summer

I think You, my God, for having in a thousand diffeent ways led my eyes to discover the immense simplicity of things. Little by little, through the irresistible development of those yearnings You implanted in me as a child, through the influence of gifted friends who entered my life at certain moments to bring light and strength to my mind, and through the awakenings of spirit I owe to successive initiations, gentle and terrible, which you caused me to undergo; through all these, I have been brought to the point where I can no longer see anything, nor any longer breathe, outside that milieu in which all is made One.

When all things return to One, even gold loses its value. But when the One returns to all things, even the pebbles sparkle.

May I dance body and mind into You
and be changed.
Embedded in your close Presence
all is holy, all is interconnected, all is One.

Some Thing that moves among the stars,
And holds the cosmos in a web of law,
Moves too in me: a hunger, a quick thaw
Of soul, that liquifies the ancient bars,
As I, a member of creation, sing
The burning oneness binding everything.

O Hidden Life, vibrant in every atom,
O Hidden Light, shining in every creature,
O Hidden Love, embracing all in Oneness,
May all who feel themselves as one with Thee
Know they are therefore one with every other.

The exerience of Oneness is not limited to just the great mystics of all the ages. Each one of us is invited to experience this Oneness and we can do so in all our endeavors. We can experience and utilize our Oneness when we are appreciating the beauty of nature, in our spiritual practice, in the creative process, and in our social action in the world. When we are feeling separate from our God source, we can find deep within us that knowing of Oneness to guide us back into the Light.

This is true faith: connection to the universe and its inner divine consciousness through freedom, individual uniqueness, regard for one's true personality, grounding of the divine within, all expressed through love. It saves, for it makes us one with that which endures and can never be lost. It gives peace, for it brings the gift of Oneness. We are only upset by that which is outside ourselves and threatens to come in and destroy, or by the reflection of the intruder within. If we truly know we are One with all that is, nothing is outside us, nothing can threaten, so there can only be peace.

There is an interconnectedness, a oneness, an interrelationship of all life. We are not separate, isolated beings, but are all part of the great mystery of creation.

It is interesting to note that modern scientific thinking in many ways points to a similar underwstanding. An example of this is Bell's Theorem, which is sometimes referred to as the "butterfly effect."

It holds that the beating of a butterfly's wings can have an influence on events far away, even on the other side of the Earth.

There is a part of the sun in the apple,
Part of the moon in the rose
Part of the flaming Pleiades
In everything that grows.

Out of the vast comes nearness.
for the God of Love, of which we sing,
Has put a little bit of Heaven
In every living thing.

In praise of redwoods, ancient trees:

I think that could the weary world but know
Communion with these spirits breathing peace
Strangely a veil would lift, a light would glow,
And the dark tumult of our lives would cease.