Come be with me.....

   'Where can you go with your sadness except to the joy that holds it?'
       This is the question that I pose in one of my poems, 'Sadness'. 

It seems to me that the world is like a hurting or a frightened child. The world is in pain and most of us are worried about that pain, or at least a little bit concerned about it and most of us would like to know what we can do to ease things a little, for ourselves and for others. The problem though, as I see it, is that we aim to ease the problems of the world with the same mindset that created them. That is a mindset that is weary and heavy burdened with fear, confusion, grief, pain, guilt, shame, worry, anxiety and an inherited 'tribal mentality'' of 'us' versus 'them'.

As humans we attempt to solve pain and distress by meeting it with more pain and distress. We are like the proverbial hamster on the wheel always trying hard to solve problems, putting a lot of effort into things and yet ending up going round and round and never getting anywhere. Even if we do manage to get to grips with one problem it is just as likely that another problem will erupt somewhere else sending us off again on another wild goose chase trying to come up with more solutions that in the end will never fully alleviate the difficulties we face. It's as if no matter how many battles we win the war never ends.  

I have always loved the words of Jesus, 'Come to me all who are weary and heavy burdened and I will give you rest.' These words have resonated deep within me and have offered me great sustenance over the years but I am only just beginning to see what they truly mean.
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For me 'Come to me' is an invitation to come into the Holy Presence of life itself. This presence is only found here, now in the present moment. 'Come to me' is an invitation to seek out the Presence of the Peace that passes all understanding. As the accompanying photo to this blog suggests - it is an invitation to come to a place of rest, light, spaciousness, stillness, quiet and solitude - for it is in this place that we find a balm for our weariness. The longer we can saturate ourselves in this balm the stronger we will become, the clearer will be our minds, the lighter will be our bodies and the wiser we will become finding solutions to the problems we face. 

Resting in the balm  is not a waste of time, it is not 'copping out' and it is not a refusal to acknowledge the very real problems the world faces. What it is, is a recognition that we need to meet the problems with a different mindset and with a stronger, healthier energy than the one we are currently offering.

After all if you've always done what you always done you'll always get what you've always got. Solving the problems of the world needs a fresh, strong, healthy and robust energy not a depleted one! No-one would expect an injured athlete to compete in the Olympic games or a person ill in hospital to get up and go to work the day following a major operation - people who are ill are allowed to and are expected to have some time out to rest and recuperate before taking on their normal tasks again. Put another way - you wouldn't put an ill and restless child in front of a horror movie and expect them to feel better so why do we continue to put our tired and weary minds and bodies into situations that deplete them rather than nurture them? Weariness will never solve weariness. Tiredness will never solve tiredness. War and conflict will never materialise as peace. 
Whether it is the worlds 'problems' that we are concerned with or our own intimate problems to do with health, finance, relationships or general well being we can all benefit from time out.
In a time when my personal health is compromised I am learning to listen to the words, 'Come to me....'. I am cultivating the faith and belief that 'time out' in the Presence of Peace is the only thing that really matters for this is what will offer me sustenance and ultimately direct  my own healing. Then and only then will I be able to come to the table fresh and revitalised  and able to  be of any service to the world.


So will you join me in looking for the doorways and finding the courage to step through? ​Perhaps the following words from Martin Luther King J. will be inspiration for us on the journey:

'Darkness cannot 
Drive out darkness
Only Light can do that.
Hate cannot drive out hate
Only Love can do that.'