WHAT IFS

We are currently in Davao City in the southern Philippines (Mindanao), visiting Ruthie and Joey’s church and their family. We have been asked to facilitate a few workshops and attend some of the family and church’s milestone celebrations. When we told some of our friends in Manila that we would be visiting Davao City, the first thing they told us to do was to eat durians. We are happy to escape the cold in Korea and wear flip flops and shorts all the time. We will fly back this Friday and spend Christmas for the first time since 1976 in Korea.

I wrote the above poem on August 14. I do not recall the specific context, except that our grandson was born on August 11. What I vaguely remember is rumination on light and darkness, life and death. So, I started with the last stanza and worked my way back, expanding it as I went.

What if colors have sounds
what if wind has facial expressions
what if dogs can speak
what if four seasons become one monotonous season?

What if there is only one kind of everything, including us
what if there is no history, the story of everything, both hidden and revealed
what if there is no word for the future
what if there is no access to the present?

What if change never happens
what if we could not travel
what if we are stuck where we were born
what if when we feel like we are flying, we are actually being carried?

What if sadness is beauty, and beauty exists because of terror
what if anger is wisdom, and wisdom to discern a way forward
what if pain is glory, and the crown of glory can be worn through death
what if joy is a clue and key to our true being?

What if tears are windows to our souls
what if smiles can melt away fears and hatreds
what if laughter is the sacred act of letting go and letting in
what if the combination of smile and tears forms the rare ecstasy, a doorway into heaven?

What if life is not light
what if death is not darkness
what if life and death are the same
what if we are already one with the One and with all?