It\u2019s such a subtle thing, this basic orientation.<\/p>\n
As a child, I was the centre of the universe… and the universe belonged to me. That\u2019s another way of saying that all was in its proper place, its ideal order, and I felt deeply that I belonged.<\/p>\n
As an adolescent, I moved away from the centre. I did it for the most noble-seeming reason of all; I did it for love.<\/p>\n
And I lost my identity… and my belonging.<\/p>\n
For thirteen years, I wasn\u2019t Niels. I had become The-Boy-Who-Is-In-Love-With-___. I was off-centre; I was in orbit, in constant motion, subject to unrelenting external forces. I was being pulled apart.<\/p>\n
Exhausted, eventually, I clawed my way back to the centre… and I found that I could sit there, without grasping, without effort, at the very centre of the merry-go-round– still spinning the very same stories… but now I could see them again from the inside-out. From the centre, nothing could pull at me Now… though I could perceive it all, clearly.<\/p>\n
There are countless children at the centre with me, happy and secure, immune to external forces. But one-by-one, like me, they are eventually lured off-centre… and very few ever make it back in this lifetime. They are torn asunder by centripetal forces… as the journey back to centre is hard, requiring focus and purposeful effort… and the understanding of a universe in constant motion.<\/p>\n
Stillness is always at the centre, always waiting. The dimensionless geometric centre of the merry-go-round doesn\u2019t move one iota; it doesn\u2019t even spin. It is timelessness, non-spatial… and I am that, have always been that, and will always be that… forever confronted with the choice to move… if only to reach out a hand to others…<\/p>\n
It\u2019s such a subtle thing, this basic orientation\u2026<\/p>\n