Greetings And Welcome To The Opening Of This New Substack!
I look forward to sharing thoughts, practices, and distilled insights for sinking, sailing, and navigating this life lived. I consider my life unique only in the sense that it is one story among billions of other stories unfolding in these times and circumstances.
For as long as I can remember, I have carried a feeling of “Just Passing Through” — on this planet, on a plane, on a plane among all of us riding this wave together.
I often reflect upon how, with every passing moment, millions of eyes are making their final closure while millions more are simultaneously opening into the gate and light of arrival.
Over Time I Have Come To Suspect That The Key To Everything Is Light.
The Plant Emerging Toward The Sun
The Idea Arriving
The Sudden AHA
The Innocence Of A Child
The Sprout
The Fruit
And Then There Is Light’s Seeming Absence.
Though light is omnipresent, too much of it will burn. We require the nourishment of darkness as well — the mysterious sweetness of sleep and its temporary paralysis that prepares us for another sunrise.
The Whole Of Life Revolves Around The Sun.
In certain yogic teachings, the Sun is described as a portal through which the soul empties into the ocean of its origin — a scintillating radiance of immeasurable magnitude, known by many names and recognized across cultures and eras by those who have encountered it directly.
Over the years, I have occasionally found myself reaching for a name of my own. Not to replace the many names already given, but simply to create a vessel through which I might contemplate this mystery.
I Call It Claresveh.
To me, Claresveh is neither deity, doctrine, nor religion. It is a word offered toward that luminous source from which life emerges and to which it ultimately returns — a radiance that appears again and again beneath the countless names humanity has fashioned for the Divine.
The names differ. Some endure. Some have fallen beyond remembrance. Yet the light remains, shining beneath every attempt to name it. Whether encountered through prayer, meditation, revelation, nature, beauty, or sudden insight, the essence seems unchanged.
As we approach the Summer Solstice, we arrive at the great turning point of light. The day stretches itself toward its furthest reach. The Sun appears to stand still, lingering at the summit of its annual journey before beginning its long return. I sometimes contemplate whether this great seasonal dance reflects an ancient marriage of sky and earth, of solar radiance and earthly fertility.
The solstice is not the triumph of light but its crest. Every wave that rises must eventually bend toward return. Yet return is not loss. The descending arc carries within it the ripening of fruit, the gathering of harvest, the saving of seed, and the promise of another ascent. At this point in the seasonal cycle, the house of life is full.
The Fields Are Green
The Gardens Flower
Nestlings Test Their Wings
Fruits Begin To Find Their Sweetness
Everywhere There Is Evidence That Life Has Not Merely Survived But Has Expressed Itself.
Creativity Is The Natural Condition Of Life.
The Oak Creates Acorns
The River Creates Valleys
The Bee Creates Honey
The Cloud Creates Rain
Life seems unable to resist the urge toward expression. Yet many of us have come to believe that creativity belongs only to artists, musicians, writers, dancers, and inventors. We imagine it as a special gift granted to a fortunate few.
Thinking More Carefully We may recognize something different. Creativity is not merely a human talent, creativity is one of life’s fundamental characteristics.
A Garden Is An Expression Of Life
A Forest Is An Expression Of Life
A Conversation Is An Expression Of Life
A Community Is An Expression Of Life
At the height of summer, nature offers a vivid reminder. Nothing withholds itself.
The Rose Blooms
The Bird Sings
The Fruit Swells
The Field Ripens
Life expresses because creativity is its nature.
Nature does not question whether it is creative. It simply participates in its own unfolding.
Perhaps the question is not whether we are creative, but where the current of creativity has become obstructed.
What Fears Have Narrowed It?
What Disappointments Have Discouraged It?
What Assumptions Have Convinced Us That Our Contribution Does Not Matter?
Every Moment Arrives Carrying Possibility.
Every Conversation Can Alter A Trajectory.
Every Choice Introduces A New Future.
Every thought is capable of becoming a word, an action, a habit, a work, or even a way of life.
For this reason, I have never been entirely persuaded that the goal is the elimination of thought.
There is wisdom in stillness. There is value in silence. There are moments when the mind must rest in the vastness that precedes language.
Yet thought itself is also one of life’s creative instruments.
Before The Garden Is Planted, There Is An Idea.
Before The Song Is Sung, There Is An Imagining.
Before The Community Is Built, There Is A Vision.
Perhaps A Gentle Place To Begin Is Not With The Rejection Of Thought But With Observation.
What Am I Thinking?
What Assumptions Am I Rehearsing?
What Possibilities Am I Overlooking?
What Future Am I Quietly Cultivating Through Repetition?
The gardener does not curse the soil. The gardener tends it. Perhaps our thoughts deserve the same attention.
As the solstice reaches its crest and begins its gradual return, nature reminds us that life’s abundance is not something separate from us.
We are participants in the same creative current. Life expresses because creativity is its nature. Our task may simply be to participate in it more consciously.
HAPPY SOLSTICE EVERYONE!
Anahaat