Dark Chambers

Sun 10.31.21

Life is a series of darkened chambers that one enters

at some personal risk, out of curiosity, boredom, a perverse desire

to tempt fate or, because life offers no other alternative. 

Once inside the darkened room there is a short period of inaction,

then hesitancy while one develops night vision. 

Shortly, one is able to decipher the outline of furnishings 

and impediments to movement.  The night is long, mysterious;

it offers an opportunity to reach beyond the confines of the familiar. 

One has earned the privilege to imagine, to create, and by doing so

the chamber becomes incandescent;

the reason it was important to enter the room,

and how life is richer because of this event become clear. 

In this lovely period of grace, one is able to speak poetically

of the experience and how it relates, on a larger scale,

to the human condition.  But to remain in that chamber

beyond the period of grace and illumination is unhealthy,

soon what was extraordinary appears common,

one loses passion, sensitivity, and the situation becomes deadly.

The favorite post this month has been the podcast, Luhrenloup’s Path