Connection

When you connect with the Divine, you connect with All — the words appeared in my brain a few days ago. We’re always connected to the Divine, of course, but I’m not always aware of it. So I’ve been practicing. Soon after, a woman motors a catamaran into a nearby slip — calm, cool, and collected. I walk over to help and introduce myself, and see her boat is named Redemption. Turns out she also owns Amazing Grace, a ship I’ve admired in passing, and also a song I hear when times are tough. Once I was in Monterey, California, with my mother and brother. The trees were filled with Monarch butterflies, resting during their annual migration. A bagpiper, walking along the train tracks, played “Amazing Grace” as the sun set. Divine.

“Only connect,” E.M. Forster famously wrote in Howards End. But how do I connect with the Divine? By noticing my surroundings, by tuning into the weather. By listening to feelings, and hearing other creatures. By remembering the time in Woodard Bay when I realized we truly are all connected – everything, everyone, everywhere, everytime. A shift occurred, like dancing the Time Warp – it’s just a jump to the left! – and suddenly it was obvious. I wasn’t ecstatic or blissed out – it was simply the truth, unveiled.

Foolish humans make life so complicated. And all the time, we are fine. “You’re not connected,” said a sailor recently, referring to Starlink and various websites and youtube channels.

Oh, yes I am.