Angels over DC
Just read a glorious blog post of thanksgiving, a fantastic way to launch the post-Halloween, post-election, pre-holiday season. Oh yeah.
Gratitude is a divine condition. Like forgiveness and compassion, gratitude is a calming, healing state of mind/heart. Gratitude balances the mind/heart so gently. When I'm in touch with my gratitude, everything is fine, so fine.
Once upon a time I believed that the human condition of desire, yearning, wanting more of this or that, hoping for various situations to change, was a denial of gratitude, but (as with so many theories) I've changed my mind. Longing, hoping, wishing, yearning - within reason of course - opens the heart in a very different way. Desire opens the mind/heart to possibilties, it helps us look beyond what is to what could be. Longing inspires the imagination, helps us journey to places we would never discover otherwise. You could argue that poets like Rumi found ecstatic union with the divine through the practice of yearning. Or, maybe it's just me who looks at it that way.
Me? Eternally wanting, longing, yearning, and yet simultaneously (on most days) absolutely grateful. Does that make me crazy, to feel both ends of a spectrum so profoundly? Uh. YEAH, sometimes.
STARS
O, sweep of stars over Harlem streets,
O, little breath of oblivion that is night.
A city building
To a mother's song.
A city dreaming
To a lullaby.
Reach up your hand, dark boy, and take a star.
Out of the little breath of oblivion
That is night,
Take just
One star.
--Langston Hughes
9 comments:
oh yeah, gratitude is definitely divine. Longing and yearning though do not make me happy. Probably because I let it spin out of control and take over.
Yeah it does take on a life of its own, eh? But would your art be as beautiful if you didn't swim in the river of desire? I don't think so. Tell me I'm wrong, Ellen.
Lovely post Reya. Occasionally I try to curb my yearning lest it take over & go off in some strange & unnecessary direction, but some yearning is good or we never grow.
I've never really connected my gratitude with my yearnings. I feel grateful so much of the time and I yearn for things as well. Today when I burned my toast I felt incredible gratitude that I could open my fridge and just get another slice of bread. It was a strange and almost overwhelming feeling - I felt so lucky my eyes filled with water, then I sat down and read your post, what a connection is was - funny.
"Take just one star." What a beautiful thought. Just one would be enough, wouldn't it?
I agree completely about yearning and desire. The do inspire, motivate, and open our imagination. Feeling absolute gratitude while dreaming of new possibilities is a great way to embrace life.
Thanks so much for adding the link. And thank you for the support you offer, the love you share, and the lessons you teach. You rock.
Want not...drummed into my tiny brain for as long as I can remember...so I outfoxed it! Now I Don't want to not have what I want- isn't that clever?
Whoa Linda Sue, I'm spinning in circles!! Yeah!!
Jo: YOU rock!
Jeanette I love synchronicities, always!
hey reya!! yearning's about the space between who we are and who we wish to be. i think good people hover in that space and move along it all the time. i'm grateful for the opportunity to see that space and to be in that mode. eventually i won't wish for more than i am. i'll dive byond who i am and who i wish i was. steven
Thanks, Steven. As always ...
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