We Share One Life, We Are One Life
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*Aloneness, Emoke Debreczeni, Flickr
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Therefore, dear Sir, love your solitude and try to sing out with the pain it causes you. For those who are near you are far away... and this shows that the space around you is beginning to grow vast.... be happy about your growth, in which of course you can't take anyone with you, and be gentle with those who stay behind; be confident and calm in front of them and don't torment them with your doubts and don't frighten them with your faith or joy, which they wouldn't be able to comprehend. Seek out some simple and true feeling of what you have in common with them, which doesn't necessarily have to alter when you yourself change again and again; when you see them, love life in a form that is not your own and be indulgent toward those who are growing old, who are afraid of the aloneness that you trust.... and don't expect any understanding; but believe in a love that is being stored up for you like an inheritance, and have faith that in this love there is a strength and a blessing so large that you can travel as far as you wish without having to step outside it.
*Rainer Maria Rilke. Letters to a Young Poet.
In some sense ... Prayerfulness is the art of being with everyone and with no one, at the same time.
*Brian K. Wilcox.
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Recently, I celebrated my birthday day. I called two immediate family members in the morning, and neither remembered that it was my birthday. I chose not to remind them, or anyone. I went to work and, finally, on my way home in the early evening, someone I spoke with had remembered my birthday and sang "Happy Birthday" to me on the phone.
How did I feel about this forgetting of my birthday? Okay. Whether no one or many remember you, or anything about you, you are you, and Life is a gift, and you are always blessed, as long as you are alive here.
If I am relying on others to treat me a certain way, a special way, I miss the beauty of this gift of being alive, of Life. Yet, true gratitude arises from within ourselves, not from outside ourselves, even though the outside can inspire and give occasion for gratitude. Remembered or not, recognized or not, we have inner Peace, we are grateful. I am grateful that one person remembered my birthday, and I am grateful for the song she sang to me. That is enough, truly. And this is no psychological gimmick to cope with not being remembered. This is gratitude and inner contentment with the gift of what is, rather than what someone might think ought to be.
All this reminded me that we can be very much alone in this world. Yet, I find that aloneness to have its own gifts and Grace to give. Indeed, in that aloneness, in the not being remembered, I might find there an intimate communion with all beings, if I allow that to be.
To enter into the I-AM-THAT-I-AM is to share in the Presence that always Is and does not have to be seen or known by anyone in any particular way. This frees us into joy and to love. For aloneness has become a communion neither inward nor outward, neither with nor without. Aloneness has become a silent sharing independent of conditions, for this aloneness is the very life of Grace, of everyone. In some sense, anyway, Prayerfulness is the art of being with everyone and with no one, at the same time.
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We are each a lovely, pure Rose, in the Garden of Grace.
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*You can contact Brian at briankwilcox@yahoo.com. Please keep in mind, when reading from this site, that teachings cover an extended period of years and, therefore, reflect changes over that time.
