Welcome to my mind

It was one of those times when too many thoughts came bounding at me.
These thoughts did not know each other, or at least, I did not think they were related. Despite this, they were eager to energetically congregate there in my gray matter.
I felt rather lost, wishing that between my ears I might find a wee map with a small red dot and the words, ‘You are here.’
There was no map.
I began to move the thoughts around like jigsaw puzzle pieces hoping for a match-up somewhere.
The disjointed and unrelated thoughts were quite clear. There was ‘being’, ‘beauty’, ‘love’, and I am quite sure there was also a giggle in there.
Not like the 3 a.m. thought fests consisting of slimy somewhat scary thoughts that are remarkably vague and confused. You may know them, those half-formed shapes in the dark corner. Let’s leave these at the bottom of a swampy area in the gray matter, never to see the light of day. I digress.
Someone said – oh golly, I googled but can’t find the quote – ‘someone’ will have to do. Someone said, ‘When things do what they are meant to do, they are beautiful.’ It was likely more eloquent in the original, but these were the words I was able to grab out of the wild whirlwind of thoughts.
The beauty of things in just being. I thought of snowflakes giving wet kisses to my cheeks, and watercolour paint bursting into the pre-wet area of a watercolour paper. I thought of the powerful flight of the red-tailed hawk that lives nearby. Yes, these are beautiful in simply being, in simply doing what they were meant to do.
I decided to swing a lasso and see if I could catch some more thoughts.
You should be informed that I failed at skipping rope in Grade 3. The idea of me lassoing something is quite ludicrous. But inside the territory known as the brain, those practical inhibitors hold no weight at all.
So, there I am. Bravely swinging my lasso at the whirling thoughts, when there is a tap on my shoulder. A smiling voice says ‘Silly, you can’t catch the next thought with a lasso because the next thought is myself, and I am the wind through which all things live and move and have their being.’
I stop swinging the lasso – and then I see it.
Shimmering like a fleet of fireflies in formation, oh, I do so like alliteration – shimmering in the air is a word, and the word is ‘love’. Hmmm. Let’s see how that one might connect.
If things doing what they are meant to do are beautiful, then they are easy to love. Nope. It’s a miss – close but no cookie.
How about this instead? Things doing what they are meant to do are beautiful because they were created in love. Yes! There is a good fit.
Now you may wish to argue that there is no logic at all in this. Just because things are beautiful doesn’t logically infer being created in love. To which I will respond, have you seen a butterfly wing? Have you looked at those galaxy photos sent back by space telescopes? The answer is not found in logic, but in your heart’s response. As Pascal so aptly put it, “The heart has its reasons that reason does not know.”
Hurray progress! But two pieces fit together do not a puzzle picture make. Moving on…
I grab a colander, a shiny silver one.
There are many surprising objects to be found in my gray matter. Rules about how much space things take up don’t apply in there. I sort of warned you with the title that this is a wild place.
As mentioned, I grab a colander and begin to sift more words. You want a colander with big enough holes to get words out. The little-holed ones just sift letters and, golly, that’s a lot more work to make any coherent thoughts from.
This particular colander gives a little cough and out come 3 words making a whole thought. ‘What about humans?’
Indeed, what about humans? Are we also beautiful when we are doing what we were meant to do?
Oh boy. Time to get the shovel and dig deeper. Everyone should keep a good sturdy shovel between their ears for digging deeper.
No, no, no! Not a shovel between your ears Hitchcock style! Where did that nasty thought come from? Shoo!
Right. Digging deeper, I catch a thought by the tail that was about to sneak off, possibly to be lost forever, into the area of the brain known as, ‘Why did I come into this room?’
Gently I tug this thought into sight and ponder it, ‘What were people meant to do?’
Since we were created in love, it would be logical to consider that we were made to love.
Yah, I know, logic. Well, I make up the rules in my gray matter, deciding when to embrace logic or not. You can make up the rules in yours.
So, considering the thought that we were made to love – there is evidence to support that. Think how strong the ties of a loving family can be, and how deep the wounds when love is missing. That’s just one type of love.
There is the love of friends. This is polished to a shine with kindness and understanding.
There is the love of dogs, it’s a bright light too. And no doubt some felines condescend to love the people that they own.
There is the love of strangers, glowing in caring and generosity. This kind of love touches hearts and can even help heal brokenness. There are many opportunities in our hurting world for this kind of love.
No wonder the word ‘love’ was shining.
Aaaah. The wind is slowing. The thoughts are softly settling and as they do, a bright road is being formed by them. The way to go forward. The way that honors love.
It reminds me of a lovely song from the 70’s. Here it is on YouTube:
Road to Zion* by Petra *(Zion meaning heaven)
“There is a road inside of you.
Inside of me there is one too.
No stumbling pilgrim in the dark
The road to Zion’s in your heart”…
“Sometimes it’s good to look back down.
We’ve come so far, we’ve gained such ground.
But joy is not in where we’ve been.
Joy is who’s waiting at the end.”
Conclusion:
To my fellow travelers, no matter your age or outer appearance, remember you were created in love, and if you walk in love,
you are beautiful.
Dedicated to the beautiful readers of my Tuesday art newsletters. Thank you for being you.
Cheryl
Not everything I write is published on this blog.
If you want to read more of my writings, you could connect with me on Substack. This platform is free to join. You will get 1 short (3-4 minute) video and 1 article per week emailed to you.
Here is a link to my profile which shows other articles I have published on Substack.