Hello and welcome to this reflection including a poem by David White.
The reflection was inspired by a line from the poem that says,
Anyone or anything that does not bring you alive is too small for you.
What did it mean to me for someone or something to be too small for me?
I reflected on what was life giving to me and who were life giving to me,
Which led me to reflect on what wasn't and who weren't.
As I did this I noticed either an expansion or a shrinking within my body.
I considered the smallness of the ant making its way home,
The simplicity of a blade of grass,
The whisper of a breeze in the leaves and the smell of my dog.
I considered the wispy spiders that make their home in the corners of ours,
And the immense life contained in one single drop of water.
I remembered people in my life that bring life to me and expand the vision I have of myself,
The world,
Others,
Love and God.
As I pondered these things my heart expanded within my chest,
My body relaxed and rested,
Creating space for them.
They all seemed to invite me beyond myself,
My ego and my pettiness to something larger.
However simple and everyday they are not too small for me.
Then I considered how my body responded when I reflected on stuff,
The chair I sat on,
The pictures on the wall of our home,
The clothes I wore,
The car that gets me from A to B,
The need for money in order to live.
Most of these things add to my life something,
Some are necessary,
But none expanded me into that greater vision.
I wondered about interactions with people that center around drama or opinions or stuff and I noticed the same response.
My body contracts,
Closes in on itself,
Closes down possibility.
Life ebbs away and I'm left feeling bereft,
A little disappointed and with some feeling of futility.
I notice sometimes when I'm here as I feel caught up in a sticky web that I want to be free from.
These things are too small for me and don't bring me life.
This brought me back to the rest of the poem.
When your eyes are tired,
The world is tired also.
When your vision has gone,
No part of the world can find you.
It's time to go into the night where the dark has eyes to recognize its own.
It's time to go into the dark where the night has eyes to recognize its own.
There you can be sure you are not beyond love.
The dark will make a home for you tonight.
The night will give you a horizon further than you can see.
You must learn one thing,
The world was made to be free in.
You must learn one thing,
The world was made to be free in.
Give up all the other worlds except the one to which you belong.
Sometimes it takes darkness and the sweet confinement of your aloneness to learn.
Anything or anyone that does not bring you alive is too small for you.
When your eyes are tired,
The world is tired also.
When your vision has gone,
No part of the world can find you.
It's time to go into the dark where the night has eyes to recognize its own.
There you can be sure you are not beyond love.
The dark will make a home for you tonight.
The night will give you a horizon further than you can see.
You must learn one thing,
The world was made to be free in.
You must learn one thing,
The world was made to be free in.
Give up all the other worlds except the one to which you belong.
Sometimes it takes darkness and the sweet confinement of your aloneness to learn.
Anything or anyone that does not bring you alive is too small for you.
As I reread these words,
I sense the invitation to give up all other worlds except the one to which I belong.
To surrender once more to what is real and true for me in the vast expanse of my own being.
To allow and welcome life and to notice what is too small for me and what is too small for me may be different for you.
I in my human divinity expand two realms.
I am here and beyond at the same time.
I am grounded and heaven in one being.
I am growing more and more into what is true within me,
For me and as me.
I hope I can notice more when the small captures me and pretends to be life giving.
I hope I can do this from a place of love and kindness without judgment.
I hope I can give up all the other worlds except the one to which I truly belong.
Amen.
