Old Men

Walking this early morning. Birds singing. I imagined great men turning very old in rest homes - with their minds slow and often confused. Their worldly powers gone. Many just lost. A few shining with the light of love in their eyes. Oh! What a surrender, a giving up - being weak meek and older and dropping away worldly powers and fame. Nothing remaining except treasures stored in the soul. Most will be so poor - with lives spent in achievements. A few learned harmony and wisdom along the way: going into the light with the greatest letting go, in love. May I become so fortunate. True humble greatness.

Stars

Stars are openings of light in the night of life

I had a “girlfriend” in the first grade. She was an outcast like myself. She had golden hair, my hair was dark brown. She always looked dreamy and spaced out. Kids made fun of her. She carried a little book that began with a picture of a star. She said, “We came from there”. Looking back, I now feel that she knew something important.
Indeed, we do come from the stars. The elements that support life where not there at the beginning of the Universe; but had to be “cooked” in the vaults of earlier stars that created heavier elements such as carbon and oxygen. These stars exploded and later new stars came into being that already had these elements build upon. So we come from second, third, and perhaps fourth generation stars. We are star stuff.
We can’t be certain about what happened way back when it all began. The best we can come up is theory and poetry. So we say, “God created …” not really knowing what God is, because it is all beyond our deep understanding. Just go into deep silence and stillness several times a day, to feel for the source of all that is.