The Secret of the World

Last night I begged the Wise One
to tell me the secret of the world.
Gently, gently he whispered,
'Be quiet, the secret cannot be spoken,
it is wrapped in silence."           ~ Rumi

Last night in the deep silence of that place between asleep and awake, I understood what Rumi meant. Solitude floats softly as if on angel wings and unstruck sounds resonate around and through me. It is everything and nothing; vast and minute; radiating outward to the farthest reaches of the universe and inward to infinity. The Wise One whispers, "See now the Great Mystery cannot be spoken?"

Life is...

Life is like arriving late for a movie, having to figure out what was
going on without bothering everybody with a lot of questions, and
then being unexpectedly called away before you find out how it
ends.

                                                                 ~Joseph Campbell

Do you ever feel like this? I am notorious for wanting to ask questions during a movie and my husband has threatened more than once to go alone rather than endure my endless inquisitiveness. But lately I've been content to watch life unfold with curiosity and childlike wonder. There is no explanation for this change in attitude. Life truly is a great mystery. Will I be called away before discovering the ending? I know not, but maybe it's OK to just enjoy the moment. I think that is the only place to find joy, love, and peace.

No Simpler, Easier Way

All will come as you go on.
Take the first step first.
All blessings come from within.
Turn within. `I am' you know.
Be with it all the time you can spare,
until you revert to it spontaneously.
There is no simpler and easier way.

                                                                     ~ Nisargadatta Maharaj

Sometimes life seems so difficult; every step is an effort. But in reality, life simply IS. There is nothing to DO, no one to BE. Everything just unfolds. Though that may not make sense to the mind, the heart knows when you turn inward and connect with your true nature ('I am'), there is no easier way.

All blessings come from within...

Everything... is Light

The Ponds

Every year

the lilies

are so perfect

I can hardly believe

their lapped light crowding

the black,

midsummer ponds.

Nobody could count all of them—

the muskrats swimming

among the pads and the grasses

can reach out

their muscular arms and touch

only so many, they are that

rife and wild.

But what in this world

is perfect?

I bend closer and see

how this one is clearly loopsided—

and that one wears an orange blight—

and this one is a glossy cheek

half nibbled away—

and that one is a slumped purse

full of its won

unstoppable decay.

Still, what I want in my life

is to be willing

to be dazzled—

to cast aside the weight of facts

and maybe even

to float a little

above this difficult world.

I want to believe I am looking

into the white fire of a great mystery.

I want to believe that the imperfections are nothing—

that the light is everything—that it is more than the sum

of each flawed blossom rising and falling.  And I do.


~Mary Oliver


Sometimes these poems just speak so authentically there is nothing to add. I love the image of light being everything. What a great day "to cast aside the weight of facts and float a little above of this difficult world."  I do want to be dazzled by the white fire of a great mystery...