Becoming Yeast

a poem & some thoughts on prayer

BECOMING YEAST
To become yeast, 
you must first 
let yourself be eaten.

Spirit is the wild yeast,
the spark of life in air.

At what point 
does the wood become fire
and cease to be wood?
When does it recognize
its rigid, splintery flesh
as a mere carrier of fire?
In the stick’s epiphany,
does it ask, “who am I,
really?”

Yeast is the creative force
that turns glue into bread,
transforming the sodden 
mass of humanity.
Spirit blows breath
into flour, and the flour
becomes the breath. 
Where does fragrance come from?

The new yeast, that was flour,
sings life into the wet clay,
which it was, just
a moment ago.

God created us
in His likeness.
What does that mean?
All we know of God
is what God did…
God created.

We were created
to create,
to give life to life.

Yeast is a flexible unity,
embracing the opposites,
holding the tension 
as smooth and taut 
as a baby’s cheek.

In the beginning
was one spore 
of wild yeast.
It was enough.
It exhaled, 
and life began.

Is the flour afraid
that the yeast will use it,
take the best years
of its life, and then 
move on?

Yeast is the anima,
consuming all in its path.
Let us put ourselves there,
where it can’t miss us.
Directly in the path
of the insatiable Spirit,
the promiscuous,
the omnivorous,
the lusty, 
greedy 
Spirit.

---

This is a poem I wrote many years ago, which I would use as the title piece if I put together a book of poetry. It still speaks to me, as if from someone else.

I’m traveling and brought A Song of Prayer with me, which is a thin pamphlet that’s easier to carry than the 1200 pp Course in Miracles. It’s a supplemental text that talks about prayer, forgiveness and healing.

I think there’s a question we can only answer for ourself and everything depends on it. That question is whether purpose exists. Is there meaning, other than what we create? Does spirit, something other than our egos, move in the world, directing events and pushing us in the direction we need to go?

This question can only be answered from our own experience, and only if we’re looking for it. Our priority, every morning, is to ask for the answer to this question, and watch the timing in our lives. Are things random or are there patterns, people, and events that couldn’t be accidental.

Prayer is a ladder to Heaven says The Song of Prayer:

Endless the harmony and endless too the joyous concord of the love they give forever to each other. And in this, creation is extended. … The love they share is what all prayers will be throughout eternity when time is done. For such it was before time seemed to be.

To you who are in time a little while, prayer takes the form that best will suit your need. You have but one. What God created One must recognize its Oneness and rejoice that what illusions seemed to separate is One forever in the mind of God.

Forgiveness is a catalyst to prayer. Forgiveness is always for yourself because the other person doesn’t need to be forgiven. Forgiveness is a temporary state on the way to Oneness but prayer is our eternal state of co-creation with God.

In the same way that no one can tell you what your purpose is, you can’t find the meaning in anyone else’s circumstances. It’s a journey we take alone. But prayer is a way we join with other seekers in the quest, the quest that is a question. All that matters is we share a goal. Enemies don’t share a goal.

I’ve been feeling that it’s a special form of prayer when two people ask the same question with more concern for the right answer than either have in being right.

I’ve been delighted to find that with my readers. We are on a quest, and this quest is a powerful form of prayer. I think we’re making fast progress on that ladder to heaven. Thanks for praying with me.

---

From A Course in Miracles, I look at what forgiveness is and what it is NOT. I trace my journey from the spiritual exercise of applying this to the face of evil himself, Hitler, and the revelations of my subsequent research into history. I then question the origins of fascism with Mussolini's surprising manifesto. And I answer a commenter who believes we're X missed meals away from murdering our neighbors and the most dangerous people are those who think people are inherently good.

A viewer warned his loved ones that he was putting my 'crazy' in his echo chamber. To live up to the warning, I bring on the crazy by talking about ultimate reality with Sufi sayings, Jewish legends, free-will astrologer Rob Brezsny and Terence McKenna. I tell the story of a mole turned hawk, and Russell Brand kissing Yuval Noah Harari's forehead. I cite Kurt Vonnegut's 'karass' in the disorganized religion of Bokonon and quote Caitlin Johnstone on being ineffable. I end with a simpler explanation of Charles Eisenstein's Parallel Timelines and my craziest theory to date, involving the word 'tantric'.

You can only change what you love. Following in the footsteps of Tessa Lena and Charles Eisenstein, I talk about love, God, meaning and truth as synonyms. I tell the story of how Tessa became qualified to talk about love with no kumbaya, through haunting personal experience. I relate this to Charles on The Bloodroot & the Raven. And I share the confidence of both that riding on the current of current events is going to bring us to the place I call The Great Rest, where we can be who we were born to be.