The Slow Work

“The whole life lies in the verb seeing.”― Teilhard de Chardin

“Make of yourself a light,”
said the Buddha,
before he died.
I think of this every morning
as the east begins
to tear off its many clouds
of darkness, to send up the first
signal — a white fan
streaked with pink and violet,
even green.” – Mary Oliver, House of Light

May inspiration lead to motion.
Love to action.
Seeing as if for the first time.
Slow steady work.
Currents always moving.
Some seasons on the shoreline.
To ready for reentry.
Whether we see it or not, we are changing.
We either resist or succumb to the unfolding within.
Make yourself a light.
Heed the call, the whisper.
Emergence at work.

“Above all, trust in the slow work of God.
We are quite naturally impatient in everything
to reach the end without delay.
We should like to skip the intermediate stages.
We are impatient of being on the way to something
unknown, something new.
And yet it is the law of all progress
that it is made by passing through
some stages of instability—
and that it may take a very long time.

And so I think it is with you;
your ideas mature gradually—let them grow,
let them shape themselves, without undue haste.
Don’t try to force them on,
as though you could be today what time
(that is to say, grace and circumstances
acting on your own good will)
will make of you tomorrow.

Only God could say what this new spirit
gradually forming within you will be.
Give Our Lord the benefit of believing
that his hand is leading you,
and accept the anxiety of feeling yourself
in suspense and incomplete.”
― Pierre Teilhard de Chardin