At the Still Point
Be present
As we moved from Yule (Solstice), through Christmas, and into the New Year, I felt “at the still point of the turning world”—a phrase from TS Eliot’s poem Burnt Norton:
At the still point of the turning world. Neither flesh nor fleshless;
Neither from nor towards; at the still point, there the dance is,
But neither arrest nor movement. And do not call it fixity,
Where past and future are gathered. Neither movement from nor towards,
Neither ascent nor decline. Except for the point, the still point,
There would be no dance, and there is only the dance.
We spend much of our lives with our minds on the future, or living in the past. “I’m worried about how it’s going to turn out”, “I wish it hadn’t turned out like that”. Yet our entire existence is lived at the point, the still point, that place called “present”.
We are often absent from the present.
Stop. At the still point.
Now: dance, with the universe. Be a child.
I hope that you have a wonder-ful 2023.
Sudden in a shaft of sunlight
Even while the dust moves
There rises the hidden laughter
Of children in the foliage
Quick, now, here, now, always‒
Ridiculous the waste sad time
Stretching before and after.
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With love 🙏
Dan 🗿 Peakrill Press 🍄 Mycoleum