Out of the Darkness

By: Steve Taylor

There are so many ways to feel dissatisfied
so many different needs to meet
so many goals to keep striving for
so many problems to try to fix
so much of the past you wish you could change
so many fears from the future.

No wonder you feel overwhelmed
like a traveller carrying too many bags
with too many paths to choose from
who has to keep stopping to rest
until he can’t go on, and collapses.
How could you ever be happy?
Life’s too demanding and complicated.

But then – an electric shock, an illness or accident
death creeps behind and swipes you hard across your back
awakening you from your torpor
and suddenly the fog dissolves away
And you can see the narrow ledge you’re walking
- the one you’ve always been walking – between life and death.

And now it’s all so simple and makes perfect sense -
life is temporary and fragile, precious beyond value
and life contains nothing except this present moment
this brilliant beautiful river of experience.

And suddenly those needs stop niggling you
the guilt and fear stop gnawing
the phantoms of the past can’t scare you anymore
there’s nothing to worry about or to be afraid of

Everything obliterated
but the glory of this moment
the grandeur of the world itself

And you know that this is all there is
that this is where fulfilment lies
and everything else is only a shadowplay of the mind.