Searching

At the monthly Praying Without Words online session in June we reflected on these words that our friend Malcolm shared, written by the 14th century female Kashmiri mystic, Lalla

Don’t flail about like a man wearing a blindfold.

Believe me, He’s in here.

Come in and see for yourself.

You’ll stop hunting for Him all over.

During the session our friend Joy Tobler wrote these words in response and shared them with us:

SEARCHING

Lord, I’m flailing, stumbling –

not like a blind man

but as one in swirling fog:

catching glimpses of beauty,

of truth, of love, of You;

but having that glimpse snatched away,

masked again by the fog –

and I wonder, did I really see that

or was it some mirage?

Why are You so ethereal,

so ungraspable, always playing

Hide and Seek?

You hide, and I seek but never find.

Is that really how the game should end?

Shouldn’t I find and catch and keep You?

You say to stop, be still and I will find.

But I don’t! You remain hidden, shrouded

in Your omni-everything cloak, and my pain.

You say, Look inside yourself.

But my inner being is so small, so shrivelled,

how can it contain You?

Just as for Me a thousand years are as a day,

so the magnitude of My essence can be distilled

into a drop of grace small enough to fill

the little hollow of your soul exactly.

Let the moisture of My Spirit water

the seeds dormant in your soul

to bring forth the beauty and fragrance

of the flowers of My Presence deep within you,

and rejoice in My Being, with you.