The “Great” Pause? TBD… — 40+8 | Day Twenty-Nine

breathe in | breathe out

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Question
How is this human world eating you up,
and how might mindful restraint
and rest free you to feast
on a deeper Reality?

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Logion 27

If you do not fast from the cosmos*,
you will never grasp Reality.
If you cannot find rest
on the day of rest,
you will never feast
your eyes on God.

(* i.e., “the realm of human invention and convention” — translator, Lynn Bauman)

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Reflection

If you do not fast from from the cosmos…

They call it the Great Pause,
but it seems too early to call it that.
This Pause’s greatness will be
measured and determined by life
decades and centuries down time’s road.

As shots enter arms
and Spring returns to the North,
there is this pull
— this unease -
and in turn, this impetus
to assume and act.
Patterns and habits
to restore and reinstate.

The problem is
Greatness was not present
in the majority of those pre-pandemic
patterns and habits.

True community and true care
were not present
in the majority of those
patterns and habits.

Sometimes more implicit
than explicit
but seemingly omnipresent,
none the less,
were fear and separation.

Numb, consume, distract, look away.
Point fingers, go through motions,
stuff it down, play the game.
Burn out, burn alone,
payback, pass the pain.
Live the trauma, stay stuck,
giving up, feel the shame.

F*$% back to normal.

— Pause -

Breathe.

Greatness, it seems, will be determined
by our collective capacity to
listen,
be honest,
trust,
practice care
and creatively reconcile.

For this Pause to truly be Great,
we will need to practice pausing
and listening, especially now,
before the anxiety of these broken systems
are burning hot and full steam ahead again.

It’s not too late, friends.
You do not need rush.
We do not need to rush back into dis-ease.

Allow yourself and others around and with you
the space necessary to pause,
to listen deeply,
to connect to Spirit,
and to wonder and ask the questions.

It will be in good time
and together
that we will be able to creatively
and powerfully respond
to this suffering-born opportunity
with healing and new life.

It will be through practicing pausing,
together,
that we will make this Pause truly Great.

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