I said, "I dreamed I was a bird eating a couple of seeds before flying off to a bird bath for a sip of water." She said, "Imagine how many persons sat inside their homes looking out windows upon your performance." I said, "I should have charged admission in exchange for the free food and drink." She said, "Watching in the here and now may make room for a note or two in our journal to be read in twenty years." I said, "I am fortunate to have many days to be joyfully remembered in the distant future." She said, "The ordinariness of today shapes the shape of the days bringing a close to the banquet of life."
Tag Archives: Conversation
The Second Moment
I said, "I dreamed that I couldn't even communicate my own accountability blocks." She said, "So many intellectual and emotional framings sound trite in this day." I asked, "Was I blocked or simply not in the time and space to talk the necessary language?" She replied, "If you must lean, lean into those connections that don't yell and scream." I said, "There was a piece of gold in the dream. Someone whispered, Wait for the second moment." She smiled. "One really does not have to know. Feeling like there is something present might be enough."
Ordinary Pessimism
I said, "I have decided to defend myself against the many charges of me being a pessimist." She asked, "And is that possible with reality the way it is; with the crushing expectations of life?" I replied, "Are you suggesting that labels, once applied, are unable to be removed?" She answered, "There are times when the overgrown bushes need to be pulled out." I said, "Perhaps in our drive to be inhuman we need to curb our natural impulses." She said, "Or raise the level of preaching filling the pews with unwanted desires to achieve ordinariness."
The Valley of Decision
I said, "I had a dream that I was showing off the latest dance in the middle of a circle of family and friends." She asked, "Did you feel the watching-centeredness change from one dance to the next?" I said, "No. But the look of love from parents and grandparents remained between steps and turns." She said, "It is not possible for time to ever get tired of experiencing moments like these." I asked, tentatively, "Do you think that awe in the midst of the grand mystery will always remain with us?" She answered, "Remember what the prophet said, 'Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision!"
A Bite
I said, "The last bite tasted the same as the first bite." She said, "Sometimes the call to be different from those around us remains hidden in folded spaces." I asked, "How, then, might loving our neighbor fit into knowing differentness?" She answered, "Shrines on the same side of the street often share peculiar and various words of comfort." I said, "I recognize where the need for performing in the eyes of my ancestors comes from." She said, "We place a baby in our aunt's arms and witness the generations coming to us."
Confessing Prophecy
I said, "I have a confession to make. I failed to do what Simon said." She said, "Perhaps it takes one act of disobedience before we can claim our inheritance." I asked, "What practicality does a belief have if it doesn't make a difference in our lives?" She answered, "Is it a belief or is it something that should be trashed?" I said, "I have yet to consult with the oracle of doom and gloom as to what if any action is needed." She said, "Leave prophecy for the pages of the books taken seriously by scholars."
The Faithful Remnant
I said, "I dreamed last night that the troublers of conscience came streaming out of the woodwork." She said, "Sometimes even the ravens demand attention while performing." I asked, "How does a voice make sound in the midst of people who are convinced that only they know the real ways?" She answered, "Silence is fertile ground for mutterings to emerge." I said, "In walking from place to place, so many feel mysteriously unconnected to anything that might be called human." She sighed, "The faithful remnant may come and go unexpectedly but they will be seen and heard."
Example of Own Lives
I asked, "How many more fingers must be pointed at the divine?" She replied, "We humans enjoy the convolutions of large numbers." I said, "Perhaps furiously fidgeting with the letter of the law should be made a crime." She said, "Then people would not have anything to do on bright, sunny mornings as the summer comes to a close." I added, "Except to fill daily journals writing words that appear to be tolerant and accepting." She said, "It is easier to embrace ourselves when we remain examples in our own lives."
Different From Yesterday
I said, "My fear is that organizational formality will swallow all of us whole." She asked, "Does that fear arise from the dangerous memories that haunt you or from some gracious hint from the divine?" I said, "A life's pilgrimage lives in the steps taken closer to my heart than out beyond the land that rises in the West." She said, "Imagine big smiley faces written lovingly across the pages of your notebook." I said, "I am keenly aware of how, unburdened from affliction, we reach a state of grace." She said, "Then let us broaden our experience of time's moments differently than yesterday."
I Believe
I said, "I believe in my beliefs shaped by the path I have walked between mountains and across meadows." She looked up from her book and said, "What have you been reading so late into the night?" I said, "The pinched nerve in my neck is killing me so I have been reading about near-death experiences." She said, "Perhaps you should dwell on more than the single-mindedness that results from a maddening pain." I said, "Can't you see that I am seeing crooked holding my neck at a precarious angle to life the whole day long?" She said, "Come. Lay your head on my breast so that you fit with me exactly how you are and I will ease your pain."