Shifting Powers

Shifting Powers

The shifting powers, that is, the way in which life changes when it comes in contact with other influences such as culture and politics, or the pressure of family and friends, are the greatest forces with which we must struggle if we are ever to understand clarity and where it comes from.  And since it is not by desire that we come to it, nor by reflecting upon our actions and their effects upon others, but by release, meaning leaving these interior worlds to develop and decay on their own, it is of the utmost necessity to measure kindness in action and prudence in thought, so that we may not fall too easily into our own slumbers and walk too harshly upon the substance that bears us.  Our preoccupations do not change, only their focus, and doubt never wholly diminishes until it finds in discretion sturdy ground. For the cause of our havoc is finding ourselves too eager to understand why we suffer in the first place, and the power we crave just a small hiccup between the breaths of existence.

Douglas Thornton