What Lies Within

Today I would like to share with you a beautiful poem. It is by a mystic poet from the 15th century, and it speaks of the potential that lies within each of us:

The moon shines in my body, but my blind eyes cannot see it:
The moon is within me, and so is the sun.
The unstruck drum of Eternity is sounded within me; but my deaf ears cannot hear it.

So long as man clamours for the I and the Mine, his works are as naught:
When all love of the I and the Mine is dead, then the work of the Lord is done.
For work has no other aim than the getting of knowledge:
When that comes, then work is put away.

The flower blooms for the fruit: when the fruit comes, the flower withers.
The musk is in the deer, but it seeks it not within itself: it wanders in quest of grass.

– Kabir

How eloquently this speaks to the potential that lies within each of us. How beautifully it expresses the process of growing and becoming by changing and letting go — how the flower must wither for the fruit to appear. It makes me think about how often I cling to something I see as beautiful, never considering that releasing it might open the door to something more breathtaking.

My walk today was a rocky one, which means my eye was attracted to some of my mineral friends. They always show their colors more vividly after rain has cleaned the dirt from their surface. Here are the ones that followed me home.

Hard to believe that they all fit in one pocket. I suppose I’m an expert at making the most of the space. I was attracted to these particular rocks by their shapes, their sizes, and their colors. I also was attracted to their potential, because years of collecting has helped my eye to see the beauty that may lie hidden beneath the surface. Two weeks ago, on a walk along the riverbank, I found a beautiful stone.

Where I live, it is not unusual to find stones in many different shades of brown. This one caught my eye because its tan varied almost to white, and I could see pink showing through the surface colors. I thought of keeping it just as I found it, because it had such an unusual blend of hues. Instead, I decided to see what might happen if I polished it. Since it was too large to polish in one piece, I pulled out my hammer and cracked it open. What I found inside was surprising, to say the least:

A center of pure white quartz lay surrounded by its rosy relative, all encased in an outer layer of tan that barely covered the surface of its hidden beauty. Again, I faced a time of decision. Should I keep what I had discovered intact, or should I continue to explore what lay within? My decision was to keep half of the rock, its center displayed, exactly as it was. It sits in a place of honor on my shelf with other minerals that have shown me not to judge a book by its cover. The other half, broken into smaller chunks, became part of the new batch of stones I would add to the barrel of my rock tumbler. After two weeks of tumbling, I poured them out.

As you probably can guess, the two stones in the center of the bowl — the pure white ones with a salmon-pink coating — are parts of my river rock. They will return to the tumbler for further refinement and additional change. In several weeks, when the final polishing is done, they will be as smooth as glass.

I know from experience that the results will be breathtaking, beautiful, and unique — just like the people who will enjoy them. Some carry them in a pocket where they can reach in and feel the soothing smoothness when their day becomes stressful. Some find comfort in holding them close and looking at their swirls of color as they face the bumps and bruises of their road to healing. I can tell you for certain that at least one polished piece of this special stone will hang, like this one, in a custom-made silver cage.