Every once in a while,
Every so often,
It seems quite worth our while
To take a glance
At what is outside our
Usual reference Frame,
That habitual way of seeing
And notice just this once instead
The very essence of our being.
In truth, you see,
We are each a universe of miracles.
After 4.5 billion years of trying,
At last, long last, we now begin,
Begin
To understand what we are spying.
We are a universe of miracles
Surrounded by a sea of miracles:
The cat beside me;
The chair she lies upon
While she licks her fur —
With her dampish tongue of bur;
The house that holds us both;
The computer that I type upon;
The internet that links me
To you
And you
And you
And you
All across our common miracle:
That Eden
That garden of green and blue
That whirling ball,
Of ocean, river, stream, and waterfall.
That garden filled with flowers
Which the prism of evolution
(Or creation if you prefer)
Has refracted into a revolution
Of colors, shapes, and sizes.
There are no greater prizes;
Nor more wondrous surprises.
We are here.
We are alive.
Each of us:
Seventy trillion cells apiece.
We are a universe of miracles.
The product of 4.5 billion years of trying.
Most of us —
Cat be nimble;
Mouse be quick;
Human living in a house of brick;
Humans who have built the house,
Every human being
And every, every living being.
We dance this dance together,
Don’t you see?
The music never ends,
The dance will morph around a billion bends.
And every move of every player,
Telegraphs its fireworks display
Like a soothsayer
Like a prophet,
Like a sinner,
Like a saint.
Ever-changing,
Ever-ranging
In our planet’s spiral dance
Across the utter and unspeakable vastness of space
Across the everywhere of place.
Take a glance.
I know we buzz as busily as a bee
With little time to contemplate eternity.
But take a glimpse every now and then,
You might be shocked at what you see.
Look beyond the daily grind
And you will find
Millions of kinds of minds
Of creatures large and small
And that’s not all!
They are dancing each and every one!
In that great and magic dance of life!
On and on the music goes.
On and on the rhythm flows.
On and on the mystery grows.
Just because our own brief turn will end at last.
That doesn’t end that endless dance divine!
No matter how you moan; no matter how you whine,
The earth will sing and spin even when your life has passed
(So fast).
Just take a little peek and you at last will see
You change, you morph, you flash.
But, regardless of your stash of cash
You won’t outlast infinity;
You won’t outwit eternity.
Don’t plot & scheme to check & slay and fight & clash.
No, help our cousins on this great green spaceship earth.
Help make this dance more graceful, fine, & filled with mirth.
You can dance your dance without destroying;
You can do your thing without annoying.
You have a million ways to thrill
Why pick out one instead to kill?
The sun is sinking red and low
The wind begins to blow and flow
Into the pines who dance with love
Inviting air and water, dirt and sun,
To join her in her laughing life-long dance
“You too can join in all the fun!
Become a part of me and you’ll have won!”
Take the time to take a glance.
The ordinary world we live in is
Extraordinary in every single way!
Every molecule of it sings.
Every moment has its million miracles!
Take the hands on either side.
Across the world, the world is wide.
We’re divided just as far as we’ve decided we can be.
This division shows a silly decision;
Not an ever-fixed reality.
When we see the truth,
We will have won.
The truth
Is that we’re one.
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Essays on America try to make sense of current politics in America though many of the issues extend beyond American borders.
Here’s a link, e.g., to an essay about how it can be hard to change your mind.
The Myths of the Veritas is a fictional series that explores leadership, ethics, and empathy in another time and place. Our tale begins as the leader/shaman of the Veritas tribe seeks an eventual successor so she devises a series of increasingly difficult trials that mainly test empathy.
Here’s a link to The First Ring of Empathy.
You might find value in this attempt to catalog “best practices” in teamwork and collaboration in the form of a Pattern Language.
Here’s a link to the introduction.
Here’s a link to the index of Patterns.
