A curiosity of being

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A curiosity of being And the sun dropped like a flame to an empty sky, exploring the endless darkness with the pale light of dawn. In that shining stillness, giant mountains still new from creation rose from the planet surface. In the slowness of time, the dimness of wakening, they sensed the ambient brightness, their granite hands holding the blueness of the sky in cupped astonishment. From this curiosity of being, this vague encounter between density and airiness, the first thought, insubstantial, floated to earth. Where it touched the soil wild grasses sprang up, meadows filled with flowers, faces, fields of nations, pale birches, dark ferns and races, staring up at the spreading light, gazing in awe at the mountain height far above. From this curiosity of being, this vague encounter between mind and mystery, the first prayer rose to the sky circling like a bird. In the slowness of time, more came, then endless waves – great formations, migrations, vast flights of understanding, spiraling eddies of light vanishing into stars that lit the mind of night. And God, in His curiosity of being, looked down, touching the earth with astonished hands.

originally published in Panorama April 2001, slightly revised 2005