Of Birds and Politics

Little birds bob and hop

rounded heads tilt this

way and that.

Dark, intense eyes peer, 

hidden ears listen,

always listen

to the sounds of life -

seeds falling, hawks winging,

winds blowing gusts of change.

Oh to be a bird, to flit

and fly! Leaving fear

behind, a feathered rush for

cover of bush or nest. Cozy

retreat lined with down

plucked or fallen from breast,

warm, sustaining. Shelter

from all that is loathsome.

Wings folded, head tucked,

see and hear no evil. Yet

occasionally, 

shockingly, a woodpecker finds 

a fledgling, nested, vulnerable,

and drills through tender skull for 

sweetmeat. Ah, nature,you awful,

lovely beast!  Doesn’t everyone

want to live, to thrive, be safe,

comfortable and audacious, plucky

 too? And what of politics?  Both

sides are part of the same coin, shiny,

valuable, worthy of nesting in

pockets.  Rims, edges are

circles leading us back to life,

to each other.

 Perhaps you’ve had a strong visceral response to this poem, as I had, when reading facts about birds, and then writing in response. Don’t we all have the capacity for ugliness? So much in this world I simply can’t change, understand, or control. And, though I’m a person of deep faith, I can’t always succinctly describe faith, or God, just as scientists can't always do the same for nature. I am best as observer and participant, continually becoming a more compassionate and grateful observer and participant.

Now, here

           in this predawn darkness, 

                       sitting by my dancing fire, 

     the soapstone wood stove 

                           warms my body. 

Candle light softly

          

           illuminates the room. 

                   

              

                 All things inner and 

                       

                                   outer contain light and shadow. 

All bodies of consciousness contain the seen and unseen, awareness and unconsciousness. Some beliefs in us are beautifully whole, some are fragmented, even shocking. It is challenging to grow up, to become aware, to separate out the strands and discern what is hovering near our dark edges, wanting to be known and brought into the light. Hard for ourselves, this mandatory job of maturing in wisdom, impossible to discern for others with perfect precision. All we can do is look within ourselves, discern there first, and thus better understand how we might be a part of the human condition.

In this literal and symbolic darkness, I bring my short comings, my fragmented parts, my fears into prayerful, compassionate light. Christ followers would call my candle the Christ candle. For peoples of other faiths, the Light represents many truths: Awareness. Wholeness.  Illumination. Wisdom. Love.

Saint Paul teaches in Ephesians 5:13 - But everything exposed by the light becomes visible, for everything that is illuminated becomes a light itself.

 Another version, from The Voice paraphrase - When the light shines, it exposes even the dark and shadowy things and turns them into pure reflections of light. 

Those words are my prayer for myself; I want to become increasingly and more compassionately aware of my own shadows. The keyword is compassion, for as we are compassionate with ourselves, we are to others. To bring my shadows into the light so they become Light. I pray and open my soul for illumination, then extend the same to all the souls of the world. This is my prayer for all people, for Trump, for Obama, for all leaders, politicians, political parties, organizations, businesses, communities, faiths and churches.  

Whatever we become aware of, our body of pain, our cultural conditionings, our knee jerk reactions, whatever we compassionately observe or watch, usually dissipates until it is absorbed and transformed by Light, simply becoming light. Thus we are free. Our actions become less tainted with unconscious needs and reactions. We become wisely self-aware, more like Christ, aligned with the wisdom of the ages, like beautiful shining people of Light in an often dark world.

May all our edges and rims be illuminated circles 

                                leading us back to each other, to the path of becoming 

                                               real-authentic-whole, which is Life!