Colleen's Quips

A Treatise on Becoming

I'm sitting under the umbrella at the patio table again, this late August in the evening at dusk. The soft summer warmth surrounds me, birds are calling and twittering, while Rocky, the handsome tuxedo cat who owns this human, comfortably lounges on the nearby chair. Surrounded by tall oaks and pine around my backyard, there is a sense of softness, peace, and tranquility. The air is feeling cooler and soothing to my soul, after a warm, sunny late summer day; the sound of a distant lawn mower humming while squirrels play tag in the trees.

I'm caught off guard by the sense of wonder. Is it peace, wholeness, and security within and without? Someone seems to speak to me as I am outdoors in nature. I feel the presence of Life and experience the longing that accompanies the beauty and rest here. Sometimes I wonder if my backyard is "sacred" as I continue to meet the One who loves me, in quietness and vigil, under the green umbrella. Can simply the very presence of the air, the atmosphere, nurture one whose heart longs to meet wholeness and completion there? Can merely the green leaves of the trees towering overhead signify a chapel where my Lover dwells with me? Can I find my fill of whatever it is I so long for, in knowing I am cared for, loved, and dwelling in the safeness of His heart? Am I secure within because I know a Person who knows me so well? Do I dwell within myself in safety and security because I know who I've become and make my home within the heart of that safe, soft place to fall?

My long journey has brought me to such a place as this. Is part of Paradise knowing we are loved well, understanding who we are and who we are becoming, trusting that all of this is as it should be? How is it this sweet, safe place has crept up upon me without my heart being aware of it? Did I dream it first, and then find it had become real? Or was it always present, waiting in the wings, Reality seeming dreamlike?

Only the One who knows us best has answers to all this, if there are answers. We see in short, linear spans of time and "through a glass darkly." Truth knows what really is and confirms it, as we finally recognize who and Whose we are and have become. Safety dwells within us, and as we embrace it we find we are able to be a safe place for others as well. It is in this inner knowing and resting within, that we can then shed the skin of selfishness and become an offering to others, a sweet place of refuge and wonder. It is in resting, simply resting, that there is time to care for others. It is in seeing, clearly seeing, who we are, that we can decide to give the precious gifts of self to others and rest in the offering, not in the response.

"Hope deferred makes the heart sick." Completion and fulfillment make the heart rest. Resting, being released from striving, actively resting brings a knowing that sustains growth and brings hope. Knowing brings peace and safety. Knowing brings rest, the absence of striving. Knowing brings hope. From hope we gather joy.

Life is continual growth. As we choose to enter in and be a part of that growth, we will feel more alive and feel the life within. We are ever developing, ever becoming, always in a state of being completed. As long as we live, we may choose to accept the challenge to be and to become. We choose to seek Wholeness. We choose to be people of integrity. We can enter in to that continual Becoming which produces hope and inevitably, joy. We can choose. And then the Gift is given.

Quip #10 - My Gift to You! - Read on >>