Call it serendipity, call it grace, however you name it, I have experienced two instances of it in recent months. And because this, my progress towards regaining a simple heart has been exponential.
In this post, I am going to share the first of these two gifts/insights/catalysts.
I was talking with a friend when she casually mentioned army boots. Instantly, I had a visual memory of my favourite black and white photograph from my teen years. It was taken circa World War One and features an old man walking down an Israeli (then k/a Palestinian) street. His back is to the camera. All you see is a long black coat, a lower portion of pant legs, his long white hair and on his feet, army boots. His body language suggests that he is neither sauntering without purpose, nor rushing. He is simply on his way.
It was a Simple Matter of recognition. As a teen, the photograph had been of “an other”. Now, in that moment with the passing reference to army boots, I “owned” the image as “me” in some fundamental sense. It spoke directly to my simple purpose: mystic love (the long coat) plus practical living (the boots) = pragmatic mystic. And with that “owning”, I felt, almost physically, the confidence* I had known in my teen years return. I can and am walking forward, overcoat flowing and army boots on.
Confidence: con fide (Latin) meaning “with faith”
Simple Matters 