#MicroPoetry|November ’18 Reflections

I do not believe this is rhetorical, though it may be leading, do you feel you are enough? I think it is a question with which we all wrestle. What is our value to ourselves, to our family and friends, to the larger mosaic of the social good? We are not encouraged to do this exploration, especially when our worth is often found in what we buy, wear or eat. But, what if, rather than looking for external validation, we dug deep to find how we are meant to shine? What would that look like? Feel like? I hope this verse encourages that exploration with the hope of discovering someone wonderful.

Time is a funny thing for us. We are a species who live upon a linear line – or such is the story we tell ourselves. We frame conversations around improvement, evolution, moving from here to there. Though those are indeed aspects of our lived experience, Time is also not an anchor that drags us toward inevitability. It can be a conduit that connects what was with what may be. Being in the moment, embracing the now. Sometimes being right here allows us to not just be there, but everywhere. In this musing, I am exploring time not as a line, but as a hub that allows us to spy in every direction

Too often we divide the seasons from one another. It is easy to think of them in isolation. This tendency detracts from the manner in which they flow one into the other. Too often we consider that they are simply in a cause and effect relationship that follows a straight line. One winter might be so cold, that literal seeds of life might be delayed germinating in seasons far removed from when they were first dropped or shed. This poetic stanza explores how our linear experience of time – through the seasons – may be enriched if we took pause to watch with eyes not limited by the clicking clock.

What does reality mean to you?
How do you experience?
How do you think I do?
How do you think we do?
Reality has always been a challenging idea to explore and how we do or do not collaborate in shaping it has challenged philosophers for a long time.

The images of roots as a way to visualise a life of faith is helpful. In the challenges and joys, loss and laughter, it can be easy to be overwhelmed by trials that shake us to our core. This is particularly important as doubt – as a significant part of a spiritual journey – is indeed an important component in the wrestling for meaning and understanding. Exploring roots in this verse, therefore, is an attempt to illustrate resilience that comes with a life examined.

It is amazing how we find meaning. We try to quantify and qualify. We look for patterns and omens. All of these foci – where put our attention – are indeed important.
AND what might it mean if potential and meaning is ALWAYS evident?
What might it mean if it regardless of our attention, the Universe is always speaking to us? If we consider this, what might we hear, rather than miss?

Doubt and questioning are blessed pursuits – though we may be told differently in an age where right and wrong are too often used to divide and polarise. Contrary to that, however, is the reality that intentional critical thinking allows us to grow and thrive together. This is a central calling for all who engage upon a spiritual journey that intends to seek our shared awakening. This verse celebrates the gift of doubt in an age that creates illusions of certainty …

It is amazing to engage in a conversation about a thing.
What is the thing we see?
Does what I see mean you see it too?
These may sound like simple – perhaps even academic questions – but when we take them seriously, we recognise that it is never the thing that see, but that which choose. This choice reminds us that often what we see has been shaped or taught.

Dreams and goals – they are indeed helpful ways to frame life’s journey. They are the ways in which we might faithfully harness our gifts and skills to nurture a better place for those who shall follow. They can also become distractions from the moment, the work that it wakes to realise them. This is an odd tension and one that requires intention to aspiration and attention to the moment.
How might we find the balance that this involves us to be both here now and also nurture that which will be?

Beauty pervades every stage of life’s unfolding. It is too easy to be distracted by this abundant and hopeful reality. To see it, both in the moment and the future that such marvel, is evident requires discipline. In the monotone drone of life’s consumer distractions, we must embolden one another know that beauty is woven through life. For if we indeed commit to this practice, we then awaken to this simple truth: we are each beautifully made and so meant to awaken others to this universal truth.