The Mirror And The Dust: Short Story

Hello, loves.

Join me tonight for story time.

Tonight's story is inspired by Meister Eckhart. When the ego believes it is the source of light and needs reminding that it is but a conduit for a greater source of power.

Transcript

Hello dear ones and welcome to today's short story the mirror and the dust father aldrich had been the most admired priest in the valley for 30 years people came from distant villages to hear him preach he had a gift his words could make women weep and young men sit up straight in their pews he knew he had this gift and he was glad of it one autumn a wandering monk passed through and stayed the night at the parish house he was an unremarkable man small quiet thin with worn sandals and no particular air of holiness about him at supper aldrich spoke at length about the sermon he had given this morning the monk listened spooning his soup they were moved aldrich said truly moved i could see it in their faces who moved them the monk asked without looking up aldrich paused well i did of course through god's grace the monk set down his spoon i once knew a mirror he said that believed it was the source of the light it had forgotten that it only shines because something else shines first aldrich laughed politely but that night he could not sleep he lay in the dark and found to his horror that he could not clearly separate the part of him that loved god from the part of him that loved being known as a man who loved god he pulled at the thread and found the whole garment seemed to loosen he rose before dawn and knelt on the cold stone floor he didn't pray with words he simply stayed there stripped of his sermon and his reputation and his 30 years trying to find what remained when all of it was set aside he found something did remain something very small but powerful very still and aware aldrich wept not from sorrow but from finding the god within he had spent his life building a house and had never once noticed the ground it stood on he found himself preaching differently after that not worse just different he stopped checking their faces for what he thought he needed