Living into Mystery
If I were to gather together the number of times in the past few weeks that I’ve heard the phrase “we are living in uncertain times” I’d have a very heavy and unwieldy bundle. That one believed life was certain is a myth. People die unexpectedly, relationships dissolve, job environments fluctuate and are re-positioned leaving one person with a new opportunity and someone else looking at a pink slip. Hurricanes come devastating landscapes and lives, fires destroy homes and nature. Tornados rip through communities leaving a myriad of losses. Since when has life ever been certain? If anything it is filled with mystery, total uncertainty!
In moments of peril those who carry themselves with poise and grace might appear to be infallible, but in their regal carriage they have weathered more than is visible to the human eye. I’ve known some of those folks. They signify for me the essence of living into mystery.
And those who were seen dancing were thought to be insane by those who could not hear the music. — Fredrich Nietzsche
I could fill this page with words from people whom many would consider ordinary folks speaking wise words or performing meaningful gestures — during times of personal dissolution. They were human beings acting saintly for no other reason than to express the common good, speaking from their hearts. I’ve often dismissed Wisdom whispering or beckoning me to take a leap or risk what seemed like everything for some invisible, delayed response. In the end, if I followed the thin thread tethered to my heart all turned out well and perhaps much better than I ever could have imagined. In that space I recognized as Rumi poetically stated: Love is the soul’s light.
And perhaps Denise Levertov realized this eternal insight when she penned the following words found in Breathing the Water:
A certain day became a presence to me; there it was, confronting me-a sky, air, light: a being. And before it started to descend from the height of noon, it leaned over and struck my shoulder as if with the flat of a sword, granting me honor and a task. The day’s blow rang out, metallic—or it was I, a bell awakened, and what I heard was my whole self saying and singing what it knew: I can.
Everyone has a task, some more benevolent than others. And so we carry on with the work we are given, whether we see the clear road ahead or not. We engage in social justice and truth-speaking through creative endeavors. We hold others and ourselves gently and with care.
Dancers, poets, and other artists are harbingers of truth. They know and inform us of the value of creativity and the necessity of tapping into our inner resources and getting to know who we truly are. They work within a divine alchemy to cultivate more of what seems impossible with very little to show for their work, if acknowledged at all. But they are relying on Truth and goodness and an acknowledgement that each individual journey affects the collective as well as a knowing that eventually requires an attunement to a higher frequency. And that not everyone is willing to step into that uncertainty.
Maybe this is what Rainer Maria Rilke was alluding to when he penned:
Perhaps all the dragons in our lives are princesses who are only waiting to see us act, just once, with beauty and courage. Perhaps everything that frightens us is, in its deepest essence, something helpless that wants our love.
And if that is not enough for us to recognize our potential and responsibility to life, Old Testament scholar and theologian, Walter Bruggemann notes:
Like the ancient prophets, we are dispatched to the good work entrusted to us. It is the work of peace-making. It is the work of justice-doing. It is good work, but it requires our resolve to stay in it, even in the face of the forces contrary that are sure to prevail for a season. We are in it for the long run….We do not ease off because it is hard.
That being said, life is a treasured journey and responsibility. Everyone is participating either consciously or unconsciously in the unfolding mystery.
What is your resolve?