CONTEMPLATION: a somewhat acrostic poem

Why am I drawn to the contemplative life?

Living a life of contemplation is the fullest way that I know how to live from my heart—the center of my being that is most deeply and honestly connected to God.

In living a contemplative life, I Consistently “wake up” as Jesus would say—to my life and the life of God with me in every moment.

I find I am learning to Open myself to all that is inside me and around me in the world. With this more open heart, all of life can be received and held in sacred wondering. I can gently hold the happenings in and around me with this wondering heart whether I deem it as a good thing or a not so good thing. I find that I am slowly (Really Slowly!) learning to trust that all things belong. I realize more and more that I have no idea about something’s goodness or “badness”, or what fruit will come of a thing. I notice this really helps me be more compassionate towards myself and others.

I’m learning to wake up to the Nuances of the exterior world and the inner landscape of my heart, mind and soul. Noticing and paying attention to—and savouring these subtilties can bring peace and a gracious settlement into my heart.

I’m learning to notice the seeming Timelessness of a moment. Time seems to stand still or not matter at all when I pay attention to this moment and what is right in front of me with my full attention. I stare at the trees for instance. They move not except by the energy of the wind that moves through their branches. They stand through the moments of every season, trusting in the growth, the rest, the transformation that happens without their effort. Somehow, everything is wrapped into the sacred moments. One moment upon another, and then another…. Life stops being about a race, a destination, an ending or a completion of anything. Life becomes an eternity of moments, even beyond the last moment of our breath. There is still the first moment of the other side!

At times my soul rails at the seeming Emptiness of the silence until I sit still for just a while longer. In that time, I learn how more Meaningful the silence is—the spaces between the words.

Perhaps it is in this Liminal space where love calls us, and we begin to find our way.

I wonder if this may be where our call to authentic Action starts. I’ve noticed for myself, that if my actions come out of the silences in my life, they seem to feel clear and easy.

Perhaps it is the first Tentative call upon our hearts that becomes an authentic Interest in something that draws us Onward into living out the fruit of our deep connection with the divine. We hear what is “ours to do” for the next moment, and the next, into ever widening circles of loving action brought forth from the depths of our being with God—in love.

I find this Contemplative life I’m living brings me to ever New places of life in and with God.

Amen.

Shauna Gill