Tuesday, August 31, 2004
What Are We to Do?
What are we to do when the initial blaze dies down, when the original emblems and pictures--of the gods and goddesses, the secret images implanted in the chakras--no longer stir us within? We no longer want to turn about and feel the secret currents flow. We scan the sacred texts which so fascinated us early on and find the magic has fled.
We wonder and ask, Is it over? Is the process finished at last? Am I now to be dropped back into the world of the ordinary, the mundane realm where others abide all unaware of the enchanted regions where I have discovered such intense passion and joy?
Today I had these questions and here is the answer which came to me:
I took down a wonderful collection by F. Lynne Bachleda called "Blue Mountain, A Spiritual Anthology Celebrating the Earth," and on the very first pages found these words:
"All journeys have a secret destination of which the traveler is unaware."
(Martin Buber)
"With the gathering force of an essential thing realizing itself out of early ground, I found in myself a passionate and tenacious longing--to put away thought forever and all the trouble it brings, all but the nearest desire, direct and searching."
(John Haines)
These words brought me back to who I was--someone forever captivated by the language of longing, a person enamored of the journey and its secret passageways, somebody alive and grateful for what others had given in such great abundance.
Lynne herself once said to me, "It can’t be Christmas every day." But then, maybe it can be, if we just know the right place to look for our presents.
We wonder and ask, Is it over? Is the process finished at last? Am I now to be dropped back into the world of the ordinary, the mundane realm where others abide all unaware of the enchanted regions where I have discovered such intense passion and joy?
Today I had these questions and here is the answer which came to me:
I took down a wonderful collection by F. Lynne Bachleda called "Blue Mountain, A Spiritual Anthology Celebrating the Earth," and on the very first pages found these words:
"All journeys have a secret destination of which the traveler is unaware."
(Martin Buber)
"With the gathering force of an essential thing realizing itself out of early ground, I found in myself a passionate and tenacious longing--to put away thought forever and all the trouble it brings, all but the nearest desire, direct and searching."
(John Haines)
These words brought me back to who I was--someone forever captivated by the language of longing, a person enamored of the journey and its secret passageways, somebody alive and grateful for what others had given in such great abundance.
Lynne herself once said to me, "It can’t be Christmas every day." But then, maybe it can be, if we just know the right place to look for our presents.
