SOUL SOUNDINGS

Do you listen for them 

like a mother listens for her baby’s cry 

in the middle of the night?

Or, can your soul’s soundings

be calling you so softly, 

like the sky calls to the eagle 

to soar high in its reaches,

or the mountain beckons the snow, 

“Come rest on my frosty slopes,”

calling so softly that you miss them?

Can you separate your soul’s soundings 

from the cacophony of your day? 

Can you feel their gentle tap 

on the shoulder of your mind?

Can you read their intimations 

between the lines of your life?

These soundings, they come to en-lighten us,

to teach us to know what we don’t know

and know what we think we know, but don’t,

to reveal to us the good in the bad, 

the pearl hidden quietly in the oyster’s carapace.

They come in the solitude that embraces all that is,

like the space that surrounds all things celestial.

So fluid their flow, like a murmuration of starlings,

twisting, swirling as if by invisible command!

These soundings lure us toward life in the Spirit, 

cautioning us not to let ourselves be obsessed 

by the satisfaction of our senses.

Their goal is not to leave us lacking but in the know, 

aware that even in midst of our imperfections

we are perfect, complete, full, whole;

showing us that there’s another way to revel in reality, 

more deeply, more fully, more fairly.

No, we don’t have to listen for them--or to them--

but if we do, we grow like finely yeasted dough, 

miraculously expanding outward--but only from within.

Nothing magical or manipulative about them, 

they come invisible to the senses

yet as visibly life-giving as the very air 

you and I breathe in this moment.