What’s on the Horizon?

“Life is eternal; and love is immortal; and death is only a horizon; and a horizon is nothing save the limit of our sight.” ― Rossiter Worthington Raymond

Image by Albrecht Fietz from Pixabay

When I was walking through the fields of the Midlands in England years ago, it seemed like I was literally walking on top of the world, the sky brushing my shoulders, my view unimpeded, the pastoral landscape adorned by grazing sheep. It was breathtaking and energizing; I felt like I could have walked for days. 

The wide-open plains in the Midwest can cause eyes to glaze over, but meeting the solid uniformity of those plains is an oft animated sky. Clouds drift lazily on a breezy spring day. Summer thunderstorms crack with filaments of lightning and bellow with Herculean roars. A shooting star burns across an otherwise sedate ink-black canvas. The soul inhales and gapes in awe.

My fangirling of the Beach Chalet in San Francisco started many years ago. It’s partly because I think it’s beautiful and love the vibe, and I’m always with family when I go there, but what really makes my heart beat quicker is the view of the ocean across the street, a view you can see from any table in the house. Never not dotted with surfers, especially on a sunny day, it bestows a mesmerizing horizon between sea and sky that won’t allow you to turn away for long. 

If your spirit feels a little shut in and cramped these days with the long winter months and what we are witnessing unfold in our world, you are not alone. Being in the moment is good practice, a great foundation for grounded, centered living, but staying there can be difficult, especially in chaotic and challenging times.

We’re to be forgiven then, for occasionally looking toward the horizon for a gentle, healing pause not only for our sightline but our spirits. We can walk toward a horizon and never actually reach it or know what’s beyond it, but it’s in the not knowing that we find the magic liminal space of hope, a rest stop where we can imagine what might be, what we wish to be. 

Alterations #3

Image by Brigitte Werner, Pixabay

I was watching and I saw when all those perfect gifts you brought, beautifully wrapped too, were torn open in an instant and tossed aside in a heap with all the brightly colored paper, bows, and ribbons left to be trampled on then carried away with the trash. How devastating. You must have felt shocked, hurt, angry, and very sad. All those hours getting ready for this party, the months of hope and anticipation of the big reveal almost, almost as though waiting for a new baby you had already been calling Joy, and all of it burnt out quicker than a shooting star, as if you didn’t matter.

Your precious gifts were salvaged, gathered and placed carefully on the altar atop fair linen embroidered with silver threads of love and compassion. Your glorious righteous anger, a glowing white-hot orb shooting out rays of piercing gold, placed in the center. The pall-covered chalice, not quite empty, sits to the right waiting to be filled to overflowing again with fizzy hope. A paten of hosts made of wheat and water, your strength and indomitable spirit baked in, rests on a hemp corporal. Tapers with fresh wicks wait to be sparked by the inextinguishable flame within you. These offerings of yours are worshipped and adored here, safe and ready for you to take back when you are rested from this trial.

You will shine again. The gash in your heart will be washed with strips of the purest cotton dipped in healing waters. The wound will heal, leaving a jagged scar. The candles will be lit, and you will sip with reverence from the chalice moistening parched lips. You will dissolve a dry host in your mouth renewing a steadfast spirit. You will take that glowing orb back out into the world and beam its protective light wherever it is needed. 

You are a survivor. You always were, you always will be. Your priceless gifts are worth more than all the pretend riches in the world. We need you. We always did, we always will. 

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