It is not religion or secularism that I want to focus on today, but instead, it is mystery, deep wonder, and awareness. I think most of us would agree that it is all too easy to get caught up in our daily lives in such a way that we lose our sense of wonder. And I am a firm believer that writers and artists must somehow retain that sense in order to see things in a different way.
I have always been a fan of the poet William Blake. He definitely had a way of looking at things from a unique perspective. In "Auguries of Innocence," he sees the mystery of life in an almost microscopic way. He writes:
To see a World in a Grain of Sand
And a Heaven in a Wild Flower,
Hold Infinity in the palm of your hand
And Eternity in an hour.
On the other end of the spectrum, so to speak, astronaut Edgar Mitchell looks at a larger picture when he views the earth from thousands of miles away. He says, "I theorize that there is a spectrum of consciousness available to human beings. At one end is material consciousness. At the other end is what we call 'field' consciousness, where a person is at one with the universe, perceiving the universe. Just by looking at our planet on the way back, I saw or felt a field consciousness state."
And those of you who know me well know that I will never miss a chance to quote from the movie Joe Vs. the Volcano. I found Mitchell's idea very similar to that expressed by Joe in this scene. (Click on the image of the man and the moon to go to the video.)
Pierre Teilhard de Chardin says, "Our duty, as men and women, is to proceed as if limits to our ability did not exist. We are collaborators in creation." He is also known for having said, "We are not human beings having a spiritual experience. We are spiritual beings having a human experience."
Again, this is simply looking at something from a different perspective, what Moore calls "the sacredness of the ordinary."
Challenge Number One
Some Examples Worth a Look
AGAIN AND AGAIN
Again and again, however we know the landscape of love
and the little churchyard there, with its sorrowing names,
and the frighteningly silent abyss into which the others
fall: again and again the two of us walk out together
under the ancient trees, lie down again and again
among the flowers, face to face with the sky.
LOVE SONG
How can I keep my soul in me, so that
it doesn't touch your soul? How can I raise
it high enough, past you, to other things?
I would like to shelter it, among remote
lost objects, in some dark and silent place
that doesn't resonate when your depths resound.
Yet everything that touches us, me and you,
takes us together like a violin's bow,
which draws one voice out of two separate strings.
Upon what instrument are we two spanned?
And what musician holds us in his hand?
Oh sweetest song.
MOVING FORWARD
The deep parts of my life pour onward,
as if the river shores were opening out.
It seems that things are more like me now,
That I can see farther into paintings.
I feel closer to what language can't reach.
With my senses, as with birds, I climb
into the windy heaven, out of the oak,
in the ponds broken off from the sky
my falling sinks, as if standing on fishes.
Challenge Number Two
Challenge Number Three
Challenge Number Four
Now while this doesn't really make sense, we definitely get a bit of insight into his frustration. And needless to say, it has become a part of our family's lexicon.
So, for this challenge, make a list of five things that have frustrated you and create metaphors or similes for them.