“Life is this simple: We are living in a world that is absolutely transparent and the divine is shining through it all the time. This is not just a nice story or a fable, it is true.” – Thomas Merton.

“Earth’s crammed with heaven, And every common bush afire with God; But only he who sees, takes off his shoes, The rest sit round it and pluck blackberries.” – Elizabeth Browning.

I listen now to the Wisdom-Creatures, the crows and the donkeys, and the old and tired dogs, the trees, and the dying leaves and flowers. They whisper in my ear all the time.

I just to think I was just crazy, and once I learned this was true, I was free. I hear voices in my head.

I rarely took the risk or time to stand still before another being long enough for their truth to reveal itself and become clear to me.

This is what I needed, for someone else to wait until I could get there, fresh from my own life, my own fears and distractions.

After all the trouble we go through to find each other, we have to wait over and over and over again for the people we love to break through our walls with their wisdom.

That’s what love does, it breaks through the walls.

We have to listen, fully and openly. That is the doorway to growth and change.

I think I am beginning to learn how to listen, and in that way, to learn and change. I know now that when I don’t want to hear something, I have to stop and listen.

I couldn’t do this when I was young, my head was like a roaring stream after a heavy rainstorm, there was just too much rushing through it for me to hear anything from someone else.

Now, finally, I know that the things I don’t want to hear are the things I need to hear.

It is this simple, really, I am living in a world that is absolutely transparent and the divine is the thing shining through all the time if I look for it and allow myself to see it. My pictures taught me that.

It is not, in fact, just a nice story or a fable.

It is the truth.