1.
The Gift of Reality
R E A L I T Y!
Precious island of being!
Clear and dry upon the dark sea
of all that which has not become.
The royal status.
To be!
* * *
What am I that Thou blessest me
with this jewel of beingness?
A thousand or a million ages
could not have raised me
from the darkness of nonbeing
without Thee.
Thy Hand anoints me
with the light of actuality.
I will praise Thee forever.
* * *
Fragile chain of extraction,
reaching back
into the fluid abyss of potential,
farther than time can measure.
Individuals meeting and knowing love.
Children arriving, growing,
bringing forth, in time,
their own families.
Trials and joys.
Migrations to distant shores.
Family tree of inconceivable breadth
narrowed to this point in time.
At the tip, my own being,
resultant of all that preceded.
How improbable.
How inescapable.
Genetic precedents.
Circumstantial chain.
Determining what I shall be
in attribute,
but not defining the tenant
of this fleshly frame.
* * *
Thou givest me my being.
My heart thirsts
to fashion itself
as shall please Thee.
* * *
Objects, persons, and events,
in circling seasons.
Stately dancers
in endless minuet.
Pervasive meanings.
Words sluiced with intricate intent.
Deeds adrift,
tips of shadowed icebergs.
Pattern within pattern,
interleaving
in intricate twistings and turnings.
Implications without number.
Flashing out
through translucent veils of meanings,
sparkling, deeper realities,
values.
* * *
This creation,
marvelously constructed.
Layer upon layer
of delicately sheened
multidimensionality.
Just so, too, my being
and that of all others.
Each a stratified reality,
inward layers
progressively finer,
more enduring.
Central in my individual being,
spirit.
Enshrouding this
in patterns
of variegated valuation,
soul.
Enwrapping this
in configurations
of multitudinous meanings,
mind.
In between,
countless layers.
My cosmic form a misty vagueness
swirling about clarifying inner features.
Near the center,
more real.
Farther out,
less so.
* * *
Thou formest me in the similitude
of Thy universal creation.
Thou installest me
within Thy plenteous substantialities.
Let Thy tranforming Hand
bring forth the child of Thy design.
* * *
Within me,
the indwelling Spirit of God.
Central to my being.
Not permanently mine,
not yet.
Soul reconciling spirit and mind.
Glow diffusing from inner spirit,
warming me at all
levels,
illuminating the world around me.
Flickering in its passage
through the ebbing, flowing responsiveness
of my mind and soul.
Behind and in front of me,
below and above,
myriad living candles like myself.
Glowing on the mantlepiece of God.
Some dim,
others blazing.
Holy procession.
Pilgrims on the sea of time.
Bound for the shores of Eternity.
* * *
Nuclear spirit fire at my core,
impelling me with the desire
to please my God.
Ineffable guide to eternal life.
Individuated presence
of the Infinite Father.
My future spirit name,
if I so choose.
And I do.
I do.
Light that lights all persons
who come into the world.
The Face within my own being
which His angels always behold.
Small, still voice.
Be still!
and know
that I
am God.
* * *
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