The Saturday Stoke #43
Listen to The Stoke
Time never stops moving. It clips off pieces of eternity by the second, minute, hour, day, week. We travel through time. But we cannot go back in time.
Here are three hacks to help us be better time travelers?
First, DON'T STEP ON THE SUNSHINE
“Ah yes,” you say, “I was just thinking about this very thing for some time but didn't want to say anything. But do give your thoughts on why we shouldn’t step on the sunshine.”
“I see,” I reply, “and you wonder why we’re such good friends. Well, dear friend, each morning when we wake up, sunshine lays in the back yard, on the fence posts, and even in our bedrooms. And without thinking about it, you and I dash off, trampling the sunshine without thinking.”
There it is, the day, spread all over our floor. From heaven to our carpet. And, over there, our smartphone sits, dormant on the counter. If we could just get there before we brush our teeth.
But what if we hopscotched the sunshine, bouncing from shadow to shadow, following the rays until we reached the back yard?
And, once there, what if walked the shadows; around the lawn, into the bushes, beneath the trees? All the while roaming the darker pieces of light, chasing the sunshine?
What if we noticed the light coming through and into the trees and grass, spreading among the patio furniture? There, the light moves, even while resting on the boughs of my gum tree.
"That must be what they call wind,” you say, “moving the limbs from shadow to shine. And what’s this? Time, it seems to be moving less quickly.”
"I still have time for another French press, maybe read that passage the pastor talked about yesterday—what was it again?"
We must be close to a black hole or something. The years are passing all around me, but here I am nearly standing still in the shadows.
“But wait, wouldn't this moment last longer if I INSTAGRAM'D it. Yes of course!" you say to yourself.
But no! There we go, dashing off cutting through shadows across the sunshine, warping our time travel continuum!
You see how it works. It's quite obvious, really. Don't step on the sunshine.
Second, DON'T FEED THE SPACE TROLLS!
You know, those demons that strip out the intricacies and uniqueness of everything beautiful, which is quite nearly everything.
It's common knowledge that Space Trolls love to dupe us into thinking more is better, big is better, better is better, mass-produced is better.
They embed annihilation in their tongue whips. They are the time pragmatists. Don't waste it. Use it. Utilize, utilize, utilize. If it takes more time than an Amazon I-Click Buy gesture, it takes too long.
The English poet Gerard Manly Hopkins said these brutes employ "strokes of havoc." Hopkins proposed we tune our lives to the creative energy that binds things together. He called this "intress," the opposite of distress or coinherence—where everything falls apart.
Hopkins said if we see the world as held together by this kind of magic energy from God then we will see a unique pattern in everything.
Some call this ... "WONDER."
And, number three, CHASE THE WINDHOVERS
Hopkins wrote a poem called “The Windhover.” It’s about him catching a glimpse of a kestrel hovering on the wind. The windhover is a metaphor for the wonder-filled moments in your life you miss if you’re too busy.
You know, like when you notice something almost by accident. Like hummingbirds taking turns on some petunias as you wait for your friends at a rest area somewhere along Route 1 up the California coast.
Those crazy little figure-eight-wing-flappers; bobbing and weaving together in some kind of spiritual flight for the sweet honey water just inside that pink flower's petals.
"How beautiful," we whisper.
In Time Travel, the Windhovers are quite nearly angels. Except they're not. They are timeless moments, swept up in rapture; bits and bobs of eternity too easily missed. But when seen. When attended too. They connect us to God. They are the intresses of this nose-to-the-grind world.
Time Travel is dangerous. We need our wits about us. But if we follow these three simple tips, we’ll experience the Eternal in every moment.
Stay stoked my friends.
