you need to be very still
to hear the concert of your body
to think about what you contain
salt and water
knows what it’s doing
renewing itself
back to earth
it is a quiet thing
this is where our riches are
we are all red inside
brimming with love
all fluid and quiet and fire.
‘Core’
Kerrie O’Brien
I am on the journey towards being a JoyPilgrim. Reflecting on where my ‘riches are’, I remembered Eckhart Tolle writing about ‘isness’, the transformative power of doing absolutely nothing, merely being:
Find the “narrow gate that leads to life” … It is called the Now. Narrow your life down to this moment … use your senses fully. Be where you are. Look around. Just look, don’t interpret. See the lights, shapes, colours, textures. Be aware of the silent presence of each thing. Be aware of the space that allows everything to be … Allow the ‘isness’ of all things. Move deeply into the Now.
Eckhart Tolle The Power of Now (52)
I spend much of my time in bed, seemingly doing nothing. Coming to the end of each day and still seemingly having ‘nothing to show for it’ is a habitual mind script that I am trying to change. Such language of achievement and productivity is deeply unhelpful to a perfectionist like me and over the years it has become a very large stick with which I can beat myself. Such language takes me further and further away from the Now, distancing me from the revelation of the Holy in that instant. The more I am isolated from the Holy, the more ill I become.
So my spiritual journey is characterised by the idea of ‘travelling whilst staying still’. I long to be constantly open to the transformative potential of each moment, where Sophia waits to guide, teach, reassure, lead, and play. ‘Travelling whilst staying still’ is a heart journey, not merely a mental idea; it is an intentional, chosen-moment-by-moment, holistic adventure into Joy.
The first king was on horseback.
The second a pillion rider.
The third came by plane.
Where was the god-child?
He was in the manger
with the beasts, all looking
the other way where the fourth
was a slow dawning because
wisdom must come on foot.
R.S.Thomas, from Counterpoint.
fluid quiet fire. iPhone image.
image into ikon 