Hymn for Diversity & Spirituality

new to the ways of this new world we wander

past unfamiliar landmarks, across shifting geometries and climatic change

we are entering a land where our compasses have no meaning

where our customary ways of seeing block the vision of the map within

and the map within contains the promise of an unimagined treasure

a stockpile of  jewels of intricate shape and unimaginable brightness

beneath this mine of jewels, the scent of heavenly ambrosia, delicate and strange

fills the atmosphere with intoxicating sweetness

sweetness that proclaims the sustaining nourishment of the spirit alone

to navigate across this new world we use our inner senses

we have learned that our physical senses are untrustworthy

they are unreliable and must be purified

they are burdened with histories, tribal allegiances, primitive loyalties

they are inadequate to the demands of this new world

to navigate across this new world we must invent another language

the word-symbols we are used to manipulating

fail to express or make coherent

the new realities we are hearing and seeing

or the scepters, visible and real,

which hold the lanterns that illuminate our path

and encourage us to rely upon

our own blind eyes that somehow see

our own deaf ears that somehow hear

to navigate across this new world we must wander humbly

the map within reveals our connections

it reveals the network

the crucible of our as yet undiscovered meaning

we are propelled forward by an inward urging

that causes us to reject or push aside

the fixed lenses of our individualities

which blind us and propel us backwards

back to the prison of previous days

we are propelled forward by an inward urging

we hear a hymn inside us of intoxicating sweetness

a hymn untold pilgrims before us have surely heard

a hymn that proclaims the promise

of a world without a beginning

a world without an end.