What is
The Secret of Living?
Many people have pondered
This question;
Philosophers, scholars, intellectuals, scientists
Miracle-mongers, mendicants
Men and women
Kings, saints, and skeptics
Lately politicians.
Many would tell you (the capitalistic, business-tycoon type), it is Money
Power, prestige, position –
But of course you are sensible enough to know that that is not true.
Some would say (let’s call them the practical, punctilious public), a good job, a decent salary, a comfortable home, a car, a family, neighborliness, cable TV?
But you are not so simplistically materialistic as to settle for just that.
And still there are those
Who say…Love
And warmth, and feeling,
Hugs, happiness, companionship
A mother, a father, a husband, babies!
And I would quite readily with them…had I not
Discovered,
A truer truth
A realer reality
A deeper Magic.

It comes upon you,
Unawares at first
And you may, in the beginning,
Ignore it
(Which we all tend to do);
A chance meeting, a chance smile
A random rainstorm
A serendipitous new star
A letter, unexpected, a gift
A four-leaf clover, a pot of gold (cookies?), a fortuitous victory
A sudden sunrise of Hope
And they say to you, Oh, how lucky!
What a marvelous coincidence!
Now isn’t that odd!
etc

But I do not understand this,
This Luck, this evasive, unpredictable
Unreliable creature called Chance
She is too capricious, erratic
One day my most providential ally, the next
A shameless deserter
I do not know her…
But I do know Him.

I do not know Him by any name
Or any word
(for words are rather inhibiting,
and altogether an inadequate means of expression,
you must admit) –
but a feeling, a being
An indefinable Power
An all-pervasive Force…
I, I cannot quite explain
I do not think I ever can –
My pen splits whenever I try.

I see Him.
I see Him everywhere – particularly on
Stormy thunder-nights
When great bolts of lightening fall from the sky
Like godly scepters.
I love lightening.
And on calm, clear nights as well;
Stars strewn across the deep silken sky,
Like beacons of fire
Lanterns, sentries

Somewhere, millions of years away
A celestial battle is being fought…

I see Him everyday.
He may speak to me today, as a willowy Neem tree
He may whisper dreams in my ear, a sweet wandering wind
I may achieve something today – I may be commended, admired – and I will know it is His doing
He may smile on me from above, glorious bright sun, and my Spirit will cheer and laugh, dance and soar
He does many things, a great many things, an innumerable amount of wonderful things
Miracles, I like to call them
None too little,
To not celebrate

But there is one thing He does
One very special thing
One thing that makes your life so beautiful
Every moment so utterly delicious
So nearly perfect
That you are convinced, This must be what Heaven feels like
And that is this –

He brings into your life a person
A person, who, to look at, you would think,
Is just an ordinary person
You look at his face, his hair, his clothes maybe
You hear him talk
You may meet him, shake hands, say hello
And it’s all quite normal, really, until
You look into his eyes

And then something happens
Poets have described it in several ways
An aching, a stirring, a fluttering, a melting, a leaping, a trembling
Perhaps a fainting
I will describe it simply as
A recognizing

“I know you, I have known you all my life
Since the day our souls were created, I have known you
I have known you, and we have loved
We have loved, by the seaside on moonlit nights
On mountain tops at sunrise, in rain and in spring
I have loved you, and you have loved me
And He made us from each other, so without you
I am incomplete
As are you without me
And He sent us down in bodies, and separated us
So that we may find each other
And become whole, once again
Until till He calls us back
And now, I have found you.”

Now, my love, my soul-twin, my missing-half-a-snowflake
I have found you
Was it Chance that I found you?
No, indeed, and here then is the Secret of Living –
Two simple words, but Magic words
The deepest Magic you will ever know
And He wrote them, right there, on your Heart;
Just blow away the dust a bit,
And you will see them appear
As clear as ever:
I Believe.