In the Buzzing of Dragonflies

There’s a manlike activity in the buzzing of dragonflies:
Their darting and zipping,
their pausing to evaluate, then flitting away toward gain.
There’s economy, intention, drive.

But our highest calling is not like this at all, but rather
that through our eyes the Lord may view again His Garden;
And by us stroll through His creation
to find His rest among its goodness.

To flit and fly is a worthy dance,
but if you lend not your mind to the emptied God
you merely fortify your princedom;
And why spend so long on designing your headstone?

Leave to me the river island, guarded by its lilies:
the pokeweed, the honeysuckle, and a few brave pines—
I’ll approach them soft as air, with my eyes the gates of heaven opened,
and I’ll leave it all to bloom.

Behind the poetic language, what does it really mean to lend one’s mind “to the emptied God”?

It means essentially to understand that we are each at the center of the universe and at the forefront of the becoming of Reality.

We are each a subprocess of Reality, that “It,” the great “Whatever-There-Is.” We weave narratives from the facts of our lives, and as such we come to know ourselves: we take form through these conceptual renderings. Our behavior is influenced by our self-concept and narratives; and so we dictate through our conceptual renderings how Reality itself evolves.

At the same time that we are a subprocess of Reality, we are continuous with the whole. The boundary between “self” and all the rest (“Other”) is not permanent and impermeable but fluid, permeable, and constantly re-negotiated. You can welcome another voice into your head as if it is your own; you can view your car as an extension of your own body. Really, you declare where you stop. It’s your story to tell.

This idea is at once so simple as to be almost undeniable, and yet so potent because once realized, one can tell oneself some variant of the following meta-story: “I am the storyteller whose concepts shape my ongoing behavior. I am a character embedded within my own story (sometimes called the “ego,” or the self-concept). I am the very telling and unfolding of the story itself (i.e. I am a physical process unfolding in time). I am at once the witness, the witnessed, and the witnessing of this process.”

Importantly, in this view, the self-concept is one facet of oneself but is understood not to capture the entire reality of what one is. One can actually experientially “pull back” from embodying the ego, with all its concerns about money, status, etc., and embody the Witness—the position of that great “It,” the “Whatever-It-Is” that can’t be fully named or conceptualized. This is to embody (even for a moment) Reality itself witnessing its ongoing.

This is to lend one’s mind to the emptied God.

If you’re interested in more poetry, check out my free book of poetry and philosophy. I’m giving it away because the insights contained in it have been really helpful for me in getting through a dark time. My hope is that it can reach even one person in need of meaning and clarity in their life and offer them a fresh perspective to inform their own. I really appreciate any support!

With love,

Mark