Mosaic of the cosmos

I had a message last week in worship:

There is no bigger picture,
just a series of smaller ones.
Like mosaic pieces that,
together, form one –
a creation of beauty.

It's been haunting me all week. At the time it was an ah-ha moment about me continually whining for a clear path and to know/see everything ahead or at once.

Later in the day, during a clearness committee* for a dear friend whose position of six years is ending, I recognized that she embodies living faithfully and comfortable with one piece at a time. Her piece.

I have joked the past couple of years that if Spirit had showed me my path ahead of time, I would have never moved. It would have looked too hard and rocky. But that would have been my myopia and lack of trust. For the journey has been unlike anything I could have fathomed or chosen. I am learning it it not a joke, but reality. In our humanness, we are stuck on control, which is, essentially, the opposite of trust.

I am progressing in accepting my one small piece at a time. I don't think I could digest any more. Tucked into that acceptance is trust and a wonderfully new knowledge that it will be more than all right, it will be authentically me and wonderful and richer than anything I could even comprehend.

It's really the lesson of living in the present, taking my one piece and really living into it. Not debating what will come next or what happened previously. But just being with it as fully as I can.

Last week's revelation makes me see that if we all learn that (some already know this and others, like me, are figuring it out), this mosaic that we are building is truly a glorious thing. More so when we can trust to do just our part – and do it with love and joy and enthusiasm – and no more. A work in progress for which only the master artist has the whole picture.

* Quakers may call a clearness committee for discerning anything central in their life from marriage and congregation membership to spiritual struggles and career changes, etc. It's a wonderful corporate tool.
....

• Have there been times when I could accept the one piece of my path and trust?
• How was that different from the times I struggled to maintain control?
• Have I figured out the balance of trust, yet doing what's required of me ... not just waiting for something to happen, even if it means patiently waiting?
• What's it like when I glimpse someone else's piece or even mine?
• Can I begin to see the oneness and connection in our universe?


Often, I have
selfishly held on
to this one
piece, unaware
that if I use
it well ...

use it to the
best of my
ability and
gifts, as
others are,

something
truly amazing

is being created

and I am one,
joyful, loving
part of the
grand mosaic

of the cosmos