrelated. In a world a flood in information, it is easy to forget that introspection, reflection and action are ancient practices that hopefully form us as leaders and beings of compassion.

In a Google search world, too often information becomes a commodity. But when wisdom extends from such knowledge, it has been my experience that humility often follows. This path seems as important now as in any moment of time in which our species has considered whether to dominate or coexist …

Art is just one of many mediums that helps us to translate the gifts of our imagining and dreaming into reality. Art is also a metaphor, in this instance the practice of painting, that can help us appreciate that such translation is not just bound to the canvas, but to other tangible and concrete things such as a new vaccine, a more energy efficient engine or a process that helps people have difficult conversations. Dreams are just the beginning, making them real is the next step in our role to care and nurture for ourselves, one another and Creation.

The poet Mary Oliver has asked what we intend to do with our one and precious life. This challenge, originally offered poetically, makes it clear that time is not a resource to be controlled or squandered. Rather it is the water in which we swim and what we choose to do with the blessed seconds we have been granted becomes not just a practical question, but a spiritual one. Awakening to this invitation then leads us to these questions:

What gifts have been given to you in order to help us all shine?
Once you know what they are, what do you intend to do with them?