“By the Pacific”

“Across the spangled sea, upon whose ruffled surface dance the quivering mirrors of the sun’s reflected light, a thousand coded missives flash alerts. “Attend, attend!” they warn the watching eye. Attend, for here the boundless beauty of pure cosmic Truth in quick saltations springs upon your sight. The vastness of the oceanic spread, whose endlessness stirs memories within, now comes alive and near in twitching jewels, in diamonds flung so freely on the waves. What are these fevered messages sent by the sun and sea? What do these tiny glinting signals want me to conclude? At first, I note the thrilling dazzle of the quavering lights, as if the Goddess Nature shimmied in her diamond gown. But then I understand the evanescence of the show. These scintillating sequins will be gone whene’er a cloud obtrudes itself between the star and waves. Then pallid sky will cover griseous sea, and all the flashing gemstones will be gone, all messages of transcendental Light. I ask myself if such is true of life: is wondrous beauty from a higher sphere an intermittent Truth, or do we, partly blinded by imperfect sight, miss out on glories that are always there? The Sun of Inner Being never fades; Its Light is never dimmed to well-trained eye. The cataracts of Spirit-dullness blind us to its Shine. A thick cloud comes, erasing all the glinting ballerinas on the waves. The scene so magic seconds past is now just plodding prose. No mirrors shine, no sparkles flash; the surf just sloshes forward like the soap suds in a sink. No longer smiling joyfully, the sky just grimly frowns. A bright balloon of seascape has been popped and drops inert. And now I understand that what we are is what we see. The Light that makes life beautiful emerges from within. No need for sun or lucent waves if we are lit inside. If, from our Home in Everything, we gaze out on the world, Pure Consciousness will blazon every wave and every cloud with Light Divine Eternal, which can never fade or change.”