On My Nightstand, On My Easel 4/1/23

 On my nightstand:

A human being

blessedly

is endowed with a dual capacity:

to experience our

oh-so-mortal physicality

and simultaneously to attune, 

in the stillness of the now,

to the timeless reality of which we partake.

To be incarnate

is to inhabit a body,

even as we can detect—

very nearly feel, 

in a palpable way—

a larger truth enfolding and saturating

our temporal existence.

This means than in addition 

to attuning us to the sensory world,

the body is the ‘vehicle’ 

through which we know

the timeless now.

—Jan Frazier, from a forthcoming book

On my easel:

I look at the letters appearing on the 'page' on my laptop screen as I type, little black marks that represent the Latin alphabetic writing system. They are nothing more than little black marks. Visible to my eye. Visible to yours. 

But what takes place when our very human eyes take in these codified symbols is vast beyond measure. This writing/reading thing, if you'll stop right here right now to be still enough to listen, speaks in its own way to something larger that enfolds and saturates our temporal existence. I type these letters, you read these letters, and we are given to tap into—we are given to know—more than words can ever say.

A Larger Truth
1.5 x 6" bookmark; acrylic, ink, and Stabilo pencil
on watercolor paper
abstract
2023