Coyote's Only Cry at Night
Vincent Van Gogh said, "The best way to know God is to love many things," and I think that, too. It is also said, "To be vulnerable is to be human at the most profound and enriching level," and I also believe that.
Practicing these beliefs is a sometimes painful way to live in this unfair, often harsh world, but I have found it to be the only way worth anything. The rest is an empty shell.
Without love, we aren't living at all, but rather only stumbling blindly in the dark toward nothing, in a barren, lonely world. To know love is to know God and illuminate the darkest moments. Staying connected to others is the key.
Trusting, loving, daring to reach out to others and to allow them inside, connects each of us to the Living Vine of Christ, the richest of all sanctuaries. I thank God every day for all those with whom I have connections. You each pour out love like rich, red wine into my parched soul.
In the end, love is all we take with us from this world. And all is enough.
This is a very good entry... I agree. Although, there is something to Merton's assertion that the world is helped, more than it knows (perhaps even kept going, to a great extent) by the hermits, monks, solitude loving artists, etc... doing their work, making their prayers, alone on their mountain with God.
ReplyDeleteWe are all connected (think the Eastern view and Jung), and so when we do our work, say our prayers, listen to and follow our muse (even if no one sees what we create or hears our prayers) we reach and touch the world/affect it positively. If we are in our zone, creating, talking with God, etc., we are sending energy out into the world, and others receive it, benefit from it. This is so, though we may feel rather alone, sometimes, on our "mountain."
Of course, human beings are social animals, and few of us are really meant to be hermits. A few, perhaps, but not most of ua. I try to have a life that fits me, a mixture of hermit and "in the world."