we are the light bearers

"There's an old Sufi story about a man who dropped his keys

on the dark side of the street at night,

then crossed the street to the lamppost where it was bright to look for the keys.

When a friend asked why he was looking under the lamp

instead of where he dropped the keys,

he replied, "I'm looking here because there is more light."

That's what we do with our lives: the familiar framework is where we want to look.

If we have a problem, we follow a familiar framework: thinking, stewing, analyzing,

keeping the crazy business of our lives going because that's what we're used to doing.

Never mind that it doesn't work.

We just get more determined, and keep searching under the lamppost.

We're not interested in that life which is out of space and time,

constantly creating the world of space and time.

We're not interested in that; in fact, it's frightening to us.

 - Charlotte Joko Beck, Nothing Special

I like this story but I like the artwork even more.

The lamppost is just as lost as the man

who is looking for keys in the wrong place.

The lamppost is looking for the light,

not knowing it is the bearer of light!

And just as yesterday's post emphasized our blind spots.

Today I wonder what glorious gifts we refuse to recognize in ourselves?

photo: Lamppost, by Matt Irie and Dominick Talvacchio,

is situated in a park near the Metrotech Center in Brooklyn.