Mark Dohle

Life's language

March 30, 2010 |  10 comments
Image Credit: stockxpert Life is either about something greater than we can comprehend at this point in our existence or it really not much at all. It does not take away from personal meaning if life itself is meaningless, for family, friends, career and other life enriching events can at least make life pleasant and enjoyable…. if not too much thought is given to what that actually means. Perhaps too much thought about life and meaning is in the end not a healthy thing to do. Yet human beings are for the most part incorrigible in this regard, due to the fact that finding some kind of center to life is necessary and absolute. Even if at times it is sought in ways that are not always clear to the seeker, but drives them nonetheless.

I think that in my own life I spend an awful lot of time ‘seeking’ this center in things that in the end do not hold. Finitude cannot fill the void that seeks infinity. I dance around that inner calling and attraction and there are times when I don’t understand why. It is like being filled with thirst, yet unwilling to drink from the pure spring and going after Coca Cola instead, in the end the thirst remains, after a quick burst of pleasure that is ephemeral.

There is a language that life speaks. How we read it is in the end what brings us either closer to the center, or to a life of fragmentation and hollowness. There are lots of outward voices telling us how to live, what is important and how to spend our time. Often following consensus reality leads many to a dead end, since it can block off the whispering of the center that seeks to respond to the Presence that dwells within. Perhaps it is fear that keeps the inner door locked. Wanting to fit in is important, but how far do we want to do that? Lots of people say they are free thinkers, yet in the end most come across like sound bites, are they any freer than those of us who look to deepen our inner lives by seeking that which can only slacken our thirst?

Moments are fleeting, as are days, weeks, months and years. Knowing this can be the key to overcoming the resistance, to allow that ‘silence’, often interrupted as either boredom or nothingness, to do its work in our souls. There is richness in each moment for we are called to respond to simply what is before us, no matter what it is. To not flinch or run away, which is something that our consumer based economy wants us to do. Finding more and more ways to fill every moment of everyday so, that what is deeper cannot rise. If we are here for a reason what is it? What does our death mean? Each has to answer that for themselves. I guess also that the answer will change for many as they mature and grow, though opposite roads can be chosen.

Our rootedness is found in that void that many dance around. What calls us all is not just “God”, for that name is overused and abused and more often than not an idol or simple projection. For some believers, God is Santa Claus, and when that idol falls, the contract not kept by ‘God’, then instead of allowing for the childish idol to be dashed upon the ground, they simply give up the journey into infinity. I am not judging, for there is great suffering involved in life and it would be certainly more pleasant if we were protected from the ups and downs and absolute hells that can be a part of our existence. Perhaps in order for faith to deepen patience is needed, simple waiting. Though at times I would like to settle for some really simple rational answer, which is impossible most likely.

For the Christian, the Word, or Christ is the way to seek to understand life and what it is about. In Christ, God emptied himself and dived full bodied into our human experience with all of its joys and sufferings. Perhaps each religion does this, gives tools to help us make sense of our lives and what they are about. Christ endured our pain and loneliness and also for many of us our painful and isolated deaths. “My God, My God, why have you forsaken me”, is something that I think most will learn to understand as they journey through life. Suffering is not taken away, but we are journeyed with and loved. This is not pie in the sky, it is reality. Our lives have meaning, love causes suffering, and our lives are often filled with darkness and loneliness, yet in all of these God tabernacles with us. There is no escape from this, for Christ goes before us and we follow.

Faith is something lived, not just something that is believed. If it is not our skin, part of our blood then it is just an abstract set of rules and regulations that we follow, that in the end lead nowhere. For God is not any of the idols we profess to believe in, nor can we understand what ultimately this life is all about.

Now many people want to say that they have the ‘truth’. They can be believers or atheist, but I think that a bit of agnosticism and not-knowing would go a long way for us to learn to listen to each other a bit and not be so quick to stereotype each other. I think however we are a long way from learning that lesson. In fact I expect to be stereotyped and I am seldom disappointed. Yes, I suppose, or I know that I do it to, it is just so human.

So we dance

The call within never quells,
nor is our rootedness
found until we sink into the void;

unknowing is the path to infinite knowledge
for without being is that which we seek,

barriers high keep us restless,
numbness inclines us to sleep,
losing ourselves in useless meanderings
that in the end leads us deeper into despair.

Faster and faster our pace increases
until exhausted,
collapsing,
perhaps we surrender,
sinking into the unknown
that is eternally knowable.

Life is a series of why’s
not answered,
yet the heart knows of reason
unknown to the mind.

