A Poem and Some Words About God

Sharing the thoughts that struck me this week

The older I get 

The more I believe

That not much else matters

Besides

The sky, the sea

You

& 

Me

They say

“From dust you came

And to dust you shall return”

Like it’s blasphemy

As though they don’t see

The miracle in a grain of sand

Or the soil that grows the tree

I am earth and earth is me

Rising, shedding, glowing, ebbing

And free

For dust I am

And dust I will always be

Photo by Linus Nylund on Unsplash

Yesterday evening I took advantage of the rare chance to hit the beach for a few minutes by myself. It was dusk, that magical in-between time of day when things get quiet, and the light softly lets go of the land – like when my daughter’s fingers loosen their grip on mine as she drifts off to sleep.

I breath in the salty air, full and slow, taking in as much of the moment as I can, trying to pause the time. The wind brushes strands of my hair against my cheek, a touch that feels generous. A touch that freely gives and asks nothing of me in return. A touch that heals, that caresses me in a way that only mother nature can.

I feel the cool sand through my leggings as I sit on a dune, watching the water lap at the shore. Thick clouds cast everything in silver-gray tones and I feel peace. I remember that I am a part of it all, this grand cycle of sunrises and sunsets and ocean tides. Of storms and fires and floods. Sometimes I think that if I lay down and stretch out my arms and legs, the earth may just absorb me back into itself. I am home here. Here, I will always belong. 

The vastness I see out there, along with its complexity and simultaneous simplicity, is reflected in me – the same way that the sea reflects the sky above.

I contain multitudes.

I don’t much believe in god – not the “guy in the sky” anyway. But I do believe in the spiritual existing right alongside the natural. I believe in mother nature, in a loving universe and divine humanity. In “god” not separate from us, but within us. We are one in the same. Heaven and hell are states of mind, and how we choose to experience this life.

The bitter and the sweet, the “good” and “bad,” happen side-by-side. Life is awful and beautiful in the same breath. We try to pit the negative and the positive against each other, as though one is better than the other. But without the dark, there would be no light. They need each other. One can’t exist without the other.

It all belongs. Every single part of it: good, bad, and ugly. The hurricanes and the rainbows. The tantrums and the cuddles. The anger and the happiness. The despair and the elation.

This is something that motherhood is reinforcing for me, and I’m learning to sit with the heavenly parts and the hellish parts, and all the mundane moments in the middle. This is life, afterall. This IS the miracle, the magic – right here, right now. To be alive, to have breath. This is it, in all of it’s terrible, amazing glory. 

And we’re in it together, friends. 

Cheers to being alive.