In the field

Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a net that was thrown into the sea and caught fish of every kind; when it was full, they drew it ashore, sat down, and put the good into baskets but threw out the bad. (Matthew 13:47-48)

There are not many things but only one, or so it seems in the coffee shop.

An Indian woman, gold ring and chain in her left nostril, feverishly punches a long series of digits into the computer as Bianca, a young African American woman, offers a joke to occupy the delay as she waits to take my order.

Behind them, a pale girl with pink highlights shares the laugh as she shakes an iced latte and delivers it to a waiting customer, seamlessly moving onto the next order as she will to mine in a few moments.

No need to hurry this along. Everything here happens to plan. Movement and moment flow as one, each of us encompassed in this carefully choreographed dance of caffeinated fulfillment.

From my usual chair by the plate glass window, I take it all in. Not just the seven working here today, nor the dozen scattered about tables and chairs, drinking, reading, talking, peering into computer screens or off into space. No, much more.

I see all of us caught up in an all-embracing field of force that is drawing, drawing, drawing us toward a single far-off point shrouded in darkness. We move, each towed in a great sway of Love toward a common home whose presence we feel in this gentle moment of shared laughter and harmonious movement.

Love pulls us to the home Love is, to the final, omega point where the many are finally one and realize we always were though we seldom recognized it. We live and move in the field of Love, sometimes consenting, often resisting this gracious tide that envelops all of us and everything, including the olive-skinned youth who splits my field of vision, gathers his drink and hurries out the door.

Who knows where he is going? Well, Love does and lives there, too, pulling us toward its embrace regardless where we are or where we go.

Deep peace and consoling tears, quickly hidden, accompany this awareness. And why not? For in a single moment the wonder of your presence, the joy of your love and the beauty of your divine intention are clear enough.

We all live in you, in the field of the Love you are.  I know it now. But please remind me, won't you, when I forget.

David L. Miller