Where am I on the enlightenment continuum? It doesn’t matter. There are greater and lesser beings all pushing me to the edge of my body. My body is round like the earth. It is the earth. My body overflows it banks. It freezes over and thaws out. The spring melt can grow crops and drown people in its onrushing current. Where am I on the life-death continuum? Does it matter?
Today is a 3-day weekend. We are celebrating President’s Day; in other words, everything is on sale. Am I on sale? Is this earth body I inhabit for sale? It has been bought and sold and is forever shifting in value. The price of gold and gas goes up and down.
Where am I when it comes to love? Does it matter? I have lost and found it countless times. Been a stranger on this earth and yet have loved a few souls desperately. The idea is that once we succumb to definitions of who we are, we are frozen in time. Fossilized as characters in a stage play that ends. That can be rated, applauded, booed and hissed. Does that matter?
Ironically, our lives are not our own. Have never been our own. They belong to love. They originate in love And yet we have polluted the love by throwing toxic matter into it. The sea is littered with Hallmark cards. The walls have been spray-painted with graffiti. Everyone wants their 15 minutes of fame and they are getting it. Going viral is something to be greatly desired. The King of Kings sits on the throne alone.
Why bother with questioning things? Why wash off the graffiti? Why try to find the goodness within when the evil has such a hold on us?
Spirituality has been freeze-dried, over-processed and become susceptible to blight. It is dying in the fields of the heart and no one has time to see this clearly enough to solve the great riddle. If you are asking what the great riddle is, you haven’t even opened one eye yet.
The riddle is you. The solution is you. The promise is you. Stop dead in your tracks and see what you love. If it is love itself, you are heading in the right direction. For love is the only guide and the only flail you will ever need. Yes, as Gibran says, love will crucify you. And it is about time.
Vicki Woodyard
Author, Bigger Than The Sky: A Radical Awakening