"Constant Awareness"

While reading Darkness, Questions, Poetry, and Spiritual Hope there were several statements and quotations that struck me. Overall, the essay was very well written. It did not bring up questions with answers but rather questions with more questions. Which brings me to my first quote by Lawrence Freeman; “We should make sure we have truly heard the question, before trying to get the answer right… Important questions create silence.” I really pondered that statement and discovered that I do not like these questions. We are such an immediate gratification generation that sitting with question, really pondering a question is not on very high demand. I noticed that when I read slower, and read in search of questions, I tend to connect with the text on more of a personal level. On the other hand, when I read for understanding and answers, it becomes harder to understand transitively less enjoyable. Next is a quote from Thomas Merton who calls us “to live in constant awareness” of darkness. As a child I was very naïve to the darkness around me, and thought that my parents had a perfect marriage, and the world would always be looking out for my best interest. Once that false reality became apparent to me I could not avoid this “constant awareness”. I then became very pessimistic and thought there was no good left in the world. Thankfully today, that is not the case. I notice more and more each day the inherent beauty of all things; this beauty that is in every plant, and animal, and noise, and thought. Darkness isn’t really darkness at all, merely the absence of light. So as long as there is darkness in the world, our purpose (in spreading the Gospel of Jesus Christ) is incomplete, but one day God’s promise (bring heaven to earth) will be complete and darkness will cease to exist. I kind of got off a tangent there, but this essay really taught me to slow down, and grasp each moment of beauty or darkness. It taught me, whether intended or not, to not expect answers to come so easily, and search for meaning for myself.