Redtree Times

You say I am repeating 
Something I have said before. I shall say it again.
Shall I say it again? In order to arrive there,
To arrive where you are, to get from where you are not,
You must go by a way wherein there is no ecstasy.
In order to arrive at what you do not know
You must go by a way which is the way of ignorance.
In order to possess what you do not possess
You must go by the way of dispossession.
In order to arrive at what you are not
You must go through the way in which you are not.
And what you do not know is the only thing you know
And what you own is what you do not own 
And where you are is where you are not.

― T.S. Eliot, East Coker

The painting at the top is titled Meditatio. It has a meditative presence that definitely stands out for me whenever I see it at the West End Gallery, where it has been for a while now. I thought it was worth revisiting it today.

I see these words above from T.S. Eliot’s East Coker as part of a conversation between the Red Tree and the rising sun/moon, who points out that it repeats its lesson with each new rise. And though it is repetitive, it is no less meaningful and instructive.

I will let you read into it what you will but I particularly love the last line here– And where you are is where you are not.

That could very well sum up my work as well as something I have written here before, that we are defined both by what we are and what we are not. Sometimes it takes going through a lot of disappointments and failures to arrive at that place where you are.

And where you are not.

Something to meditate on for this Monday morning…