Just Above
I look to a sky
once hedged by clouds;
yesterday a ceiling,
today a threshold.
I have been above them--
not wrapped in steel,
but only in sky.
There I saw a field
whose crop yielded
unending whiteness.
I know a drop of eternity
everytime I, land bound,
look to a sky of blue and white.
We share a knowing smile,
the sun and I, then go
about our business
with light in our steps,
confident that forever
isn't so far away--
it's only just above the clouds.
Kelly Bowron
9/7/04
Tuesday, September 07, 2004
At school today, my instructor said something that was profound to me. After explaining the gist of what the whole class would be based on: that ethos/ethics is essentially the meaning of life (what is good/bad or right/wrong)....that mythos/myth is the expression of ethos and that subsequently rites/rituals are the physical union of mythos and ethos. He noted that God is an expression of the meaning of life--that which brings meaning to life and that in some form or another, everyone believes in God. He went on to say that people ask each other, "Do you believe in God?" and then unfairly make judgments on that person based on their response. What we are really asking is, "Do you believe in God the way I believe in God" and are responding, "Yes, I believe in God the way I believe in God" or “No I don’t believe in God the way you believe in God”; but the real message is lost in the inept communication. It is symbols that give meaning to the physical, and we use symbols to express our deepest truths--but everyone's symbols are not the same. In this way, the tattoo on my sister's back of a female angel stretching her hand to the sky is no less sacred to her then a statue of Mary at the side of the church, arms stretched to the sky is to a Catholic. Each are symbols of humanity reaching to the heavens--one personal, one societal.
What this made in my brain was an "aha" moment. When I grew older and changed for a variety of reasons, I walked away from the religion that I was raised. This hurt my family as they feel that I have a) rejected them in some way, and/or b) that I have no faith/belief. But the truth I realized today is that in rejecting my religious upbringing--I am not rejecting faith or belief or truth--I have simply changed in such a way that the symbols of my youth no longer work for me. I need to find the symbols that work for me and not attempt to fit my truth to those symbols because that does a disservice to all--the proverbial fitting a round peg into a square hole (there is nothing wrong with the peg, and there is nothing wrong with a hole, they just don’t go together). I wish that my family could understand that distinction; still, there is a comfort for me in the understanding.
What this made in my brain was an "aha" moment. When I grew older and changed for a variety of reasons, I walked away from the religion that I was raised. This hurt my family as they feel that I have a) rejected them in some way, and/or b) that I have no faith/belief. But the truth I realized today is that in rejecting my religious upbringing--I am not rejecting faith or belief or truth--I have simply changed in such a way that the symbols of my youth no longer work for me. I need to find the symbols that work for me and not attempt to fit my truth to those symbols because that does a disservice to all--the proverbial fitting a round peg into a square hole (there is nothing wrong with the peg, and there is nothing wrong with a hole, they just don’t go together). I wish that my family could understand that distinction; still, there is a comfort for me in the understanding.
Sunday, September 05, 2004
"Come to the edge, Life said. They said: We are afraid. Come to the edge, Life said. They came. It pushed them...and they FLEW."
-Guillaume Apollinaire 1870-1918
"I'll teach you how to jump on the wind's back, and then away we go."
-Peter Pan
"Life is either a daring adventure or nothing at all."
-Helen Keller
"In a world in which we are all slaves to the laws of gravity, I'm proud to be counted as one of them freedom fighters. Skydive!"
-Unknown
"If riding in an airplane is flying, then riding in a boat is swimming. If you want to experience the element, then get out of the vehicle."
-Unknown
-Guillaume Apollinaire 1870-1918
"I'll teach you how to jump on the wind's back, and then away we go."
-Peter Pan
"Life is either a daring adventure or nothing at all."
-Helen Keller
"In a world in which we are all slaves to the laws of gravity, I'm proud to be counted as one of them freedom fighters. Skydive!"
-Unknown
"If riding in an airplane is flying, then riding in a boat is swimming. If you want to experience the element, then get out of the vehicle."
