Towards the Light, Towards Love
by Diane Lundegaard, Dix Hills, NY
Still holding her iPad Susan leaned back into her chair and stared out the window. After a few moments of resting her eyes on a mid-winter’s afternoon view of white puffy clouds drifting across a soothing blue sky, she returned her attention to the article she had just read. She bookmarked it and saved it as a favorite. The article, written by Marianne Williamson, suggested a new way of considering Jesus which touched Susan deeply. The author, well known for her books on spiritually, suggested answers to questions that weighed heavily on Susan’s heart for many years. Susan, like Marianne, had been searching for a more spiritually evolved interpretation of Jesus, one that would offer more connection to the present day and age, to her present state of mind and heart.
While seated at the window Susan couldn’t help but hear the late afternoon call of the crows. The day would soon be ending and before it did the birds summoned one another to gather for their nightly communal treetop roost. She knew then that there would be just enough time before the sun set for her to benefit from a walking meditation. She liked to meditate while ambling through the nature preserve located close to her home. While doing so she would better consider the need for a progressive spirituality which had been put forth in the article. After getting up from her chair she headed for the kitchen, went in and reached into one of the cabinets. She took out a container of bird seed and a small package of unhusked sunflower seeds. The latter were for the chickadees who occasionally took them from her hand. Susan then entered the foyer where she put on her coat. She slipped the seeds into one of the coat’s pockets. Before leaving the house, she gathered her long wavy brown hair into a loose knot and then went on her way.
Susan’s walking meditation took her through a tract of the Oak Brush Plains which bordered her home. For Susan, this area, also known as the pine barrens, offered her, with its simple prairie grasses, scrub oak trees and thick barked pitch pines an escape from the stress of contemporary life. Here, among the comforting sights and sounds of nature she could contemplate the value of an alternative to religious dogma without, as put by the article’s author, turning away from God.
While she considered the concept of Jesus belonging to everyone and to no particular religion, twilight flooded the barrens. Rich bands of velvety red, violet and golden light transformed the forest in such a way that here and there one might imagine they were gazing upon a heavenly theme depicted on the stained-glass windows of a church. As she watched the sky deepen in its color Susan thought about what the possibility of thinking of Jesus in this new mystic way might mean for mankind, for the earth, for the whole of the universe. Such a concept would open a way towards a spirituality free of dogma that would offer a loving connection to people from all walks of life.
As she stood between the pine trees and scrub oaks with bird seed falling from her fingers, and her feet resting on the soft sandy ground, a cardinal’s red feathers fluttered him out from a heavy branch of an overhead scrub oak. The hungry bird pecked eagerly through the dried oak leaves lying beneath the tree. Next came the blue jays, then the sparrows. Without her realizing it, the sound of their chirping, twittering and the soft whirr of their wings carried her away from the complexity of her thoughts. She paused for a moment and while remaining still watched them as they went about their lives. She felt a certain peace come over her, it was as if they had brought with them a message intended for her heart rather than her mind and which filled her with an understanding that could not, nor need not be communicated in any other fashion. On her return home it came to her that it was really all so very simple and natural. The Mystic Jesus ran deeper and fuller than the words, deeper and fuller than the ideas that had helped delivered her.
Diane Lundegaard is a freelance writer with a special interest in mental and spiritual healing.
