The first week in July 2024 has been turbulent, coming on the heels of the Presidential debate with all its controversy and aftermath, exuberant 4th of July celebrations amid extreme heat across the Southwest (and world), and the earliest-forming Category 5 Atlantic hurricane on record, Beryl. Here outside L.A., we watched the local 4th of July parade with kids, flags, streamers and candy give-aways, marching bands and local officials --a definite throwback to small town life, affirming strong roots and a stable future despite the 90 degree heat. While personal fireworks are banned, surrounding cities sponsored fireworks that boomed late into the night. Friday brought heavy traffic; Saturday turned still. That stillness seemed to deepen in the silence of meditation.
The stillness brought to my mind the Biblical passage, Kings 19, 11-13. The prophet Elijah, fearing for his life in a religious/political war, hides in a wilderness cave. God tells him to come out in the open as He passes by. As Elijah starts, there is a tremendous wind that shatters the mountain rocks, but God was not in the wind. "After the wind, there was an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake. 12 After the earthquake, there was a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire. After the fire, there came a still small voice. 13 When Elijah heard it, he covered his face with his coat and went out and stood at the entrance to the cave. Then a voice said to him, “Elijah! Why are you here?”
The story continues with Elijah's new mission, but the power of this passage, metaphysically, is the still quiet directive of the inner 'voice' that matters, not the drama which fed Elijah further fear. It is the inner voice within, in a time of withdraw into stillness, after all the spectacle, that leads him out of the cave and back to place his part in life. The inner voice challenges him to remember the part he has been given in unfolding events, "Elijah! Why are you here?" On one level a fearful Elijah is hiding in the cave; on another level, he has withdrawn in spiritual solitude, to seek guidance for his next move. Can both be true? Yes, we live as people in a delicate world of culture and human society, but we remain expressions of a greater unfoldment of Life Itself.
This week I also came across my copy of Garrison Keillor's poetry anthology: Good Poems for Hard Times, which seemed fitting for this week. It's a mix of complaint and upliftment, the material world and it's difficulties and joys, along with existential and transcendent resolve. The poetry links below are poems from that volume that speak of both levels. Consider today and as you read them, your inner response to the question, "why are you here?" this July 2024. (Susan Nettleton)
For Poetry, https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poetrymagazine/browse...
https://allpoetry.com/The-Planet-On-The-Table https://exceptindreams.wordpress.com/.../24/254-the-future/