Children of the Universe
Stephen Simon and I were communicating awhile ago about how much hope his Spiritual Cinema Circle gives many of us each month. Here is what he shared on Facebook: “I heard something that moved me deeply: namely, that hope is the greatest gift we can inspire in others. Hope defined: “the feeling of wanting something to happen and thinking that it could happen…a feeling that something good will happen or be true.” If any of my films, or the work I do with others on their films, has inspired hope, I consider that the highest honor I could ever receive.” I told him that they did.
I wonder how is the hope of our world today? Living in Sedona it appears to be much easier than the three billion souls that live on less than a dollar per day. And yet often times I see people on the news in Africa who have suffered unspeakable harm and when they are interviewed there is this bright light in their eyes. How is this possible? And some of the saddest eyes are in people who seem to have everything. For me it is the indomitable spirit within that somehow believes that in spite of life’s circumstances we have a hope that things will be better.
Here are the lyrics to John Denver’s Children of the Universe:
A heritage of vision
Was given to us all
To smell the rose’s fragrance
To hear the songbird’s call
To watch the distant moonlight fill
The coming of the tides
To understand that life is more
Than always choosing sides
And some have seen what can be seen
Of sailing ships and kings
And some are given feet of clay
And some are given wings
And some must struggle just to breathe
Some have a golden spoon
And some will never leave the nest
While some walk on the moon
And don’t you know the life that lives
Within the silent hills
Is just as rich and beautiful
And just as unfulfilled
As man with all his intellect
His reason and his choice
Oh, who’s to say the nightingale
Has any less a voice
The silver dolphins twist and dance
And sing to one another
The cosmic ocean knows no bounds
For all that lives are brothers
The whippoorwill, the grizzly bear
The elephant, the whale
All children of the universe
All weavers of the tale
So palomino lie back down
And dream yourself to sleep
The hawk flies with the morning dove
The lion with the sheep
As far away as you may go
We’ll never be apart
It’s in your dreams that you will know
The seasons of the heart
My wish for you is: that all your seasons of the heart are filled with hope. From my hopeful heart to yours, Thomas