FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 2, 2022 - REFLECTION

 FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 2, 2022 - REFLECTION

This comes from a friend.  Something to think about.  Read this slowly - there is no hurry!!

*****

There comes a time to retreat to the silence.

There we find the secrets we swallowed, all the beliefs we held that never belonged to us and the longing within us to be free.

There in stillness, we can dissolve into newness, a reality we cannot fully know but fully feel.

It’s the most careful of work done slowly, breath by tired breath.

I cannot lie. It will hurt more than a pinch, much like a death but less than all your other losses.

It’s time to speak sweetly to ourselves and to set aside the pretense of control. We may ask our hearts to heal and our understanding to include our truths that are self-evident: we are living, breathing, and heading home to where the bees buzz and the trees exhale and the worms turn and we are no less than they and no more.

There comes a time to attend the family reunion and sit with the stars at a long galactic table sipping on the fruits of the Milky Way knowing we are just stars, one of the millions but belonging as surely as we are born and we will die.

All this and all that ever was belongs in the sweet, salient now.

You belong and so does everything around you.

You must not be disappointed by any of it, nor too pleased either. For it all passes over the cycles of millennia where clocks are too small and calendars have collapsed in contemplation at the knowing that math and words and thoughts even are too callous to catalog the Great Mystery.

There comes a time to retreat to the supreme silence within you, to observe the vast emptiness and smile. It is not yours and never was. You are more than even silence, you are boundless beyond your ability to understand.

You will not find this knowledge at the crystal shop nor on the church pew nor anywhere but in you. You will receive no certificate, nor costume, nor riches, nor fame.

But you will receive life as true as the rain, the rivers, and the sea. And this will have to be good enough—at long last.

Breathe, step, breathe. Love, breathe, love. Return to the silence over and over.

*****

(Karen adds)

I have always worn a watch.  I’m not sure when I got my first watch, but a watch determines my life.  In my small apartment, I have four clocks - two digital clock radios (one next to my bed so I can tell myself ‘Go back to sleep” or “Almost time to get up”; one across from my favorite chair (where I do my writing and I can look up and see how much time before I have to go to orchestra practice or granny basketball practice, or church; the third is the digital readout on my microwave oven.  And the fourth is on an analog clock hanging on the wall.  It has two AA batteries to keep it running (and if there is a power outage, it still works).

My wrist has a watch that gets checked 2473 times a day (okay, that’s an estimate).  My phone shows time (and I frequently use the timer), my computer shows the time, and my car has the time.

In short, I am “time-bound”.  I even have a little ‘game’ I play with my digital clock devices.  Each numeral has at most seven line segments - so the numeral “8” has four making the top of the eight, and then three at the bottom (they share the line in the middle).  The numeral “4” has four line segments.  So, my “game” does a quick analysis of the number of line segments currently showing.  For example, “10:08” is the time with the most line segments - 21 line segments, two for the numeral 1, six for each of the zeros, and seven for the numeral 8.  (Then, the mathematician in me analyzes the value.  Yes, “10:08” is the time with the most line segments; and “1:11” is the time with the least line segments (6).  If the digits add up to 15, it is a bonus (I’m not sure what I get!!!).  So, 2:35 adds up to fifteen line segments; 5:04 adds up to fifteen segments.  

Years ago, I did a retreat where we were required to take off our watches.  OUCH.  (Okay, I cheated - on breaks, I could slip to my bunk and quickly check the time).  

The meditation above suggests that we are beyond time.  God was before “time”, God is eternal, and God is “outside of time”.  FOREVER - ETERNAL - INFINITE.  If anything scares me about heaven is the disregard for TIME.  Hebrews 13:8 says “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.”

“Hey God, is it time for lunch?”; “Hey God, is it time for worship?”; “Hey God is it time for bed”.

Last week, when I traveled, I should have taken my watch off and left it at home!!!  It was a vacation, it was a trip.  There was nothing that had a particular start or end time. I hate to be presumptuous and assume I’ll be in heaven - that is God’s choice.  My brain tells me, in heaven, there are no clocks, no watches, but in hell, there will be clocks everywhere.  

Following the meditation, I realize “There comes a time to retreat to the supreme silence within you, to observe the vast emptiness and smile. It is not yours and never was. You are more than even silence, you are boundless beyond your ability to understand.”  

I “NEED” to go beyond time, I “NEED” to retreat to meditate, to “BE”, to “EXIST” and not be changed to a “watch”.  

*****

I’m thinking of the story of Mary and Martha in Luke 10.  Mary is sitting at the feet of Jesus - listening to every word, but Martha is busy making dinner and doing other things.  Martha asks Jesus to tell Mary to come help in the kitchen.  Jesus replies: “There is only one thing worth being concerned about. Mary has discovered it, and it will not be taken away from her.”

*****

LOVE WINS - LOVE IS ETERNAL

Karen White, September 2, 2022, ©