Becoming

“a man feels the world with his work like a glove.” 

From Open and Closed Spaces by Tomas Trastromer

The sun shines through my window,

finds me sitting behind my desk

and ruffles work papers 

with tiny particles of dust, floating in the air,

because they are simply there.

Like me, they hang,

suspended on invisible fingers, only there 

when light touches the surface of a finite thing.

To be here, I must be seen.

I may be fully present, acutely here,

in my own skin, but if you cannot see me, hear me, 

feel, smell, or taste me, if you do not acknowledge me

in some way, I am not truly here.

So, when I become present in the moment,

I must also be mindful that without you,

I am nothing, but a part of the ever-present universe,

the Tao, the nothing and the every thing.

To be present means I must also receive you,

to accept you and acknowledge you,

for the sun shines on each of us,

makes us visible to the world.

To be present is to see, to understand, 

to hang in the air like tiny particles of dust

suspended by invisible fingers of light.

— Paul Causey