Location

WORDS LIKE LIGHT 

Friday, December 10, 2021, 4:59 a.m.

            ‘Where am I, right now?’, I sometimes wonder. ‘Where exactly am I?’ – and the wonderful news is that I can never find the answer. Oh , for sure, I could check the GPS on my phone and that would give me a fairly accurate physical location on planet Earth, but then … where exactly is planet Earth in the vastness of space? and where exactly is the vastness of space? and where exactly is the Universe? Even more puzzling – and fascinating – is ‘Where are the thoughts that made all these words?’ If I say the usual answer that they were in the small piece of flesh called  my brain, then where are they now? Can I pinpoint precisely where those thoughts are right now? Is the thought that made the words ‘my brain’ something I can locate and examine? And where is the earlier thought that I am right now located on a specific spot on a specific planet called Earth? Can I see and hold and study that thought?

            Re-reading the sentences above, it seems clear to me that there is absolutely no way to accurately locate anything, because everything comes from thoughts, and the location of thoughts is as loose and imprecise as the wind. In a sense, then, I guess I am nowhere, and everything else is nowhere too.  And because I am nowhere, perhaps that means I am also everywhere.

            Somehow, after writing all these nebulous and shadowy words, I am now feeling as loose and imprecise as the wind. Sounds like a great way to start a new day!

A THOUGHT FLOATS

A thought floats
through his mind,
then dives and disappears.
Then a thought throws itself
into the sea of his mind
where other thoughts
are splashing and swimming.
Then a thousand thoughts
start sailing along,
their own captains,
capable of following
the farthest star.
Then he sees
that the sea of his mind
has no shores,
that it isn’t his,
and that he
is one of the thoughts.
Then it’s all rest
and recreation.

And here’s a holiday scene in our living room, complete with Mary and Joseph and the crib and a few very interested animals, along with a copy of Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol”, which we are reading aloud each day in December, as is our beloved tradition …

And here’s our chalkboard poem for yesterday, lit up at night with a small lamp…

and here’s today’s poem …