Imagine a gloved hand, fingers spread wide, palm open, a greeting shining out. You might find the glove's color and texture pleasing or not, but the glove isn't the main factor, for it is not the glove that says hello. It is the hand inside the glove. And it is not the skin covering that hand or its bone, muscle, ligament, tendon or vein that greet. It is the animating force within the hand that speaks through its gesture.
Where does that vivifying force originate? Obviously, this mystery has perplexed and intrigued since humans began on the planet, and the theories put forth have varied as humans have varied.If you're of scientific bent, you ascribe this essentially unknowable phenomenon to evolution, a process extending from the Big Bang itself. Perhaps Carl Sagan's famous line "We're made of star stuff," speaks for you.
It does for me, as both fact and metaphor. As fact, I'm awed that the carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen and oxygen atoms in my body were created over 4.5 billion Earth years ago by the ancestors of the stars that now sweep across our nighttime sky.The metaphor inspires as well. In my personal theology, star stuff is the vitalizing energy from which all things arise, the essence that fuels existence everywhere, including my life and yours. Some call this God.
This perspective offers depth and nuance as I navigate the world, one human among so many. As with the glove image above, I may find another's presentation and gesture pleasing or repugnant, offering joy or offense. Yet if I can see through surface appearances to that energizing source, I find a fuller, richer and more accurate understanding that can inform my response. At the very least, I can recognize the gift of witnessing star stuff in action.
Being human is challenging. As developing souls finding our way, we do not always live from our better natures or act in accordance with our potential. Missteps abound, some grave, others more run~of~the~mill. If this human experience is offering us a chance to grow into our best and wisest selves, such stumbling is simply part of the gig. Because of that, our false starts, foibles, and flat out failures can be seen as holy, ingredients for our continued awakening.
And if that is the case~~and everything inside me says it must be~~then when engaging with our fellow humans, judgment and harshness have no place, except as these impulses inform about the condition of our own soul. Compassion and, when appropriate, generous and good-hearted intervention are what is called for. Harsh, after all, does not heal harsh, and contempt does not ease the fear and separation mentality that give rise to so many of our human blunders.
One of my personal prayers, often sung beneath a vast sky at dawn, has this line, "I see Your face everywhere. Good morning! Good morning! In everything everyone, everyone everything. Good morning! Good morning!" I then improvise, naming both the animate and inanimate~~birds flying above, slabs of rock protruding from the lake surface, vegetation along the path~~often with corny and bad rhyming that tickles me. I also mention human behavior that inspires or disturbs. For in my theology, all are expressions of that star stuff essence, that God energy. And all greet me, no matter how troubling the greeting might be, and remind me to recognize it all as grist for the mill of our mutual awakening.
The words that precede Sagan's quote above are these: "We are a way for the Universe to know itself. Some part of our being knows this is where we came from. We long to return." So let us return. In an inspiring online interview with Krista Tippett, violinist~singer~ songwriter Gaelynn Lea encourages us to share ourselves with the world "in a way that expands love."
As we step into the new year, this seems the best of intentions, one that honors the star stuff at our core and returns us to openhearted engagement with the cosmos that gave us life.
Blessings on all that you are and all that you do!
Leia
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