just tend to the essence

Sometimes it’s just one sentence.

During my last meditation retreat it was this sentence:

it’s all right

just tend to the essence, Louis

And I guess that’s that.

But then, something grew out of that sentence, that essence.

That something is this:

Just tend to the essence

It’s all right

just tend to the essence.

Tending to the essence

all else grows from ((((and with)))) it

and so

essence finds form

it is the first

it will be the last

but it is here now

unpredictable

and precious

It teaches us,

our narrow minds,

to let go

forget about it

no need to shape

no need to mold

no way to shape

no way to mold

just tend to the essence

and get out of the way

observe

follow

enjoy

all that is flowing forth from essence

and know yourself to be part of the unique wonder

of true creation

-

Or,

as William Blake said:

Eternity is in love with the creations of time

Why not, then, as creations of time, infused with and born from eternity, fall in love again with our eternal counterpart?

—

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a flint moment

In the finalizing moments of writing this poem I came across the following lines from ‘anam cara’ by John O’Donohue:

All your life, your mind lives within the darkness of your body. Every thought that you have is a flint moment, a spark of light from your inner darkness. The miracle of thought is its presence in the night side of your soul; the brilliance of thought is born in darkness.

And then, not much later, I came across these lines:

In a culture preoccupied with fixities and definites and correspondingly impatient of mystery, it is difficult to step out from the transparency of false light into the more candlelight world of the soul. Perhaps, the light of the soul is like Rembrandt light. That tawny, gold light for which Rembrandt’s work is known. (…) Such a golden earth-light is the natural sister of shadow and the cradle of illumination.

And then I’ll just add this beautiful sequence from the awe-inspiring and magnificent Terrence Malick movie ‘The Tree of Life’ (there is a sorter HD version of this sequence available on YT as well). A film, a director - in great contrast to our culture‘s impatience - completely patient for mystery to show itself. And it does.

And so all the lights and all the darknesses are, for now, neatly tied up again.

—

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now and then, love me do

A new Beatles song. I don’t really know why, but it really touches me. From ‘then’, listening over and over again to that first Beatles cassette (from which my mom ‘accidentally’ erased ‘Please Mr. Postman’ because my brother and I were fighting over what song to play next all the time) to now, ‘now and then,’ I guess these Beatles have been with me for a while.

Below, the song (and the videoclip), the story and the origin.

The song

The videoclip

The story

The origin

—

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