Day Shift — The World I Live In
"Only if there are angels in your head will you ever, possibly, see one."
I'd like to read you a poem by Mary Oliver, who was a great protector and reporter from the natural world. She spent a lot of time walking in the woods.
This is called:
The World I Live In
I have refused to live
locked in the orderly house of
reasons and proofs.
The world I live in and believe in
is wider than that. And anyway,
what’s wrong with Maybe?
You wouldn’t believe what once or
twice I have seen. I’ll just
tell you this:
only if there are angels in your head will you
ever, possibly, see one.
It's almost a shame to comment after reading that. It kind of says it all. The point for me is that we spend so much time in our thinking and asking ourselves —What's wrong with me? Why am I unhappy? Why did I do that thing? Why didn't I do that other thing? Why wasn't I born at a different time, to different people, as a different person? — always looking for what's wrong, for all sorts of of reasons that we could explain scientifically, but the point is: as I look at the world through my negative thinking, what I build is a negative experience of life.
What I build is an experience of life based on everything that's happened before, never open to the new. What meditation, what spiritual work, offers me, is a way by which to step out of my thinking and into the present moment with the expectation of the new, with the expectation of the divine.
Because only if we're looking for the divine in our world will we ever possibly see it.
Today I will expect the world to offer me opportunities to live, to love, to create, to fly. And I will assume that I am exactly the right person, in this moment, to accomplish what nature would want to have accomplished in this moment.
Thanks so much for listening. Have a beautiful day.
Jeff Kober is an accomplished actor, photographer and vedic meditation teacher. He has had regular roles in notable series like The Walking Dead, Sons of Anarchy, and NCIS: Los Angeles, and has appeared in numerous films including Sully and Beauty Mark. Kober is also a writer and artist, and has previously penned screenplays and co-authored the book Art That Pays.
