At Home In The Universe

Guest post by J. M. Hawkins

Dear Soul,

 

I don’t feel that I’ve found my place.

 

Dear Life,

 

No wonder. You’ve been sifting through the garbage of the past, trying to paste it together to make a life. You haven’t realized that life is a feast in your honor. Come on up to the head of the table—see, there’s a place card with your name on it!

 

That reminds me of a story…

The Philosophy Student and the Rubber Stamp

There was a young philosophy student who always walked around furrowing his brow, pondering the meaning of life. One night, he dreamed that he was walking down the aisle in an office supply store when suddenly a rubber stamp spoke to him saying, “Looking for the meaning of life is really just homesickness—the wish to feel, everywhere, at home. Here, let me save you about forty years.” At that, the rubber stamp came flying off the shelf and hit the philosophy student in the head.

The philosophy student woke up and, remembering the dream, muttered, “I must be out of my mind.” But then, when he went to look in the mirror, he found stamped on his forehead the words:

Home Sweet Home

“That’s it!” he said. “If I’m at home in my own mind, I’ll be at home in the universe.”

 Today, I’ll know so deeply that I belong, and with that serenity

I’ll help those around me feel at home.

*The Dear Soul/Dear Life dialogs by J.M. Hawkins are used by permission. They are taken from his collection, Word From Soul City and were used in discussion groups that met in cities across America in the 1990s and early 2000s.