“Awaken to the mystery of being here
and enter the quiet immensity of your own presence.
Have joy and peace in the temple of your senses.
Receive encouragement when new frontiers beckon.
Respond to the call of your gift and the courage to follow its path.
Let the flame of anger free you of all falsity.
May warmth of heart keep your presence aflame.
May anxiety never linger about you.
May your outer dignity mirror an inner dignity of soul.
Take time to celebrate the quiet miracles that seek no attention.
Be consoled in the secret symmetry of your soul.
May you experience each day as a sacred gift woven around the heart of wonder.”
– For Presence, John O´Donohue, from the book Benedictus.
It has been far too long since I visited the wisdom of John O´Donohue, and I have truly missed it. If it had not been for a question posted last night that triggered a series of questions and thoughts within me, I certainly would not have thought of bringing any of it up. But the universe works in mysterious ways sometimes, and I have learned to pay attention not just to the callings but also to the messages.
Am I searching for grounding or justification to spread my wings? How far must I reach deep into my soul for strength and courage to face the coming changes? I am certainly no stranger to challenging situations, and fear is a word I prefer not to include in my vocabulary, but there are moments life when you need to straighten up, allow the storms to happen in order for the paths to clear and usher in fresh winds.
If there is one image among all the several thousand photographs that I have taken over the years which grounds me and brings me great solace it is the one above. Called My Hemingway Moment for reasons that my writer soul identifies entirely with, it is one of the few I love to contemplate, find a center, and float away into oblivion. The water calms me, and the prospect of infinite thoughts and possibilities out there motivates me when I am feeling lost and buckled down. It is a reminder that nothing is permanent, not even the troubled times, and the tide can and will change when you least expect it.
“Respond to the call of your gift and the courage to follow its path”
This line jumped out at me from the O´Donohue blessing, as if it were the answer I was searching for. I recognise now that it isn´t grounding or encouragement that I seek at all, but presence. By this I do not mean being somewhere or with someone, on the contrary. It is about being alone in the presence of the elements within, embracing the forces that drive me, that define my character. It is as if I am being summoned to be accountable for the choices that need to be made, a checks-and-balances of strengths weaknesses, but most important of all, to make sure that I never forget that miracles do exist.
Which brings me to the question that sparked this rambling in the first place – do I believe in miracles? I most certainly do, but here´s the thing about miracles, it pre-supposes the existence of a fundamental faith, the surrender to a greater power that enables the unfolding of events that is beyond your control, and within a sphere whose limits you do not understand either. I believe in miracles in the same way that I am convinced that everything happens for a reason, as part of a sequence that was not set up by me, and the purpose of which I will comprehend only much later. So for any control freak out there who wants to have 100% control of their lives, miracles are impossible, because life has to be planned, projected, determined, defined. But for those of us who allow faith into their lives, miracles of all shapes and sizes do happen.
“May you experience each day as a sacred gift woven around the heart of wonder.”
FrogDiva Thoughts 