Friday, July 27, 2018

"HERE HERE!!"




Hi There !

So, being thoroughly

exasperated,

have you ever groused,

"I still haven't found

what I'm looking for,"

to only find that

the hat

you were looking for

was right there

on your head

the whole time?


  I sure have.



In a wider sense,

I too often look

out there

for what is actually

right here,

       but I'm not !!

I go round and round

to nowhere.

My theme song is

the classic lament of U-2,

   "I Still Haven't Found

    What I'm Looking For."



For years I counseled

a psychotherapist.

He changed

one persona,

one purpose in life,

one project,

one cause,

one spirituality,

one lover,

to another,

to another.

It was like trying on

one ill fitting suit

after another

in hopes of finding

one that would

 "be him,"

that would fit

and feel just right

when in fact

he wasn't

at all comfortable

in his own skin

in his right here

and right now.

He, too, was part of

the chorus lamenting

  " I Still Haven't Found

    What I'm Looking For."



More and more I realize that

we all get drawn off center

         by incessant

       "Looking For"

completion, perfection

out there somewhere

completely overlooking

that they are

right here right now

at our Center.



It all started

at our start up.

The story of

Adam and Eve

tells the tale.

Pride snaked

into their spirits

with the tempting lie

of independence

and omnipotence.

They were  blinded

 to the fruits

and fullness

of Paradise

right there

where they were.

They lost their Center

and cascaded into chaos.

Pain for an out there

that doesn't exist

replaced Paradise

right where they were

right at their Center.



There's a family resemblance.

Like them,

we too are seduced into

         "Looking For"

           more and all

out there somewhere in nowhere.

We lose balance,

spin into endless seeking

for what isn't out there,

but now we are

in the maddening wasteland of

           nowhere
                !!

"Independence"

becomes isolation.

"Omnipotence"

 becomes flaccid impotence.



It is critical to get our bearings.

We originate in

The Creative Love Energy

that is God.

Our existence,

our very being,

is centered there.

It is an ever expanding,

centrifugal experience

      of goodness,

             of

         Godness.

As Bonaventure says,

  " God's center is everywhere

    and perimeter is nowhere."

We get in on that.

 "Going  it alone"

 (so called "independence"),

     "Looking For"

     more and better

out there somewhere in the nowhere

(so called "omnipotence"),

dislocates all but our basic existence,

dislocates, de-harmonizes,

defiles us so  much

that we need to cover it over

with our own style of fig leaves.

Off True Center,

we spin out into

embarrassed absurdity.



As bad as that is,

it gets" bettered,"

bettered up on a hill

at the cross road of history.

There on a cross

Jesus didn't have a fig leaf,

just naked love stretching

to gather us back into our

        True Center.

So bettered, so Centered,

              we

     "find ourselves,"

and all else we are

      "Looking For"

right where we already are,

         Centered

  in our here and now.

    Buddha tells us to

         "wake up"

       to being here.

      Jesus rights us,

         centers us:

   "The kingdom of heaven

           is within you."

                    Luke 17: 20-21

    "...the spring within you will

       well up unto eternal life."

                             John 4:14

            True Center

      is not out there nowhere.

      It is right here, right now.



Put a whole other way,

we can only be at home

          at home,

centered in just that,

              our

    Center and Source

our right here and now.

There we experience

unending, creative expansion.

Relaxed and right at home

in our True Center,

we see what is in plain sight

        in our here,

    and all our "nows"

    as they "now forth."

       We break out,

     not in a lament,

but with an anthem of joy:

  "I Finally Have Been Found

   By What I Was Looking For."

Answers to life questions and quests

         show up right here,

   not out there where we aren't,

             nor are they.

        That's the kind of

           "Looking For"

that sees, finds, is enlightened.


So, "Here's to here!"

and free fall into it -

a life of participation,

right here right now,

       centered in

The Center and Source,

in primal communion,
 
      "BE"-coming,

    ever evolving forth,

rather than trying to straddle

       the gap between

      Now and Only If

              and

     getting spaced out

          Nowhere.
 
     "Here's to Here!"

centered,

   never settled,

        spiraling forward

             n ever expanding

                             Oneness.




        As The Brits say,

        toasting the good,

             
       " HERE HERE!!"

See you next week.

Holding on and all in

God's Dear Love,

      John Frank

         *****


Sincere and generous thanks

to all who have shared

"frankly speaking"

with family, friends, associates.

                *****



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                  Welcome !!


                    *****