The Thing That’s Calling
Along with a group of friends, I am following a writing course in which we receive weekly writing prompts along with tips and inspiration from our tutor Julia Fehrenbacher. It’s a truly beautiful and enriching experience made even more so by receiving what my friend Gary is writing.
Gary and I have made a commitment to share and publish what we write on our websites. Which brings up new levels of vulnerability for both of us, but doing this together brings support and deeper connection. I love Gary’s writing so it is with great joy that I am able to share it here with you.
Gary’s website is: https://sites.google.com/view/gary-dean-breathe/home
Written by Me The thing that won't stop calling my name Lives inside me, Somewhere deep and unseen. It hides from my conscious mind So I am barely aware it is there. And yet it is there. I feel it when I breathe into myself. I see it when I close my eyes. I hear it when all is quiet. And yet I can still not clearly define it. Other than to say it is a great yearning... A sadness... A deep desperate longing for a better world. But I do not know how to find it How to heal it. How to bring it out into the open How to engage consciously How to make the changes required... To deeply fulfil that yearning To relinquish the grief and despair To find my way back to the Divine That continues to call and call my name. From the very wells of the earth From the outer reaches of the heavens Through wind and rain, sun and snow. It lives inside me, inside all beings This god-like being that understands all, accepts all, forgives all. He/she/it lives every moment, And every non-moment With the sadness that we cannot find Our way back home, to the place we belong... With the earth, with the stars In-tune with one another In all our glorious Multi-dimensional forms.
Written by Gary The thing that won’t stop calling my name is love. The direction you head towards is without limits but it resides within you. Just as it resides in all things. When you can look at a rock or a stream and truly see yourself Then you can start to understand, that the calling that beckons is you. And how you conduct your everyday life With all that you touch, see and hear Is a reflection of where your state of being is currently at. Every moment, your environment is speaking to you Listen and awaken to it And once you are fully aware Then awaken those that come into your life. Do this in the same way as the rock and the stream By being who you perceive yourself to be, nothing else. The signs are the same as nature itself Being present, with the duty of age and timelessness, all at once. This message may not be understood by all But you are not the interpreter Just the source of delivery Be at peace.
After receiving Gary’s writing I shared this with him…
Gary, I am particularly inspired by what you wrote here, and what you shared afterwards about the rock and the stream. It is beautifully synchronistic with my own thoughts and feelings over the past few days.
At Findhorn on Sunday, a couple of poems were read, one being about the stillness of the rocks on the side of a river, holding firmly in place whilst the river rushes by. The intention was for us to remember to hold that stillness within as we witness all the upheaval in the world around us. I felt myself become that rock, smoothed and shaped by life, yet firm and strong in my foundations. It was a reminder to hold that stillness for myself and others when life feels chaotic and out of balance.
With your words, it’s a reminder that even when I get swept along, believing for a while that I am the river, there comes again that time of stillness when I can see myself and my environment for what it is… an ever flowing, ever growing organism that is shaped by experience, yet remains forever committed to the cycle of life and revealing beauty in all its forms.
Even in rushing water there is stillness, I feel it when I stand by a waterfall, and witness it on the seashore, the quiet certainty that maintains the ebb and flow of life that keeps the natural world in balance. Even when we lose sight of it in the chaotic spin of humanity, it is still revealed when we stand quietly and reverently with the beauty of nature.
I believe beauty, true beauty, which is only available through the eyes of love, is the gift we have been given to carry us through life’s challenges. One gift is to find that beauty in ourselves, and seek to reveal it in others, and the greatest gift is to reveal it where it is most hidden, both within ourselves and within others. When we attune to that beauty, we know we are one and the same in all our various forms.
Thank you for reminding me of this with your words, and giving me the opportunity to define it more clearly for myself here.
