I Write of That Journey

I've been struggling for a while to articulate what this blog is really about. Sure, it's about my PhD and my thoughts on environmentalism. The title is inspired by a quote by Gregory Bateson: "What is the pattern that connects the crab to the lobster and the orchid to the primrose? And all four of them to you? And you to me?"

But obviously, if you were to ask me so what does that mean for your blog, my answer would be two-fold:

The short one: I want to write about connections. Process. Cause and effect. Momentum. Direction.

The long one: At the heart of all of these things there is a throbbing pulsing intangible something. If I were a mystic, I would call it Love. Not the tattered word that supersaturates our relationships, our recreation, our lust or our quest with sickly sweetness. Something more. Something deeper. I find that other people have described this much better than I will ever be able to. I make it sound like fluff. Like a pretty concept. Their words reveal it as a crystal-hard, glowing here-now-and-always Thing. Perhaps because they have experienced it. And I, despite always looking for it, have always been a creature of movement, too restless and impatient to grasp it. Mirabai (The picture above depicts her singing a devotional hymn to her beloved Lord Krishna) writes of it as a journey - that was the first appeal. But if you read closer, it hasn't got anything to do with moving, and everything to do with (cliché as it sounds) knowing that you are already there. Less of becoming, more of being.

Here, in her words, is the pattern that connects:

I Write of That Journey

Mirabai

I remember how my mother would hold me.

I would look up at her sometimes and see her weep.
I understand now what was happening.
Love so strong a force
it broke the
cage,

and she disappeared from everything
for a blessed
moment.

All actions have evolved
From the taste of flight;
the hope of freedom
moves our cells
and limbs.

Unable to live on the earth, Mira ventured out alone in the sky –
I write of that journey
of becoming as
free as
God.

Don’t forget love;
it will bring all the madness you need
to unfurl yourself across
the universe.

What freedom! What light, what colour, what joy, what music, what transcendence, have we seen - any of us - compared to this!?

Read it. Read it again. Read it with your eyes closed, if you want to see it. Know it.