-Unknown
Thursday, September 02, 2004
"And once you have tasted flight, you will walk the earth with your eyes turned skyward, for there you have been and there you long to return." --unknown
At different places in our lives we take a step that moves us outside the boundaries of our ordinary life--and we stretch. Like a snake, we grow, and with the growth we lose something as well--illusions, misconceptions, sometimes even small bits of freedom. I have had, as has everyone, moments of stretching as well.
The first was when I went to Africa at 18. I was young, sheltered, and naive. I went thinking I would look at the people I encountered with pity and perhaps give them some small measure of hope. Instead I discarded those misconceptions rather quickly as I found a world categorically different, yet full of people I respected and learned from. I learned that the world was much bigger than I could ever imagine; even more importantly, I learned that "different" is not a synonym for lesser.
When my son was born and sick for so long, I learned a lot about life and death and I stretched again. I perhaps paid a dearer price for that growth--I paid out in belief and securities but was repaid with an acceptance of death as a process of life. I learned that someone walking and breathing wasn't necessarily living and that death isn't necessarily a thief.
Much of my seperation from my husband was negative: negative acts and negative words that couldn't be taken back. Despite the high cost, this was also a time when I stepped off the wide, worn path my life had gone on and discovered a powerful word--choice. I learned that everything in life is a choice (not always in what happens, but always in how I react)--whether concious or otherwise, life is a choice; and whatever paths my life would go on from then on, would be by my own choice. Big stretch!
What does any of this have to do with flight--or skydiving? Looking at the sky while walking to class tonight, I thought of this quote and I had the same sense of having stretched once more. I needed this reminder. Life is bigger than my immediate surroundings I had learned from Africa--certainly the sky is bigger than the ground around me! Living fully is more important than fearing death, I had learned from Michael--embrace life...or the open sky, LOL! And I had learned that life is a choice...LIFE is a choice...so is going to the edge of a plane door and diving out of it (although with a very large Australian jump master strapped to your back, the choice is perhaps questionable at that last moment ;)) "I will never see the sky, the same way..."sings Vanessa Carlton, and I never will because it will be a unending reminder to live fully.
PS-And yes, Ralph, I know I am the worlds largest corndog, LOL!
At different places in our lives we take a step that moves us outside the boundaries of our ordinary life--and we stretch. Like a snake, we grow, and with the growth we lose something as well--illusions, misconceptions, sometimes even small bits of freedom. I have had, as has everyone, moments of stretching as well.
The first was when I went to Africa at 18. I was young, sheltered, and naive. I went thinking I would look at the people I encountered with pity and perhaps give them some small measure of hope. Instead I discarded those misconceptions rather quickly as I found a world categorically different, yet full of people I respected and learned from. I learned that the world was much bigger than I could ever imagine; even more importantly, I learned that "different" is not a synonym for lesser.
When my son was born and sick for so long, I learned a lot about life and death and I stretched again. I perhaps paid a dearer price for that growth--I paid out in belief and securities but was repaid with an acceptance of death as a process of life. I learned that someone walking and breathing wasn't necessarily living and that death isn't necessarily a thief.
Much of my seperation from my husband was negative: negative acts and negative words that couldn't be taken back. Despite the high cost, this was also a time when I stepped off the wide, worn path my life had gone on and discovered a powerful word--choice. I learned that everything in life is a choice (not always in what happens, but always in how I react)--whether concious or otherwise, life is a choice; and whatever paths my life would go on from then on, would be by my own choice. Big stretch!
What does any of this have to do with flight--or skydiving? Looking at the sky while walking to class tonight, I thought of this quote and I had the same sense of having stretched once more. I needed this reminder. Life is bigger than my immediate surroundings I had learned from Africa--certainly the sky is bigger than the ground around me! Living fully is more important than fearing death, I had learned from Michael--embrace life...or the open sky, LOL! And I had learned that life is a choice...LIFE is a choice...so is going to the edge of a plane door and diving out of it (although with a very large Australian jump master strapped to your back, the choice is perhaps questionable at that last moment ;)) "I will never see the sky, the same way..."sings Vanessa Carlton, and I never will because it will be a unending reminder to live fully.
PS-And yes, Ralph, I know I am the worlds largest corndog, LOL!
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