I still have the image of his beautiful face in my mind every time I choose to recall it. It is adorned with a joyous smile and eyes glistening with the freshness of early morning. Dreadlocks hang loosely against his glowing rust-black skin.
For a few moments, our eyes are entwined in a gaze, looking for nothing, simply enjoying each other's presence, a presence that I am tempted to call divine. Recalling that gaze, I realize that it was free from egoic interests relating to such conditioned concepts as age, attractiveness, color, ethnicity, socioeconomic position, religion, culture etc.
For those few moments, all preoccupations ceased bar one - holding each other's gaze. And it was pure - sparklingly so. It was joyous - spontaneously so. It was fulfilling - unattachedly (yes, I just had to make that word up) so.
In those few moments, I, as a separate self, ceased to exist. We were not two but one. Presence was our name. Presence was our state. Now, writing about it, I realize it goes by another name - Love.
Presence - Love
No attachments, no demands, just joy, beauty, peace, oneness.
Imagine holding such a gaze with your reflection in the mirror! Imagine holding it with your friend, your estranged partner, child, colleague. And I do mean
'imagine', for from that imagination, the wheels of inspired words and action are set into motion!
Every person is called to become transparent to the divine life,
to rediscover the lost image of God within, to become a living
icon of Christ
Dennis J. Billy at http://www.ewtn.com/library/PRAYER/WINDPRAY.TXT
Image from Flickr
