Since the One is already here and
inescapably so
there is no need to seek it
or to call it in.
The One is busy being One
whatever one chooses
to believe, or pretend,
want or not-want.

There is no need to summon
the One
to the hearth of the heart:
it is that Bright
eternal flame, unlit, undying
(some call it Soul)
apart from which we have
no being.

It casts its eyeless eye around
the hearth’s welcoming glow.
It notices the pillows are plumped
and the kettle sings.
It smiles upon the cluster of
creative, competent, contented
luminaries who have gathered but –
many chairs are empty.

Too many chairs are empty!
Too many tender embers of the One
are absent – worse,
they haven’t been invited to this gathering
of Soul-celebration.

Call them in! The cry echoes through
the clay embodiment
where all those unwelcome embers
languish in exile.

Call them in! Assemble the entire company!
Welcome them all
without reservation or condition;
sit them down, give them tea,
make them comfortable, thank them
for the priceless part they have played
in the journey to now.

Let them know they are loved.

And in they straggle: the timid, the traumatized, the ashamed, the guilty, the grieving, the manipulator, the opportunist, the mute, the defensive, the secretive, the hypocrite, the liar, the sentimental, the stubborn, the light-fingered, the greedy, the stoic, the fearful, the arrogant, the immodest, the undeserving, the critical, the insatiable, the self-righteous, the confused, the impatient, the narcissistic, the lazy, the lost, the untrusting, the ungrateful, the exhausted, the incompetent, the mean, the jealous, the utterly deluded … in they straggle.  Some have been banished for so long in the mind’s push towards spiritual or philosophical perfection that they have forgotten the existence of a home hearth.  They creep in, cringing.

The chairs fill up and the tears flow – tears of forgiveness, tears of contrition, tears of loving appreciation.  Unimpeded, the flow opens out into a current of ecstasy.

And as the clamor settles, the fire in the hearth leaps into life, igniting all these precious embers until the entire company is burning with the Bright.

For this is the ultimate alchemy:
acceptance that the all and the One are One
and never was any ember not a member
of the One Bright beingness
for whom distinctions and differences
have never been a problem;
the One Bright unassailable beingness
known as incredible You.

~ miriam louisa

All know that the drop merges into the ocean,
but few know that the ocean merges into the drop.
~ Kabir