A Church of Shadows

My thoughts on my old church...

I returned to that shore & found her lying there.
She didn't recognise me, that empty vessel.
Her cathedral of rewards, only a church of shadows.
The wind brought the smell of new life over the waters.
And I thanked God for setting me free.

Photo: MorzhovayaBay, Kamchatka

Reflections on Deconstruction

𝐓𝐡𝐫𝐞𝐞 𝐫𝐞𝐟𝐥𝐞𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬 𝐨𝐧 𝐡𝐨𝐰 𝐦𝐲 𝐜𝐡𝐮𝐫𝐜𝐡 𝐭𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐝 𝐦𝐞 𝐚𝐬 𝐈 𝐝𝐞𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐬𝐭𝐫𝐮𝐜𝐭𝐞𝐝.

1) An institutionalised version of church with an empire mentality will rarely listen to criticism of itself.
2) The Church will seek to discredit the person or persons raising the concern or to deflect the issue.
3) Faced with questions from within, the 'church' will act as if it has autoimmune disease and seek to destroy those people who are actually healthy parts of it.

A World of Transcendence

“Uncertainty is an uncomfortable position. But certainty is an absurd one.”
Voltaire

The world grows weary of you acting as if you are certain about things you can’t possibly be certain about.
As is your heart.

Breathe.
Let go.
Your perceptions do not correlate with reality.
Your grasp of what is out there, your umwelt, is so unbearably small.
Your sensorium barely enough to get by in your world.

Information is infinite & unobtainable to you in its completeness; a horizon you can never reach.

Close your eyes.
Move forward: think divergently.
Open up a world of transcendence.

Mysteries & Doubts

The poet Keats said a creative needs to be,

“𝐂𝐚𝐩𝐚𝐛𝐥𝐞 𝐨𝐟 𝐛𝐞𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐢𝐧 𝐮𝐧𝐜𝐞𝐫𝐭𝐚𝐢𝐧𝐭𝐢𝐞𝐬, 𝐦𝐲𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐢𝐞𝐬, 𝐝𝐨𝐮𝐛𝐭𝐬, 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡𝐨𝐮𝐭 𝐚𝐧𝐲 𝐢𝐫𝐫𝐢𝐭𝐚𝐛𝐥𝐞 𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐜𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐚𝐟𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐟𝐚𝐜𝐭 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐬𝐨𝐧.”

And I think that applies to humans in general. To have empathy and to grow we need to accept the world is uncertain.
We should be comfortable with seeing a multitude of perspectives. Holding too tight to one’s own view or institutionalised dogmatic assertions stunts growth & diminishes our ability to love.

Collage: Matthieu Bourel