Opening up to the wonders

Look up —
at the spaces in the trees,
The gaps between the branches. 
Life is not a clamouring or a striving. 
But an opening up to the wonders of creation. 

Breathe deeply and receive. 
And let the space open up in you. 

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As I sat yesterday on a park bench, these were the words that stirred inside me. My weary and tired self did not go out to do-something-creative nor to get-some-exercise. A simple walk to that park bench was more than enough for me yesterday. Yet something settled in that space and I left settled.

I notice now how they resonate with R.S. Thomas’ ‘The Bright Field’. And, I hear echos  of his verses — ‘life is not a hurrying on to a receding future, nor a hankering after an imagined past’. Thomas’ poem reminds me of the benefit of ’turning aside like Moses’ pausing to take in the wonders around us — ‘the lit bush’, and ‘the bright field’ — treasures like priceless pearls.

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R.S Thomas — The Bright Field

I have seen the sun break through
to illuminate a small field
for a while, and gone my way
and forgotten it. But that was the pearl
of great price, the one field that had
treasure in it. I realise now
that I must give all that I have
to possess it. Life is not hurrying

on to a receding future, nor hankering after
an imagined past. It is the turning
aside like Moses to the miracle
of the lit bush, to a brightness
that seemed as transitory as your youth
once, but is the eternity that awaits you.

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