To rejoice without purpose in the darkness
To plunge beneath the earth and retrieve shades
To await the emergence of the light
from the bosom of night
To be astounded at each day’s rebirth
To love the piercing light
To be gladdened by the least leaf’s tremor
in the first breeze of dawn
To hear with kindred thrill the merry racket
of warbling summer songsters
To make your whole chest gape as a wide window
for all the sky’s swift traffic to flow through
To thank for the invention of all flowers
by scattering your life’s bouquet
To feel in your veins melt down the rigid
border between eternity and time
To sense future and past embrace in one fond kiss
in the keen breath of Now
To have your heart play host to a new fire
that frightens as it burns
and brightens as it yearns
To jolt at midnight pierced by another’s pain
To bear about the ocean in your heart
To hurl past loves into the Heart of God
To see all the world’s faces focus into One Face
To sit in empty silence and so await the fullness
To smile at nothing in particular
To work as if you played and pray as if you flew
To watch as if you slept and fast as if you ate
To know that you are I am you are I am we
To be as if you weren’t:
… a monk’s life.
A poem by Father Simeon.