“While with an eye made quiet by the power
Of harmony, and the deep power of joy,
We see into the life of things.”
William Wordsworth 1798
Poets seem to see the world in a deeper way than most. The words of Wordsworth remind me of how we can change the way we perceive the world by finding an inner place of harmony and joy. If we are in a state of inner turmoil, then we find it difficult to see anything but turmoil in the world around us. I have become aware of a state that I call clarity. There are moments of enhanced clarity that arise within me. Just today, I was sitting in a café reading a piece by Heidegger on the presence of Being, a very difficult piece to fathom. However, clarity descended upon me within a moment – the proverbial twinkling of an eye. I looked up from my book and I experienced the café, the people and the music playing in the café in a completely different way. I was deeply connected to all that was present in the moment. There was a sense of interconnectedness that existed. I could see more clearly than ever before. I could see “into the life of things.” What had brought this experience to be? I was struggling to understand the presence of Being as developed in Heidegger’s poetic dwelling. In particular, I was writing about how Being appears, lingers and then departs every moment. We are coming into being all the time. The whole world does this every moment. We are eternally emerging in the world and with the world. What a lovely way to see our being present. Heidegger often talks about the lighting of the world. A shining that appears in these moments. Today I awakened to a shining moment. As I walked home from the café I looked upon the world in a different way. I could see into the life of the trees, flowers and people that I passed.
What a lovely way to begin the morning.
