Your divine creation of meaning

Your Divine Creation of Meaning

It is rumored
there are those
who do not even ask the question
of what it is to be human

That this is true
I do not doubt
But that it is so
I do not understand

For it is a foundational question alive within me
and to ask
Who am I
What do I want from my life
What does life desire of me
Where does my deep joy live
each of these I hold within the sacred circle
of the informing first question

For it is the stars the trees
the forests wild waters and deserts
the rocks lizards serpents
birds worms and soil itself
that inspire and inform my inquiries
into the depths of such moist intimate wonderings

But tell me
do you ask this or such questions
of your soul and spirit
and who or what pray tell
enlightens your wanderings
into the spirals of what matters most in life
into your most potent power
your divine creation of meaning

Reflections:

I can think of no more potent power we humans possess than creation of the stories of meaning we tell ourselves. They arise from within us out of our worldviews, from our perceptions of the stories we tell ourselves of what it is to be human; are we formed out of clay by God’s hand or did we arrive into the cosmos out of a process of random evolution into an otherwise meaningless world, or might we be an embodied consciousness of the universe waking up as witness to the wonder and mystery of Being itself…?

These are but a few of the frames or stories of orientation and meaning we tell ourselves. And each tells us where to place our attention and, equally important, where not to. Simplistically, perhaps—or not, this is why issues such as climate change* are important to some and dismissed by others. Yet I find most folks inherit their worldview, even if by rebellion, unconsciously, as though it were their family’s last name.

But that we each, nevertheless, get to be co-creators of our world and our experience of it… this is an awesome power, responsibility and invitation indeed! And while it is tempting to fall into a self-serving rant here… perhaps most serving is the simple affirmation of my own choosing to serve the wholeness and mystery of our being rather than follow those who preach fear and power and insufficiency. This means too… I choose to serve love and the ultimate inseparability of you from me; this is a story of **interbeing and innate belonging and worthiness in contrast to a story of separation and human or racial superiority.

Holding my body, heart and eyes open to the times we live in, this convergence of Climate Crisis, Pandemic, Economic and Social inequality and justice, rising Authoritarianism and Fascism… these are the challenges of my days. I seek to be a clean and clear mirror of the choices we face, and of the joys and deep pleasures and challenges of opening oneself to a story and worldview wherein all of life are my relations.

*A B-Section back-page headline of the August 21, 2020 Santa Fe New Mexican reported Loss of Greenland ice sheet in 2019 sets record. “Greenland lost a record amount of ice in 2019, researchers reported Thursday. Nearly half of it was lost in July, when the region roasted from an unusual heat wave.” New York Times, 8/20/20.

The back-page placement of this story is telling—and as tragic—as the actual occurrence of Greenland’s loss of ice. It’s testament to our dominant worldview of separation and our collective overwhelm with not knowing what to do with such information. I suggest that until we allow ourselves to feel such as witness within our own bodies… our collective responses will remain lost and ineffective.

**The Insight of Interbeing; Everything relies on everything else in order to manifest. By Thich Nhat Hanh