HUM

WORDS LIKE LIGHT

Saturday,  July 16, 2022

During the winter months, as my wife and I sleep in our bedroom, a humidifier quietly does its work by softly humming, and every night and every day the dependable universe does its special work with a steady stream of ‘hums’. These are hums that always stay secret and silent, softly behind the scenes, sounds made by work that discreetly does what must be done to keep things always spinning and expanding and advancing. It’s the work my body, for instance, calmly carries out moment by moment – the balanced moving of blood, the falling and lifting of the lungs, the constant re-creation of cells. It’s the silent work the surrounding air always does, sending me humming winds and pulsating oxygen and always a subtle kind of freshness. And then there are the endless ‘hums’ of the wide world I live in – the sounds of the rolling along of rivers, the constant whisper of winds that work their way without ceasing across thousands of miles, and of course the noiseless, steadfast spinning of the stars. It’s reassuring to me to stay aware of this humming, bustling labor – to realize, while I’m working my way through the minutes of a day, that so much silent work is always being done inside and around me, that so much steady and tender effort is being quietly applied to make my 80-year-old life the marvelous thing that it is.

HER WORKERS
(about Patricia F., 46, Blessings, CT, USA)

She knows 
it is peace that works inside her, 
always steadying her in its graceful way, 
and she sometimes feels friendship 
performing its good work 
in her grateful heart. 
She understands that life leads her
in the way that it wants to, 
and does the duties it is given 
by the stars and winds. 
She sees life laboring 
in its loving way to help her,
and she holds out her hands 
in thankfulness.