#MicroPoetry|June ’20 Reflections

The gift of a patient teacher and a guiding Elder are blessings. Whether for but a moment or a lifetime, they offer us wisdom and knowledge. But it is, ultimately, our choice to engage, to listen, integrate and, in the language of the mystics, awaken. This symbiotic relationship is never passive. This agency we have as life-long learners is that which I hope this verse captures.

To what do you commit your time?
What does dedication mean when you consider what matters?
Does what you give to it feel like a sacrifice or a celebration?
Dreaming dreams is one of the quintessential things that defines our ability to create. To translate that ’fancy’ into ‘reality,’ however, requires care, perseverance and resilience that comes with commitment.
This musing explores this connexion between imagination and dreaming and commitment and discipline.
How do they connect for you?

Serendipity, coincidence, alignment: these are words that are often used about those quirky moments when clarity dawns or something connects in a way that certainly does not feel random. This sense of purpose, if you will, often comes further into focus when we shift from our own monologue to sharing with others. Core to this is trust is these questions:

What might it look like if we took seriously that such ‘circumstance’ offers us opportunities to find new meaning?
What might it look like if we practiced mutual dialogue with one another in order to foster shared understanding?

Belief and doctrine often come into conflict as faith communities live out their mission, their way of being in the world. In this verse, the intention is to highlight, specifically, the place when confusion arises when what we say about our belief and what we actually do are not in alignment. When this occurs, when those who lead model something different than what a group says it believes, often, it is our actions that speak loudest. This discrepancy, therefore, must serve as a place for reflection for all communities of faith.

Reaching the peak …
Climbing the summit …
Winning the prize …
Getting the reward …

These are certainly phrases used to motivate and which can compel us in times of struggle and challenge. Yet there seems to be a nuance or gift that is missing in focusing solely on the outcome. The attainment of something, is not the change, it is in the practice of making whatever it is happen where we change, where the world changes. The accomplishment is simply the culmination, not the journey.

Grieving and grief are central experiences to the human condition. Hurting and suffering are connected with life’s unfolding in a way that binds us together in the scars we bear. In a culture often inundated with fixing things, finding solutions and quick resolution, the spiritual journey reminds us that often, if not always, real resolution begins in the discipline of listening to ourselves and one another before any possibility of transformation begins to be revealed.

Libraries are always a place of mystery and possibility. They contain knowledge our species has revealed over its course of asking questions and scribing the answers, if often only tentative, into records we call books. I like playing with this image as a metaphor for the Universe. If we follow that metaphor, then our journey to uncover the knowledge possessed may very well lead us to awakening to wisdom.

Legacies and accolades, success, and awards might be things toward which we aspire. Having the world remember us, immortalise us, may be something about which to dream. Yet, it is not the things or statues, nor tomes or art that seed the future. It is the actions we model that lead to them or none of them. Whether some or none of these legacies are what we leave behind, our model of how to be in the world may mean our names are not remembered, but it will influence how those who follow make choices that may or may not further sow integrity and compassion in those who shall next follow.