Our thirst,
what drives us
is love.[!gad]Life is either about something greater than we can comprehend at this point in our existence or it really not much at all. It does not take away from personal meaning if life itself is meaningless, for family, friends, career and other life enriching events can at least make life pleasant and enjoyable…. if not too much thought is given to what that actually means. Perhaps too much thought about life and meaning is in the end not a healthy thing to do. Yet human beings are for the most part incorrigible in this regard, due to the fact that finding some kind of center to life is necessary and absolute. Even if at times it is sought in ways that are not always clear to the seeker, but drives them nonetheless.

I think that in my own life I spend an awful lot of time ‘seeking’ this center in things that in the end do not hold. Finitude cannot fill the void that seeks infinity. I dance around that inner calling and attraction and there are times when I don’t understand why. It is like being filled with thirst, yet unwilling to drink from the pure spring and going after Coca Cola instead, in the end the thirst remains, after a quick burst of pleasure that is ephemeral.

There is a language that life speaks. How we read it is in the end what brings us either closer to the center, or to a life of fragmentation and hollowness. There are lots of outward voices telling us how to live, what is important and how to spend our time. Often following consensus reality leads many to a dead end, since it can block off the whispering of the center that seeks to respond to the Presence that dwells within. Perhaps it is fear that keeps the inner door locked. Wanting to fit in is important, but how far do we want to do that? Lots of people say they are free thinkers, yet in the end most come across like sound bites, are they any freer than those of us who look to deepen our inner lives by seeking that which can only slacken our thirst?

Moments are fleeting, as are days, weeks, months and years. Knowing this can be the key to overcoming the resistance, to allow that ‘silence’, often interrupted as either boredom or nothingness, to do its work in our souls. There is richness in each moment for we are called to respond to simply what is before us, no matter what it is. To not flinch or run away, which is something that our consumer based economy wants us to do. Finding more and more ways to fill every moment of everyday so, that what is deeper cannot rise. If we are here for a reason what is it? What does our death mean? Each has to answer that for themselves. I guess also that the answer will change for many as they mature and grow, though opposite roads can be chosen.

Our rootedness is found in that void that many dance around. What calls us all is not just “God”, for that name is overused and abused and more often than not an idol or simple projection. For some believers, God is Santa Claus, and when that idol falls, the contract not kept by ‘God’, then instead of allowing for the childish idol to be dashed upon the ground, they simply give up the journey into infinity. I am not judging, for there is great suffering involved in life and it would be certainly more pleasant if we were protected from the ups and downs and absolute hells that can be a part of our existence. Perhaps in order for faith to deepen patience is needed, simple waiting. Though at times I would like to settle for some really simple rational answer, which is impossible most likely.

For the Christian, the Word, or Christ is the way to seek to understand life and what it is about. In Christ, God emptied himself and dived full bodied into our human experience with all of its joys and sufferings. Perhaps each religion does this, gives tools to help us make sense of our lives and what they are about. Christ endured our pain and loneliness and also for many of us our painful and isolated deaths. “My God, My God, why have you forsaken me”, is something that I think most will learn to understand as they journey through life. Suffering is not taken away, but we are journeyed with and loved. This is not pie in the sky, it is reality. Our lives have meaning, love causes suffering, and our lives are often filled with darkness and loneliness, yet in all of these God tabernacles with us. There is no escape from this, for Christ goes before us and we follow.

Faith is something lived, not just something that is believed. If it is not our skin, part of our blood then it is just an abstract set of rules and regulations that we follow, that in the end lead nowhere. For God is not any of the idols we profess to believe in, nor can we understand what ultimately this life is all about.

Now many people want to say that they have the ‘truth’. They can be believers or atheist, but I think that a bit of agnosticism and not-knowing would go a long way for us to learn to listen to each other a bit and not be so quick to stereotype each other. I think however we are a long way from learning that lesson. In fact I expect to be stereotyped and I am seldom disappointed. Yes, I suppose, or I know that I do it to, it is just so human.

So we dance

The call within never quells,
nor is our rootedness
found until we sink into the void;

unknowing is the path to infinite knowledge
for without being is that which we seek,

barriers high keep us restless,
numbness inclines us to sleep,
losing ourselves in useless meanderings
that in the end leads us deeper into despair.

Faster and faster our pace increases
until exhausted,
collapsing,
perhaps we surrender,
sinking into the unknown
that is eternally knowable.

Life is a series of why’s
not answered,
yet the heart knows of reason
unknown to the mind.

Our thirst,
what drives us
is love. Comments (10)

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