Creation’s Story

Before the beginning –the beginning of everything – of anything
long before the dinosaurs
and the teaming microbes
before the simplest virus
- before matter itself existed -
- before time and before space
There was – there is – there always will be…GOD:
Being;
Intelligence;
Creativity;
Activity;
that which or whom is Wholly Other:
- GOD -
Spoke, thought, dreamed, and schemed.

And there was light – a brilliant burst
as matter exploded into being
Surging outward at incredible speed
hot and bright.
The cosmos was born.
planets took shape as infernos cooled;
stars glowed
– detonated –
with the light of the primal energy.
And God smiled.
God smiled as the universe sped onward
– away from its genesis
and outward towards its own revelation as spatial existence without boundary.

And in the midst of the light and the heat of the fission and fusion,
the swirling electrons and the darting quarks,
In the midst of the rush of the speed and the roar of the cosmic vacuum
the elements began to long for an ear to hear them,
and an eye to see them -
began to long for a lover's caress and attentions;
Matter cried out for sentience to recognize and fondle it.
And God heard.
God heard and felt matter’s cry.
God kissed creation – breathed passionately upon and throughout it
and matter began organizing itself in new and various ways:
Crystalline structures, permeable membranes, amino acids,
repeatable patterns – appeared in the waters.

And somehow, somewhere, someway – long before history began
Life appeared:
Non-being was mutated.
Being was incarnated into matter.
And geological processes became biological creatures.
And God laughed.
God laughed with delight
to watch, and hear, and smell, and taste and touch as
Viruses reduplicated themselves.
Single cells split in two.
And the two became four.
the four became eight.
and the eight were fruitful and multiplied upon the earth
and within the seas, and throughout the air.
Life established itself, growing exponentially
with the birth of each new generation.
Amoebas and chinchillas, lentils and ladybugs, coral and sparrow, fungus and virus –
Each in its own place and time
and following the appropriate antecedent rhyme.
And God whispered.
God whispered in every cell, in every atom, in every particle and charge,
"I love you."

And the many ears and eyes, noses and tongues - the manifold skins of the universe
strain continually to hear that voice calling out to them
– strain to hear their lover's refrain.
And some there are in every age
who claim to have heard it –
the very voice of God.
And these ones have woven their stories
around and through their experiences.
They are the ones who find in the world, in existence, mystery and passion, joy mixed with pain
It is they who have found the courage and the reason to celebrate
– to celebrate life.
Prophets and poets, sages and teachers, scientists and scholars, philosophers and theologians
People - all of them
attempting to describe what they see and feel and touch and taste.
seeking to express existence through words
to capture the world in bucket…that's full of holes.
Forgetting that being will always escape us
before we can grasp it.
Yet gaining and giving – if only for a fleeting second – a glimpse of Being Itself
– a glimpse of God.
They marvel in wonder at the beauty and intricacy
of the material universe
and in the terrors and triumphs
Of existence.
And God said.

God said, "It is good. It is very, very good."

TTS

Playing with Parables

Four Acorns

There were once four acorns. They were all friends, for they had grown up together on the same branch of a mighty old oak tree – an oak tree that had stood solidly at the edge of a farm field for more than a century. The old oak was a wonderful place for acorns to develop and the four acorns loved their home there. However, one day, everything changed. The four acorns all dropped to the ground when a squirrel nibbled off the branch that had been holding held them up. Down, down they fell. Upon hitting the ground, their adventure continued, for the four acorns separated from the branch and from one another, each settling in different places.

The first acorn happened to roll into the middle of the path at the edge of the field where he was totally exposed and visible. It didn’t take the squirrel that had nibbled off the branch in the first place long to see the first acorn, to descend the tree, and to devour him.

The second acorn landed in a much different place. She bounced onto a rock pile and rolled down inside it. Within the pile she was safe from the squirrel and other animals that might wish to eat her. But sadly, she was lodged in a place where she got no sun, no water, and no dirt. Although she sprouted and tried to grow the following spring, she found it impossible to do so, and she dried up and died.

The third acorn fared a little better. He rolled into a thorny thicket. There, he, like the second acorn, found protection from the squirrel and other animals who would have loved to eat him. Shaded from the direct sun, the third acorn eventually sprouted and grew into a little oak tree – quickly at first. Yet, the thicket was so dense and thick – so full of others who were vying for the same water, the same nutrients, and the same sun, that the spindly little oak tree soon became stunted and overcome by the competing vegetation. He, too, died.

The fourth acorn landed in the tall grass near the base of the oak tree. She found some protection there; some moisture there; and some sun there – until the squirrel found her and carried her away, burying her in the fertile ground at the far corner of the field. There the fourth acorn remained for the winter. The squirrel never returned for her, for the farmer who owned the field had shot the squirrel and enjoyed a pot of squirrel stew on a cool autumn evening. Left alone in the moist fertile soil, the fourth acorn sprouted in the spring, and grew and grew and grew and grew. Years came and went, and the acorn was transformed into a new landmark at the edge of the field – a landmark enjoyed by the farmer’s son and even by the farmer's granddaughter, both of whom continued to till the good soil of the adjacent field for many years. And the mighty oak tree, which the fourth acorn had become, bore thousands upon thousands of new acorns throughout the many years of her long life – some of which fell and sprouted, some of which fell and were eaten, and some of which fell and died, for such is the circle of life.

T.T.S.

Origins

This is my initial blog. It's not so much about me as about my learning how to express myself in a new fashion. Will I find the blogosphere enjoyable? As always, I will only know with the passage of time. Life remains a journey.