6.20.2021. An excerpt from Laurence Freeman OSB in JESUS THE TEACHER WITHIN (New York: Continuum, 2000), p. 220.
If, during the experience of meditating, there was a taste, however fleeting, of stillness, if there was a single insight-experience of the present moment, and if true silence was known for a timeless instant in the still point between two waves of thought, that experience of grace can open a way which we can follow for many years without childishly demanding any rewards. Once seen, it is never forgotten. Once it is awake, the heart never sleeps again.
After meditation: “You Reading This, Be Ready” by William Stafford in THE WAY IT IS: New and Selected Poems (Minneapolis: Gray Wolf Press, 1998), p. 45.
You Reading This, Be Ready
Starting here, what do you want to remember?
How sunlight creeps along a shining floor?
What scent of old wood hovers, what softened
sound from outside fills the air?
Will you ever bring a better gift for the world
than the breathing respect that you carry
wherever you go right now? Are you waiting
for time to show you some better thoughts?
When you turn around, starting here, lift this
new glimpse that you found; carry into evening
all that you want from this day. This interval you spent
reading or hearing this, keep it for life—
What can anyone give you greater than now,
starting here, right in this room, when you turn around?
Image by Hans Braxmeier from Pixabay
