May 18 Daily Meditation Writing: Scale

You are reading the ongoing writing process for a new book of daily reflections/meditations. Already published by this author is “Cast A Long Shadow”, 90 daily reading for our journey through life. This book is available direct from the publisher, and also on Amazon.com.

Scale

Without knowing the scale of something, we can get confused about what is important.

It is like looking at a photograph – is this a picture of a range of mountain from above, or an extreme close up of a grain of sand? Is this a mighty waterfall, or a small stream of water from a watering can?

When we look closely at a single flower petal, we can be in wonder at the miracle of its construction, and its delicate feel. But when we stand back and admire the whole field of flowers, we can feel a totally different wonder at the scale of the beauty and can be captivated by the sight of them all moving in the breeze.

Neither view is “right” or “wrong” – they are both valid observations, and are different just because of the scale that we are looking at.

When we concentrate only the small-scale, we see just that – the tiny things that happen in our lives. These can be wonderful or not, interesting or not. We can take deep joy from the everyday “little” events in our lives – the simple pleasure of an early morning sunrise, or a late evening stroll.

We can find pleasure in the smallness and closeness of our world, by the feel of a comfortable chair, or the smile of a loved one.

And it is possible to live happily on that scale all of our lives – many people do.

But there is also a larger scale world that we can inhabit. Without losing the joy and contentment of the small-scale, we can also live in a much bigger universe.

This is what I like to call the world of the spirit – the world where we are not just small insignificant beings crawling along on the earth, but are also players in a much bigger universe.

Here we can still find our joy in the physical, but also seek a higher calling, a joy on a totally different scale.

For this world is not just the physical, not just the everyday. For every flower petal, there is a field of flowers at a greater scale that the petal alone could imagine.

But the field is still composed of individual petals, each unique in its own way.

In the same way, we can live in both scales; in our small physical world, and also in the larger world of the spirit. There is joy in both, and in both we can find contentment.