Being Universe-Centered

Theme for February: Resilience

Thursday, February 11, 2021

 I guess I’m no more self-centered than most of us, but from now on, I’m looking to let something else become the center of my life, and I’ve chosen the entire universe. I want to become more universe-centered. Instead of pondering the problems my little self seems to always have, I’d like to wonder more about what’s happening outside of ‘me’ – what’s happening in the homes of people who are suffering with illness or scarcity, and in the homes of people who feel lucky to be alive; what’s happening in the forests and valleys across the world, where animals and plants prosper while I fret over my paltry problems; what’s happening, even, among the planets and stars as they swirl me along on our endless passage through time-without-end. I grow weary of worrying about this small segment of the universe called ‘Hamilton Salsich’. There are majestic miracles surrounding me, for millions of miles on all sides, and I want to stay centered there. I want to set my ‘self’ off to the side. and see, almost for the first time, the wondrous universe that’s been waiting for me.      

This morning, in our wonderful small house in this wondrous endless universe, I spent some minutes replacing a lightbulb in the hallway ceiling and checking batteries in our smoke detectors, and, minor chores though they are, I felt that I was doing truly ‘wondrous’ work. The stars were spinning in spectacular ways, the Grand Canyon was grandly shining, sunlight was softly landing on our house and yard, and I was replacing bulbs and batteries in a beautiful way. I think I was smiling most of the time.

REVERBERATIONS
(Jimmy Lee H., 38, Blessings, CT) 

His wife is making him see a therapist 
because he recently started saying
his life is simply reverberations.
He says
all his spoken sentences
are simply echoes from a never-ending Mind 
(he insists on the uppercase M)
and his smiles are not his own,
but actually vibrations
from the expansive Smile of the universe. 
His wife has always praised his kindness, 
but now he says his kindness
is not his own,
but simply the natural consequence of the Kindness 
of the whole cosmos. 
She said,
“But what about your lovely poems?” 
and he replied,
“Oh, sweetheart, they are not mine. 
They are the repercussions
of marvelous, forceful Movement 
somewhere among the stars.”

After she made the appointment for him, 
he gave her a huge, loving hug, 
which he said was just a soft shockwave 
from the Big Bang
billions of years ago.
She said,
“Be sure to tell your therapist that.”