GLIMPSES AND GIFTS
Upon returning from Jeju Island, my wife and I participated in a zoom group spiritual direction with two others. This is the first spiritual direction group, aptly called Mustard Seed, which my wife has been facilitating for several years now and I was grafted in only a year or so ago. This morning, my wife facilitated using the poem, You Reading This, Be Ready by William Stafford, which I posted on my blog a few weeks ago. I thought I had marinated enough on the poem, but I was surprised by what God relayed to me through the poem yet again. My wife gently coaxed me to present and share, which I gladly accepted.
We usually start our gathering by asking each other, “How are you coming (to the gathering) today?” This “check-in” time is often a valuable gem of our time together. This being a safe space, we almost always cut through the normal and perfunctory hellos and dive deep into the landscape of each of our souls. This morning was no exception. As I heard from the others, I caught a glimpse of our independently branching out into different seasons of our lives. We had been part of the same “branch” for many years, but we are at the cusp of embarking on diversified journeys.
Then this line of the poem struck a chord in me, “lift this new glimpse that you found.” The poem talks about not only finding a new glimpse but carrying it, as well as keeping it for life. Glimpses are glimpses in that they are subjectively experienced, sometimes non-rational, and are gentle and dim. Its original old Middle English means “shine faintly.” Finding a glimpse means one has to pay attention, notice, and recognize a glimpse as a glimpse. A glimpse often lands on us like a season’s first soft snow.
I had an “avalanche” of glimpses while in Jeju Island the week prior. While on the island, we were greeted by hundreds of butterflies going from one place to another. The theme of walking that started after the quarantine continued as we walked to various restaurants (I loved walking to neighborhood restaurants, as I am so used to driving everywhere back in the US), along the nearby harbor, and on some portions of the famous Jeju “Ollegil”, which is the walking trail that envelopes the entire island. The unadorned intoxicating beauty of nature and the island captivated my soul and the butterflies pretty much topped off the experience. To us, butterfly means the imminence of God’s presence and provision. Over time, we learned to pay attention to the hope that butterflies spoke to our souls.
The Airbnb we stayed at proudly showcased a natural and simple outdoor garden and my favorite, an indoor garden “café” room. Getting to the place was an adventure, as the worn-out road was so narrow (which was originally built for hand-pulled carts of the bygone era), you just would hope that there is no car coming from the other side. When that happens, you will engage in a stare-down contest to see who blinks first. The declared “loser” will have to back up to create room for the other car to pass.
Back to glimpses. I realized as I reflected some more that I am able to catch a glimpse when I as a subject recognize the other (or otherness) as a subject. It is an encounter between two subjects. When I caught a glimpse of us branching out, it was a temporary union between my soul and others. As I recognized and shared, it was almost as if my soul was born for these “small and temporary” unions as a prelude to the perfect union with God in eternity and felt that my and others’ souls were nourished. When I saw the butterflies, it was I as a subject recognizing the butterfly as another subject, culminating into a mysterious, non-rational, illogical union of two of God’s created beings. The sense of unexplainable tranquility flooded me. The invitation is that I slow down enough to see and become aware. These experiential, temporal, and less-than-perfect unions do something to our souls, allowing us to taste and witness a glimpse of the heavenly union. What it is now and what it could be later. . .
The glimpses are gifts to one another and to the world in constituting a better world, more than we realize. The invitation of glimpse--finding, carrying, and keeping it for life--then is a lifelong spiritual exercise. What we glimpse is a gift to the world. The benefit for us is to experience the fore union of heaven.
