#MicroPoetry|December ’20 Reflections

When you have met a goal or completed a long journey, what do you do in that moment?
What do you do after?
Do you spy the next summit?
Pause? Breath?

Too often we move right on to whatever is next and only by serendipity do we glean a learning, need alone wisdom.

What if we practiced pausing? Listening?
What more might be revealed?

What’s your superpower?

That’s not a trite question, but it does, I hope, subvert the saccharine stories we hear about superheroes that too often invite us into passive roles awaiting a saviour.

Claiming our agency, in the language of the mystic awakening to your trust as a blessing, is one of the single most important tasks to pursue and to assist others too.

So, what’s your precious gift that has been entrusted to you to share with Creation?

Preparing people for leadership, whether in organisations or in our families, is a central role we must all fill. In these opportunities of formation, we must always be aware that what we say and what we do must align. If our talking, I have found, does not reflect our action, then that which others learn is from the latter. When we are not consistent not only do we stand appropriately charged with failing to lead ourselves, we also foster a distrust that breeds cynicism. In a changing world, we must apply intention to this task that we all share.

It is so very easy to get stuck in the material things. This is partially on account that our lived experience is bound by senses that are limited and attuned to the bodies in which we inhabit this mortal journey. It is also affected by a consumer-culture that preys on this lived experience and external worth is defined by acquisition. Yet the journey of the spirit, the mystic, is to recognise that this temporal journey houses a soul eternal. Becoming aware of this fundamental truth is liberating and allows us to begin to see with eyes not of this world.

Are you a reader?
A movie watcher?
Poetry explorer?
What stories do the tales with which you surround yourself tell?

Life is an unfolding narrative in which choice is central. When we conscious of not only the decisions we make but recognise the narrative we explore and in which we immerse ourselves must be part of the practice of seeing Hope in a world that is often resistant. To know we are beautiful, requires a commitment to nurture such knowing in all we do.

The use of doors as a metaphor for change and new choices is not new. It helps us imagine that not only is there always change, but there should also always be wonder.

What might be revealed behind a door not yet opened?

The challenge of the metaphor is that it also highlights the tendency to want to lock some doors and preference others that we know lead to the predictable, the habitual. What we do with old and new keys, therefore, is a useful image to reflect upon when we next reach for the doors we know and do not.

Teachers and moments of learning, I believe, are constantly with us. It can feel overwhelming, at times, to remember that we can take pause and ask ourselves what is being revealed to us, even in struggle and challenge. Such awareness does not necessarily make change any easier, but it does possess the possibility to add richness in our lives that otherwise might find us feeling we have no agency.

What does being mean?

What we do demonstrates what we value. Such valuing extends into our actions and choices. As you walk into this new day, take a moment to consider what it means to Be.

What do you see as you walk into the day?
Who do you preference with your attention?
As the days draws to an end, what learning was revealed and what we will you do add to that tomorrow?