Transformation: Part II - The Universe: Changing Everything

The Universe and You

In his audible book, Canticle to the Cosmos, Brian Swimme affirms what prophets and poets have been telling us all along, “The Universe is revelatory.” Proverbs, the wisdom writings of the Old Testament contains inspired sayings of deep mystery that amaze and defy ordinary thinking; the flight of an eagle, the wisdom of ants storing food, the regimented unity of locusts and the sexual union of two human beings. These things usher in wonder and as Brian Swimme says create in us a “stupification.”

There is embedded in the universe deep and mysterious truths. Poets are on the cutting edge in the quest to unwrap these truths. In an article titled Analysis of Nature by Emily Dickinson, on beemingnotes.com its author Shreya Bardhan quoted Dickinson:

Nature is what we know –

Yet have no art to say –

So impotent Our Wisdom is

To her Simplicity

Dickinson’s struggle to translate the ineffable into words in this passage is almost palpable as is Mary Oliver’s “The Dipper” when she writes:

there being no words to transcribe, I had to

bend forward, as it were,

into his frame of mind, catching

everything I could in the tone,

Nature along with the entire Universe tells countless stories. One of the most thrilling is the story of how everything is changing, expanding, transforming. This is one of the hallmark characteristics of the Universe, the one that changed how humans see themselves.

Prior to Edwin Hubble’s discovery of an expanding Universe in1920, the belief was that the Universe was static. This is the way we viewed ourselves, unchanging. Now the revelatory Universe has shown, change is the norm.

As we anticipate our own change, our own transformation we can take to ourselves other insights provided by the Universe. In Canticle to the Cosmos, Swimme notes that the Universe is hungry. He gives the example of the sun, which when it puts out its energy, is voraciously consumed by all of life. We are part of this. The hunger or the longing we experience and the creativity by which we pursue this longing is part of the larger transformative story of the Universe.

Our individual identity which is one of a kind in the Universe brings with it a unique, expanding, changing, transforming contribution, especially when we approach this process with intentionality and reverence. We are change agents by nature. We decide what kind of change we bring. We decide which direction our longing takes. We decide also, at least to some degree, what kind of hunger will consume us.

What change will you be?

Writing Prompt for the Week: The Hungry Universe