You are Essential

Time is of the essence. Essence is essential. I want to know, specifically, what essence means. I’m going to look it up – be right back. .. . Well, it means a variety of things. Merriam-Webster first defines it as: the permanent as contrasted with the accidental element of being. In regard to you, it is the permanent element you possess, your intrinsic nature, your heart of being in all you believe it to be. There is an unchanging nature in this. It is a clear vision of who you are.

Who you are does not change in its context, it is enhanced but not changing with your life experience. We are continually developing and growing. There are things about us that change, and should. There are things that happen in our daily lives that leave us marked.Things that cause us to ask of ourselves if we will ever be the same. This is good, even in the hard times of life. Ideally, all occurrences come to us for us to learn. That one I haven’t figured out, yet, and I ask “What about the horror parts of life, the unbearable, surely people should not have to have an experience such as that .. .. it seems to me there is no learning in some things, only suffering.”

And I consider life, watching mine and the lives of others. In a daily life there are ups and downs, same with the years. We ebb and flow with the great mystery of life. And so we are. We are mysterious, as well. We are coming full circle, learning what we have forgotten, learning lessons that have tried to reach us all our lives. It is said we get the same lessons brough forth to us, a little louder each time, until we are fully present and accepting of the teaching. Sometimes it takes a while to hear, sometimes, we need the lesson presented to us in a slightly different way.

Back to essence. I love the value of essence. I love the unchanging dynamic factor of each person. Who I am is who I was twenty years ago and, in many ways, twenty years before that. I am me. You are you. I will not arrange my life around you and you will not arrange your life around me, but we will find a way to live in community together. I value your differences. I want you in my life.

Painting today is of flowers but, to me, they could be trees, too. I love an otherworldly element. I find it another thing essential. Title created by Teresa Willcox: Aqua Arising. I can SEE the flow of water lifting through the bases. From below, it is rising. And it rises and creates, nourishes, flows, enters. It is a description and a parallel of what I like to see in a person. Find a source of nourishment. Live your life. Love life. You are essential.

Long awaited, I know. Nice to be back!

c.s.