What is serious to men is often very trivial in the sight of God. What in God might appear to us as “play” is perhaps what He Himself takes most seriously. At any rate the Lord plays and diverts Himself in the garden of His creation and if we could let go of our own obsession with what we think is the meaning of it all, we might be able to hear His call and follow Him in His mysterious, cosmic dance.
We do not have to go very far to catch echoes of that game, and of that dancing. When we are alone on a starlit night; when by chance we see the migrating birds in autumn descending on a grove of junipers to rest and eat; when we see children in a moment when they are really children; when we know love in our own hearts; or when, like the Japanese poet Basho we hear an old frog land in a quiet pond with a solitary splash – at such times the awakening, the turning inside out of all values, the “newness,” the emptiness, and the purity of vision that makes themselves evident, provide a glimpse of the cosmic dance.
-Thomas Merton in News Seeds of Contemplation
-Thomas Merton in News Seeds of Contemplation
This is a wonderful thought from one of my favorite writers and spiritual masters. Are you in the cosmic dance? What is serious in our lives and what is trivial? We often get them backwards. We obsess over the trivial and we completely miss out on the serious. Most of us are asleep even when we are walking around seemingly awake. The trivial and the serious are all around us and we must discern which is which. The serious is not always what seems most important and urgent. What is trivial in the eyes of many is actually what is most important. Too many trample a flower in pursuit of an illusion. To participate in the cosmic dance one must hear the music of life and this is usually found in what the world thinks is trivial and unimportant.
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