Who Gets Looked After?
Who is left in the cold?
Dear friend,
There’s a little square near our house called Scotland Green. Our local overground station is Bruce Grove. All references to the Bruce family who owned the land and build their manor house here in the 13th Century. Robert the Bruce, rebelled against Edward the 1st when he claimed the throne of Scotland in 1306 and the Bruce properties were sequestered by the English monarch.
On Scotland Green I saw two pigeons tucking into a silver foil take away of cooked rice. Like two old friends hanging out in the square sharing a meal that had been laid on for them by the locals. A firetruck was parked nearby and the crew were in high spirits, laughing and joking, any emergency dealt with and the sun shining. The pigeons taking it all in between beaks of rice.
That’s just one tiny window onto this incredible experience we call earth.
The diversity of experience here is beyond our capacity for logic. Did you ever look up at the moon during the bright midday and see it powder white against the cobalt blue?
How about coming out of the sea all sticky with salt, waiting your turn in the baking sun for a go under the cold fresh water shower? Or a truly tasty Sicilian peach, a river of nectar in your mouth.
Maybe flying at night down a deserted road, under the stars. Or sitting arm to arm with your beloved? The sound of a voice whispering goodnight in your ear. The heat of them, the weight of your bodies pressing into the mattress.
We are created beings, meaning we come from somewhere. We’re shaped and formed and we grow like all of the other living beings in a living world. When we feel our selves alone and separate from the pulsing heart of the one life all around and in us, that’s as real an experience as any other. Not to be brushed aside or denied. The longer we try not to feel, the worse it gets.
Life on earth can get rough. Louise sent me a novel she’s just finished. She reads things and wants me to read them straight away. It’s Mayflies by Andrew O’Hagen. There’s a character in their called Steady McCalla, he puts it well, “They don’t know what they’re doing” Steady said. “They’re children. They’re pickney. And children are rough.”
There isn’t a person alive today who is outside of the one life. Who isn’t infinitely patiently loved by the divine. The divine knows that we must fumble around in the dark, hurting ourselves until we find a light to see by.
You want to end all suffering only because you know what it is to suffer.
It’s the difficult stuff, the heart break that cracks you open.
Counting your blessings isn’t always possible, let’s be honest.
There are times when you just feel like everything is against you.
Maybe the opposing push and pull is the current sweeping you home?
No-one is left out in the cold forever. Forever is too big a word.
I wish that love find you and make itself known in ways that you can accept.
The light that’s streaming into the room as I tap at these keys.
The red robin nods its branches in approval.
Somewhere two satisfied pigeons, wondering what’s for desert.
On Robert the Bruce’s old manor.
Till tomorrow
Love
Mikey