#MicroPoetry|January ’23 Reflections

At some point, whether immediate or over time, it is easy to no longer find ourselves curious. This is a sad reality that takes care to avoid. When we are successful, the world takes on a richness that quells cynicism.

Whether it is the wonder of what a cell phone is able to do or the rising sun, which is sung into being as birds welcome it’s daily arrival, seeing with eyes that long for wonder is a jubilant gift. We each posses this boon if we but nurture it in ourselves and one another.

How we view ourselves is often a mirror as to how we not only treat ourselves but how we engage with Creation. Whether we are gentle with ourselves often reflects whether we offer an embrace or a fist to the Other.

Though self-knowing is a central part of the inner journey, it often invites deeper reflection as to how we care for ourselves. Though the path is not always easy, it is certainly rich and invites us to hold ourselves tenderly in the midst of the many complications we experience in our living.

It is everywhere: narratives that compete. Truth, truth, objective truth, fake news, alternative facts: a litany of words that serve not to invite us to listen to one another. Rather tribal temptations feed an echo chamber that diminishes diversity and silences differing voices.

The light that scatters the shadows of this reality is simple: does that upon which we focus, listen, and repeat lead us to care for the Other?
Does what we do uplift those marginalised and suffering to embrace dignity that is inherent in all of Creation?

We are shaped by our experiences. Whether of joy or challenge, each moment we experience something new, unexpected, surprise, wonder, we are further honed. The space where Soul meets consciousness bears the possibility of awakening to the Universe.

As awareness dawns, humility blooms. Awe embraces us with the paradox of our infinitesimal nature that is paradoxically an aspect of Creation. This awareness recognises in our individual spark our collective Oneness.

Justice, as I understand it, is the action Love requires to ensure that we are all safe. This place of nurture and care allows us to cherish one another as immensely beautiful and intricately connected as sparks of the Holy.

Justice, therefore, requires acts of solidarity and sacrifice. For those who have privilege, how it is released and shared, so that those who do not, is the testament to which Love thrives. Each just act paves a future where we watch the chaos of the storm recede and thus reveal the tranquility of Holy Mystery.

Looking into the night sky, free from urban lights, is a marvellous and blessed experience. Looking into the Milky Way, from the spiral arm in which we find ourselves, is time travelling at its best.

It is under these stars that our Ancestors learned to tell stories and our Elders imparted wisdom through fable and myth. Central to these tales weaving us together was the realisation we are all connected, that We Are One.

This timeless learning imparts awe and imports responsibility. What we next do, therefore, becomes a testament to whether we have learned from such truths.

The metaphor of life’s journey being akin to the view from a mountain peak or summit is often used. It is an interesting literary tool because it captures a view that is fluid. It spans from the past to the future.

When we consider the former, we can imagine our ancestors and those upon whose shoulders we stand. That sight, however, becomes more imaginative, and less temporal, when we consider the latter.

We must embrace the best of that long view of our Elders. In claiming such learnings, we must then trust that what we do now echoes beyond into lives and a world we will never know. We are invited to trust that we will model what tomorrow’s leaders will need.

We are drawn to energy. It can be chaotic or organising. It can be discordant or beautiful. This attraction ranges upon a continuum. What we do with that beckoning is a spiritual and ethical choice.

I believe that the integrating inner journey, where we see ourselves as Beloved, as the Universe does, inevitably leads us to an invitation from the Law of Love: be compassion in action. This action is justice infused. To commit to further awakening, to follow that passion of the Universal, is ultimately a journey that leads to solidarity with the Other so that our collective dignity is honoured.