Do you remeber "Desiderata?"

Pieces of God

“Of all the times

I’ve thought I liked this

or didn’t care for that,

not one was of my choosing

or yours, for as the earth

was begun like a dish breaking,

eternity is that scene slowly

reversing, and you and I

and the things we’re drawn to

are merely the pieces of God

unbreaking back together.”

                                        Mark Nepo

                                        From Carving the Raft into a Flute

“You are a child of the universe, no less than the moon and the stars: you have a right to be here.  And whether or not it is clear to you, no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should.”

                                        Max Ehrmann

                                        From Desiderata

          People of a certain age will remember Max Ehrmann’s (c.1927) prose poem, Desiderata (which translates to “desired things”) from the early 1970’s; Les Crane recorded it as a spoken song.  It goes on to say, “be at peace with God, whatever you conceive Him to be,” and “keep peace with your soul.”  It was part of the strong medicine required, in the wake of the Viet Nam war, to put the pieces of a broken nation back together. 

          I have been reading Gary Zukav’s book, The Seat of the Soul.  In it he writes of the difficult task of evolving from five-sensory human beings to multi-sensory human beings, and moving from perceptions of external power to internal power.  External power is that which comes from without—and is based on possession of wealth, property, status, and prestige.  It can be bought, sold, traded, killed for, and is the cause of divisions between families as well as nations.  An example would be what is happening right now with regard to oil---those who have the resources, wield power over those who do not.  Internal power, on the other hand, comes from the human heart and cannot be bought, sold, traded, or stolen.  It is the power that comes from alignment of the heart with the greater soul and wields only the power of authenticity.  Jesus had it, so did Gandhi and most of us could name one or two others.  According to Zukav, we are slowly making our way there, and even though it is hard to see, there is a growing critical mass of people gaining ground toward understanding that true power brings peace, not war.  This Sabbath day I will leave you with another line from Ehrmann’s poem; “With all its sham, drudgery, and broken dreams, it is still a beautiful world.”

                                        Thanks be to God,

                                        Jane