The Presence
03.20.06 (11:30 am) [edit] Life for some, perhaps for many, seems to have a dream like quality to it. The hours, days, weeks, months, and years, seem to go by in a blur, and the remembrance of them can at one times evoke peace, and at an others a form of sadness or even panic, and perhaps despair. It can be a comfort to know that all of our experiences, especially the painful ones cannot last, that they to will soon become a past memory, racing towards a distant past; a seemingly eternal growing past. At other times, the wish for time to simply stop and not move forward at all is present. The time with loved ones, with friends, a moment of peace, of a feeling of union with God, or with simply life, evaporates, and is gone and time races on; no matter how strongly we wish to cling, it slips thru our fingers. The inner awarness can seem to always be the same, someone young, vibrant, but the outer person rapidly grows old, slowly backed into a corner, as the aging process does its work, and our options one by one are taken away. Clinging can become the problem, the fighting of that reality. The knowledge that things are temporal, mortal; moving towards a time when they will be no more, is something that many try to forget, bury away in some basement hoping that it stays there. It is in the trying, the seeking to forget, that causes so much pain, for so many, and the search for ways to offset this reality can be all consuming, if not always conscious. Some cultures do better than others in handling this, where the aging process and death are looked upon as simply a part of life, to be embraced and not rejected, painful as it may be. When this happens the compulsion to always look young, with a young strong body does not become a national pass time, or perhaps a compulsion. Meaning is giving for every stage of life and one stage is not better than the other, though some of course are more pleasant. The older years are made for drawing closer to the Other, the Eternal One. The only point of stability in a universe that is unstable, where changes, and time, seem to speed up as the years race pass by in like cars in a NASCAR race. This does not have to be depressing. It can be liberating to face death and accept it, to even embrace it. Not in the since of giving up, but to love life and all the ways that it is manifested, and to strive to make the best of the time we have. Faith does not have all the answers, but it does give direction and meaning to life, a center where things can be worked out from, a point of reference that can give meaning to even the most absurd, and chaotic of situations. Faith does not make life easier, but it does give meaning, it answers the need of our deepest heart to find the Presence, the Lover that calls us onward, but also eludes us, drawing us deeper into the mystery that can never be owned or captured. Faith can be mocked, and believers looked upon with contempt by some, but that is the mockers problem, it need not affect the one on the path. The moving towards the meeting, that will bring for the seeker the face to face encounter of the Beloved at last, the Presence that never left but was simply and faithfully there as the journey progressed. |