when hopes and goals and...fail, how to LIVE

I have never been satisfied with the usual, the superficial, even the partial good, not even brief moments of the best, but have always yearned for the unseen deep, the transcendent--
have been an idealist, an individual who always seeks beyond this current tragic mess to the wondrous,
the sublime,
the essential--
to God,
True Ultimate Reality.

And as I share below, only a few wondrous times, I have been overwhelmed me with its Presence far beyond my wildest hopes, ideals and dreams.

HOWEVER,
as already said,
so much of my life has been lived and continually needs to be lived in
(and I suppose most other people's lives) the humdrum,
the routine,
the repetitious,
the mediocre,
the dull,
the boring --yes, the drudgery and sludge of the average day.

And now after a severe stroke of bad luck in the spine, I am mostly confined to the lonely rooms of our house, often not even capable of walker-hobbling out to the mail box.
Even on a day or so a week, when I am doing a bit better, and walker-out, seldom are there any neighbors out and
about.
Not since COVID does anyone hang out talking, while their kids bike and play around the cul-de-sac, etc.
Yet I long for, like the Jewish Psalmist says, deeply thirst for the wondrous and the true and the good and the
caring.

Recently, I came across an insight that helped me in my daily quandary; changed my thoughts of communion with the Transcendent, since so often I am disappointed with how shallow, even dry, my experiences seem on any given day or night, especially on days taken up with the hectic or the tragic.

When the spiritual insight reached me in the deepest place, the vital truth came anew--
friendship with the Light is MORAL ACTION!
not primarily feeling
or experience.
(And not 'creedal' beliefs
like most humans think).

WHAT COUNTS ISN'T memory, desire, hope--BUT DOING in each moment the morally right act.

Since I am an artist though through and through (one huge nerve ending;-),
this focus is difficult.
I want to feel, feel, feel...
Even a speculative-sci-fi novel by me was titled, The Feeling of the Earth.

And I do hope to experience God again and again, but for now I know more deeply what most counts is TO ACT
for the ideal,
for the true,
for the transcendent.

That's Truth come down.


HOPEFULLY, we will sometimes also experience the Infinite-Transcendent to an overwhelming degree--

one incredible time I did--

Outside the Limit

Working the thursday graveyard shift
At 7-11, I stock cold shelves of 'cours'
Then write a college essay on dreiser
Of how all is thin surface, all negation;

But alert in the night, I muse in the stillness
While beyond the glass, the parking lot lies
Vacant, lit by the neon signs and street lights--
When so unexpected my mind transports.

I rise outside of self, see far beyondness,
Perceive myself sitting between the rows,
Observe the little ego in the skin and skull
My bodied self sitting with the staid cans and jars.

But now awash drowned in awe, in the Personal
Luminousness aware beyond words vivid bliss
Blessed all encompassing exalting surpassing
Transcendent Deep Presence.



First pub. in Flutter Poetry Journal


May you find the LIGHT in your daily giving actions and at least once in an overwhelming Sublime experience.

In the Light,

Dan

Queries: Growing Old into Questions

“Friends, these…we do not lay upon you as a rule or form…but that with the measure of light…may be guided: and so in the light walking and abiding…”
From Meeting of Balby, England, 1656

Personal Living

1. Do we center our lives in awareness of the Light—
ultimate/inherent reality--so that all our thoughts
and actions flow from the Center?*


2. Do we advance in our receding, hope despite our loss of many long-held dreams and aspirations?

3. Do we live above, beyond our ill health, trials and tribulations (deeper than our fading physical selves), remembering to live in the true, the good, the beautiful, even when we fade and all that is wrong stridently shouts?

4. Do we focus on the positive, negate the negative, sparking as small lights in this darkness?

5. Do we work creatively, using our talents to encourage others, bringing our best to each moment, here and now?

6. Do we remember that the preparation of war begins in each heart and one's negative voice, not only with physical weapons?

7. In the midst of the denial of the inherent value of all humans by so many secular and religious leaders at present, do we speak up and emphasize that every single human has inherent worth?

8. Do we speak to and answer that of the Light in all individuals? In all of our relations with others, do we treat them as equals?*

9. Do we let heartache, disappointment, and discouragement constrict our daily life because 2 more Friends Yearly Meetings have split down?

10. Do we take time each day to quiet the rat-race in our busy minds, and be open to the Transcendent?

11. Are we avidly writing and speaking for human rights, equality, and justice in the midst of the crowding instances of wrong, harm, and slaughter?

12.Do we not lose communion though we are no longer part of a local meeting? Where might we find community since we so miss the open meditation, sharing and caring?

13.In older age, how can we still make a difference in others' lives and the world at large, given our own loss of energy, and weakened abilities?


"For age is opportunity no less than youth itself...as evening twilight fades away, the sky is filled with stars, invisible by day."
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

"We must accept finite disappointment, but never lose infinite hope."
Martin Luther King, Jr.

*Adapted from Faith and Practice, Pacific Yearly Meeting, 1973, 2001



In the LIGHT,

Daniel Wilcox