Benefits of a Low Place

I’m in a low place
From here I can’t see the big picture
But I can smell the dust in the air
And count the pennies on the floor
From here I don’t know anything
And that relieves me of planning ahead

It used to be scary for me to plunge so low.
I would immediately try to get out of the situation
By any means available to me
I would flutter around and bat my wings, hoping for lift-off
I would thrash my tail wildly back and forth
Hoping to agitate my way out of the mess
I would make decisions and intentions
Hoping the tension would incisively cut through my difficulty
But you know, my difficulty was very simple:
I didn’t like low places.
I judged them wrong.

And so every time life
Took me for a little dip,
I drowned in sorrow.

Now I don’t mind the low places.
I enjoy the view from here.
I can’t see over the horizon
But I can smell the wildflowers on the hillside

I feel happy that I can stop driving for a while
I can just let myself be led
And let life show me that the answers to my questions
are not all that urgent
And that I won’t lose anything that really belongs to me.

So I, a lover of truth, can truthfully say that
I am willing to lose those things that are born of illusion.
Even those illusions dearly beloved to me
And most difficult to give up.
Because the gap created in my being by this disillusionment
That gap, is small and dark and empty, a chasm
And it grows more empty, more hollow every day
And one day hollow turns holy
And holy turns whole.


So who am I to complain about

small
dark
places?