Exiting the Banal, Embracing the Eternal

Reflection: #21

The winter sun, low in the sky, cast its hollow light upon the earth, creating long shadows on the pavement, dark fingers caressing this world with their love. As the sun continues its trek, falling ever lower in the western sky, these shadows lengthen, and deepen, eventually holding the world in the grasp of night. This circadian rhythm provides the background of our lives. Day and Night. Light and Dark. Wakefulness and sleep. Yin and Yang.

Each day filled with miracles of change, and miracles of stability. Order and Chaos locked in and endless, beautiful dance that the world performs for us. We are part of the dance, of course, but we also have the ability step back from the dance, and to notice the dance. To think about the dance. To mimic the dance. To create our own dances. For this interplay of order and chaos is the beginning of creativity. Yet we humans, given this Divine gift, too often, we go about our banal lives as if these things are not miracles to notice, to worship, to contemplate and to mimic.

We rush to work, missing the sunrise. We write that report, not noticing the leaves that blow past our window. We go through the drive through window, and scarf down a lunch without savoring it's taste, itself a miracle of the dance. We miss it all, or nearly all. And all you have to do, to be an artist, to be a master, to be a king, is open your eyes, and wake up to this beauty around you. It's there for the taking, to grant you everything, and for you to grant it everything. It's the easiest thing in the world, your birthright, and nearly none of us to it.

But this is my vow today: I will notice. I am exiting the banal and embracing the eternal. My time is short, but it can be deep, it can be eternal, it can be beautiful as long as I ignore the world of men and notice the world of gods, for what does it profit a man to gain the world if he loses his soul?

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