Where Can I Flee: The Illusion of Isolation

Let me slay my illusion of isolation

It is a lie I have believed

Let me smash it on the hard tile floor

And neglect to sweep up the shards

Too long have I suffered

Artificial walls of separation

Teach me the truth of my connection

To every other soul and body

Human and otherwise

For even rocks have hidden light

Let me plug the end of this

Limp cord of consciousness

Into the spirit root of all things

The wellspring of the morning

And of darkest night

There you dwell

In unseen waves

Pulsing with life

A busy highway of vibrations

The source being your pure love

They say that energy never dies

It only changes form

If so, what is there to fear?

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I've been thinking lately about isolation and connection. We Westerners tend to think of ourselves as self-contained creatures, separate from everything else around us. But both our spiritual traditions and modern science tell a different story. If you and I were sitting in the same room, we would look at each other and think, I'm over here, and they're over there, and there is nothing in the few feet between us.

However, all kinds of stuff is actually happening in-between my head and yours. But because we generally can't see air, we tend to forget that it's there. The air is filled, not only with all the molecules of gases that support life on earth, but also with a plethora of energy waves! Electromagnetic waves from the sun are everywhere, including in the room in which we sit. Some of these waves within a narrow band of wavelengths reflect back to your eyes to make my head and chair visible to you, but many more are outside our narrow range of vision, including gamma-rays, x-rays, ultraviolet and infra-red light waves, microwaves and radio waves. The air is also filled with sound waves that we can hear when we talk and ultrasonic waves that our dog might hear, but we would not. And that's only some of the physical forms of energy!

The title of this poem, "Where Can I Flee," is taken from a beautiful biblical passage, Psalm 139:7-16, in which the psalmist waxes poetic about how the Spirit is everywhere, from the highest heavens to the deepest depths. And from the light we can see to the blackest darkness, "even the darkness will not be dark to you" (verse 12). Then the poet goes on to describe the Spirit knitting or weaving together the embryo in the darkness of the mother's womb, such an intimate and tender image.

This poem blends together the perspectives of our spiritual traditions and the unseen energetic realities of science, both of which point to the same truth: that we are not the separate and isolated beings that we often imagine and feel ourselves to be.