Someone who has never tasted the flavor of hell will never experience the joy of paradise.
*Thich Nhat Hanh. Finding Our True Home.
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I reached for the Rose Bled from the seeking To learn the lessons Such pain teaches And to fit my soul to inhale the Scent Holding the Rose tenderly in open hands Knowing the preciousness of such a gift Of fleeting bliss and the Presence Of Eternity
*brian k wilcox. 'lesson of bleeding,' jan 7, 2005
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Eternal is not endless time. Eternal is a quality of aliveness. We arise from and live within eternity. This presents a paradox. As T. S. Elliot noted, we live with one foot in time and one in timelessness.
We can cultivate an appreciation of the timeless. In doing so, our consciousness shifts from identifying with the relative to communion with the Infinite. We live in gratitude for being one part of this awe-inspiring community of creatureliness.
This shift in consciousness does not lessen our appreciation of our lives in time but enhances it. What before we experienced simply as happenings and things take on the tint of sacredness.
All life becomes aglow with awareness of the Ineffable. Heavenly becomes earthly, for they were anyway. Radiance everywhere... now, we see and feel it, deeper than eyes, touch, and feelings. A subtle, embodied sense has evolved from the joys and sufferings that turned us to live in truth, Light with Light.
Do we always live in some emotional ecstasy? No. There is something more precious than such ecstasy. There is something more satisfying than pleasure.
*Use of photography is allowed accompanied by credit given to Brian K. Wilcox and title and place of photographs.
*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.
