Why are we moved to tears when we encounter transcendence?

A piece of music.

A sky.

A poem.

Making love.

The touch of a kind hand.

Why do these moments call up tears?

Perhaps because separation falls away. Perhaps because we are gathered up by the Divine, by the sacred, by the eternal and for a precious moment we remember that we are more than flesh and bones. More than our job or our family or our partner. For a moment, perhaps, we remember we are doing more than getting by.

In that moment, something so deep inside, something we didn’t know we held, reaches to the heavens and remembers. In the remembrance and the forgiveness there is resurrection.

And so the tears flow…

Glowing
the sun and I touch the sky.
We radiate across eons
reflecting the warmth of ages
with a smile, a touch, a dance.
On this first morning
the pink magnolia leans towards the light
in her finest gown.
We sense signs of Spring;
of love stretching and blinking and beginning to wake
breaking open the world and more
Breaking open the potential for resurrection.
We have this moment
and eternity.
We have this day, this ordinary day
to practice and to pray.

I slide across the length of the glistening wave
grinning
Finger tips play the ocean like a flute
A whale breaches once, twice, then hoists its mammoth tail high
a mainsail to the wind.
From within the breakers I swoon and laugh
and for a second there are tears too as
mammals and seasons and lifetimes and eons
connect.