Is that all that we live for? That Friday feeling. Waiting for the weekend. Looking forward to the summer holiday. And then it’s gone; they pass. And Monday rolls around again.
What if we are able to appreciate each moment and practiced mindfulness? To find the beauty in every experience, the sunlight in the raindrop?
There is much that we can learn from the works of Blake and Wordsworth.
The 2004 top ten hit on the UK singles chart, “The Weekend”, by DJ and House music producer Michael Gray, features the following lines:
I can't wait
For the weekend to begin
I'm working, all week long
I dream the days away
I have to get my kicks, and fly tonight
And when the clock strikes six
On Friday night
I need to blow it all away
I'm saving all my soul and all my pain
So I can lose control on Saturday
I'm gonna blow it all away
Is there something more to life than endless eager anticipation of the weekend, dreaming our days away, until the clock strikes on Friday night so we can get our kicks? To blow away the pain in our soul, to lose control? Our lives don’t have to be so sad and straitjacketed that we can only feel authentic, release all our boredom, anger and frustration, at the weekend, or on holidays. Is this approach good for our mental wellbeing?
In his poem, “Auguries of Innocence”, the poet, engraver, visionary and social reformer William Blake wrote:
To see a World in a Grain of Sand
And a Heaven in a Wild Flower
Hold Infinity in the palm of your hand
And Eternity in an hour…
Man was made for Joy & Woe
And when this we rightly know
Thro the World we safely go
Joy & Woe are woven fine
A Clothing for the soul divine
Under every grief & pine
Runs a joy with silken twine
In this poem Bake directly connects the ability to see the sunlight in the raindrop, the jewel in the lotus, the finely tempered sword while it is still sheathed in its scabbard, with being able to see the pattern of joy and woe woven fine through life, such that running underneath all our sorrows we find a silken twine of joy.
The well known English Romantic poet, William Wordsworth, in his poem “Lines Written a Few Miles above Tintern Abbey”, similarly wrote:
And I have felt
A presence that disturbs me with the joy
Of elevated thoughts; a sense sublime
Of something far more deeply interfused,
Whose dwelling is the light of setting suns,
And the round ocean and the living air,
And the blue sky, and in the mind of man;
A motion and a spirit, that impels
All thinking things, all objects of all thought,
And rolls through all things. Therefore am I still
A lover of the meadows and the woods,
And mountains; and of all that we behold
From this green earth…
Here Wordsworth finds himself continuing to appreciate the familiar meadows and the woods, the landscapes of his times – and indeed ‘all that we behold’, all that he sees. This is because for him there is an impelling motion and spirit that rolls through or infuses all things. Whether that is the ocean, the air, or the blue sky. Or indeed our minds – all thinking things.
Sending this same spirit that impels, that runs a thread of silken joy through all experiences, is the same reason that visionary painter and poet Akiane Kramarik shares with us in her video of her painting of the same name “The Garden”: “We were created to imagine / and find fulfilment in our work […] We were created to create / not to possess”[1].
The same spirit that the anonymous account of a Near Death Experience shares with us: “All that I gaze upon is a representation of God, not the physical mirage but rather, the shining brilliance behind the mask.”[2]
When we take the time to look again at our everyday surroundings, and appreciate them for what they are, then new and fresh realisations come upon us:
Reflect upon the inner realities of the universe, the secret wisdoms involved, the enigmas, the inter-relationships, the rules that govern all. For every part of the universe is connected with every other part by ties that are very powerful and admit of no imbalance, nor any slackening whatever.[3]
When we look on our world, and the things we do, with new eyes, no longer will we find ourselves looking forward to the end of the week, to that holiday, because “all effort and exertion put forth by man from the fullness of his heart is worship, if it is prompted by the highest motives and the will to do service to humanity”[4]. Working with others, for others, for a common good, then becomes a form of service. It becomes something beautiful.
Looking on the world, our surroundings, the things we do and the events in our lives, with new eyes, a door is opened beyond which golden yellow-white sunlight spills, promising a new day, a fresh and everlasting phase of existence, full of possibilities, greater mental health. Now, sparkling energies suffuse the unique experiences offered by each day, however challenging. Each experience, each interaction, is pregnant with possibilities. Each atom, drop, mote, leaf, grain, shaft of sunlight is now a promise of the love of God.
Now, for us, every day is a chance to revel in our experiences. To live authentically, fully, without fear. We find happiness and joy in each day as it comes.
Baha’i Writings
Baha’i Writings