Edges

There are so many edges in life: actual edges to things, an edge in our voices when we are frustrated or upset; the edges we create between ourselves and others. The seeming edge between us and the out there, the not of this world, however you want to name it. 
And, yet....

The idea that we are separate from the universe is expressed in this meditation image from my book, Opening the Heart: Meditations on How to Be. This idea of there being something between us and creation, the world, produces the idea that we have an edge between us and others as well. We seem to think, probably not unreasonably, that we stop at our skin. Everything outside our skin is otherness. But, is this true in all things? Is it true in all ways, all times?


The companion meditation in my book is this one. If, as science says, atoms are mostly empty space, then despite what we perceive on the macro-cosmic level, we are not as solid as we seem. Things flow through us. Does this make us connected to everyone and everything? Does this mean that there is truly no otherness? I do, at times, get a little weirded out by this. Oh, my as George Takei might say in that drawn out way that he has of saying it. 

So, what do I do with this seeming duality, this dichotomy of life? Some people have emotions that I don't want floating through me, let alone taking up residence in my being. I try to regularly cleanse these unwanted, unneeded emotions out and away from me. I try to have appropriate boundaries so that someone doesn't take over my life. I also, however, attempt to be open to the miracle of being connected, being at one with the universe.

I wrote two poems on this subject: 


What Keeps the Universe Out?


We do not see or feel
all of the Universe in
ordinary time, ordinary living.
Somehow we create veils,
filters to live in the everyday.
We ignore the signals, the clues
that the Universe exists within
each of us.

Is it our skin that does this?

Is it our minds instead? 

© 2018 Kathryn L. Samuelson


The Universe Flows Through

Here is a spooky thought:
the Universe flows through
each of us, connects each
of us to everyone, everything else.
Nothing keeps the Universe out. It lives
and breathes in us and with us
at every second of existence. 


© 2018 Kathryn L. Samuelson


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The first photograph is by Martin Adams, and I found it on unsplash.com. The other two are from my book.

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