Falling into Love does not require a special place or time. Sacredness can pull you into HerSelf with simple daily rites, like that of a quiet, devotional morning time, with music and coffee and books, and an old, cheap recliner. That recliner, small like the boat on the ocean, as I am in my particularization of this Presence everywhere, becomes a church, a wailing wall, a cathedral, a stupa, a mosque, an ashram, ... This means no special conditions are needed to realize the immensity and intimacy of Grace. Grace, like Life, is already and always present, and our part is to become present to It with our whole being.
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This place I sit every morning ~ an angel wakes me up with a smile every morning, whether I am sad or glad, it does not matter to her, smiling, saying, "Here, here, my dear, my beloved, How glad I am to see you!"
And I did not know I was held in her arms all night and that face awaited my eyes, like the grass outside waiting for the Sun to kiss it in the morning; her patience like my dogs staring out the door, readied to chase a squirrel up that same tree again.
This place I sit every morning ~ to me, I do not need to bathe in the Ganges, or bow before a wall in Jerusalem, or even go to the sanctuary next door and kneel at the altar ~ though to do so, in itself, would be a blessing ~ this recliner, with coffee and books, song, and softness, becomes Mount Tabor, and she takes my hand and me to the curtain, saying, "My love cannot take you in there."
And, then, Someone calls me in by name, and my hands part the purple curtains: Oh! Should I go on and tell you what happens then? Or should I remain silent about this?
This place I sit every morning ~ Opens to a Holy of Holies. I wonder: Would she who dropped this old recliner off at that yard sale ever have dreamed the mysteries of my Love that would unfold to me by just sitting here?
God once baptized the Universe with one drop of rain. . . And no priest was present, And no place to call holy ... Such is this common presence.
*Brian K. Wilcox. "This Common Presence." Feb 2006.
What does the "common presence" mean to you? Do you have a place to retreat daily to open yourself to the Sacred in prayerful silence? Do certain activities heighten your awareness of the Sacred? Lessen your sense of that Presence? How do you integrate into your daily life solitude and togetherness? Contemplation and action?
*Use of photography is allowed accompanied by credit given to Brian K. Wilcox and title and place of photograph.
*Brian's book, An Ache for Union: Poems on Oneness with God through Love, can be ordered through major online booksellers or the publisher AuthorHouse.
