September 01, 2023 – A

My business is being
empty, still and quiet.
Being busy being
empty, still and quiet.

It helps to have an environment
that supports
emptiness, stillness, and silence.

Try finding one of those
on your next day off!

It's noise everywhere we go--
wherever people are, noise is.
Except for Quaker Meeting Houses.

Even there, it is a rare thing
to find emptiness and stillness
at work in the silence.

As empty as the space between
exhale and inhale.

As still as a cat stalking a bird.
Still and focused.
Not on stillness,
but on the bird.
And the bird's equivalent,
in our case.

Watching/looking/listening
for what arises in the silence,
for what moves in the silence,
with urgency and vitality
and us in mind.

We are but servants
of urgency and vitality,
yet, we think we are 
captains of our own ship,
masters of our own destiny,
responsible for our own
happiness and well-being,
which, of course, 
flow from getting what we want
and having our way,
which leads to having it made,
whatever that means.

This is where emptiness comes in,
as empty as the space between
exhale and inhale,
empty of want and desire,
fear and anxiety.
Waiting, watching, looking, listening
for urgency and vitality
never mind the cost to us personally.

"If you would be my people,
pick up your own cross daily
and come with me."

Oh, yes, the cross.

Death to our way of life,
resurrection to life abundant,
flowing over, pouring out,
in each situation as it arises,
as servants of urgency and vitality,
calling us,
claiming us,
in the emptiness, stillness, silence.

Life calling us to life.
Past all of our ideas
of how life should be.

The path from Eden 
leads to Gethsemane.
We are Adam and Eve
on our way to becoming Jesus--
via emptiness, stillness, silence
and grace.

The grace that is a natural confirmation
of life being lived.
Wonder, amazement and mystery,
ever-present companions
where life is being lived.

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