the Beautiful Necessity

 

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Light the fire.

This is now. Now is
all there is. Don't wait for Then;
strike the spark, light the fire.

Sit at the Beloved's table,
feast with gusto, drink your fill

then dance
the way branches
of jasmine and cypress
dance in a spring wind.

The green earth
is your cloth;
tailor your robe
with dignity and grace.


—Rumi

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Let us build altars to the Beautiful Necessity, which secures that all is made of one piece; that plaintiff and defendant, friend and enemy, animal and planet, food and eater, are of one kind. 

In astronomy is vast space, but no foreign system; in geology, vast time, but the same laws as to-day. 

Why should we be afraid of Nature, which is no other than “philosophy and theology embodied”? Why should we fear to be crushed by savage elements, we who are made up of the same elements? 

Let us build to the Beautiful Necessity, which makes man brave in believing that he cannot shun a danger that is appointed, nor incur one that is not;

to the Necessity which rudely or softly educates him to the perception that there are no contingencies;

that Law rules throughout existence, a Law which is not intelligent but intelligence, — not personal nor impersonal — it disdains words and passes understanding; 

it dissolves persons; it vivifies nature; 
yet solicits the pure in heart to draw on all its omnipotence.


—Ralph Waldo Emerson

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