from this sacred space

There's a Hebrew word, makom, and it means sacred space; I'm attempting to live from there, from that sacred space of divinity that feeds the soul, and speaks to the heart, mine and yours - to live as if the universe has been declared to me. Lofty I know, and so other than, it almost seems like an improbable endeavor. But, I assure you friends, it is not. I listen for it all the time, and it happens. Everywhere and anywhere all at once.

From this sacred space I can recognize simple words like, "thank you," as golden nuggets worth treasuring for longer than the time it took to say it. And when I take walks at the dock by my house, I can recognize the sound of the water licking the shoreline as the sound of creation singing its story. And I can recognize the whisper of my Jesus when all I did was look up.

Yes, I looked up. And there. There flew three beautiful wild geese over-head.

Long-necked, and heading headlong to some place mother earth was calling them to. Watching, I whispered back a prayer in my heart, "Let me be as the wild geese, free, going wherever they've been called." And then, this poem was echoed to me, brought to the forefront of my mind:

You do not have to be good

You do not have to walk on your knees

for a hundred miles through the desert, repenting

You only have to let the soft animal of your body love what it loves.

Tell me about despair, yours, and I will tell you mine.

Meanwhile the world goes on.

Meanwhile the sun and the clear pebbles of the rain

are moving across the landscapes,

over the prairies and the deep trees,

the mountains and the rivers,

Meanwhile the wild geese, high in the clean blue air,

are heading home again.

Whoever you are, no matter how lonely

the world offers itself to your imagination,

calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting

over and over announcing your place

in the family of things.

wild geese | mary oliver

Gush. It was as if the wind beneath these birds in flight had drawn a breath from me and made me swoon, only to bring me to these beautiful beautiful words! This world lends itself to our imaginations. Let us create new worlds! Let us see this life as the wild geese see their's, in full view, where heaven's abundance and the earth's wealth meet and is close at our own hands. Let us find our place in the family of things as we let ourselves actually do what is turning and tossing in our hearts to do, understanding fully that despite what will come, we will always be at our apotheosis, at the height of things. Let it be so. And when it does, may it breathe a hallelujah.