COSMIC DANCE

If we could let go of our own obsession

With what we think is the meaning of it all,

We might be able to hear His call

And follow Him in His mysterious cosmic dance.

We do not have to go very far to catch echoes of that game,

And of that dancing.

When we are alone on a starlit night;

When by chance we see the migrating birds in autumn

Descending on a grove of junipers to rest and eat;

When we see children in a moment when they are really children;

When we know love in our own hearts; or when,

Like the Japanese poet Basho

We hear and old frog land in a quiet pond with a solitary splash-

At such times the awakening,

The turning inside out of all values,

The newness, the emptiness and the purity of vision,

That make themselves evident,

Provide a glimpse of the cosmic dance...

Yet the fact remains that we are invited to forget ourselves on purpose,

Cast our awful solemnity to the winds

And join in the general dance.

-Thomas Merton