[Ed. Note:Today’s meditation was written by Cathy Self, Sr.V.P at the Baptist Healing Trust]
The duality of life sometimes catches me by surprise. I
recently sat by an old, glass-paned window watching the air fill with dancing
leaves of many colors while listening to a quiet piano playing in the
background. Suddenly the sounds of a jack hammer exploded in my ears. Beauty and
beast live side by side in the world.
I marveled at the duality experienced just this past week –
the delicate cry of my newly born grandson’s waking, pierced by the blare of a
car’s horn outside the window; resting under the warmth of a soft throw on my
sun-lit couch, the quiet interrupted by the phone’s sharp ring; listening
intently to my mother’s unspoken needs, pulled by the incessant ticking of the
clock’s reminder of errands not yet completed….
The both/and-ness of each moment demands my attention.
Wanting to surrender my entire being to the beauty, the beast tugs and seeks to
pull me away. Some traditions refer to life’s duality as the necessary parts of
the whole. Without a valley there is no mountain peak; without darkness, can we
truly know and understand light? I too often resent the beast, not welcoming
the gifts even the darkness and valley bring.
That morning, however, my ears attuned to the rhythm of the
jack hammer, I began to reflect on the hands directing its power. What is
the story of the man guiding the energy of the jack hammer? Does the noise seem as
intrusive to him as it does to me or have his ears become numb to its jarring
sound? Perhaps. I wonder if he ever feels the irritated stares of passers-by. Could he conceive of his work as meaningful and
satisfying? I hope so. For even in what appears to be the beast, there is
beauty, if only we will choose to see with new eyes and hear with new ears the
dance of this precious life.
Hafiz, a poet of the 1300’s, challenges me to embrace the
wholeness, the dark and the Light of life.
I
do not
Want to step so
quickly
Over a beautiful line
on God’s palm
As I move through the
earth’s
Marketplace
Today.
I do not want to touch
any object in this world
Without my eyes
testifying to the truth
That everything is
My Beloved.
Something has happened
To my understanding of
existence
That now makes my
heart always full of wonder
And kindness.
I do not
Want to step so
quickly
Over this sacred place
on God’s body
That is right beneath
your
Own foot
As I
Dance with
Precious life
Today.
“Today” – Hafiz (1320-1389)
I wish for you, in your sacred work, a long and meaningful
dance with this precious life.
Journal of Sacred Work 
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