Tension

We like to believe
that we are different
and stand above nature.

A little more chosen.

But our conflicts
are just weather
in another language.

We fight for truth –
but truth is a cloud of possibilities
and exists only until something breaks it.

Our opinions are
lightning cutting through the cloud.
They create direction,
define form –
but leave the rest
in darkness.

Every choice requires a sacrifice.

The one who fights
for truth
is in fact fighting
for a fragment.

To mistake direction for wholeness
is to get lost in the illusion.

Human free will,
collectively speaking,
is no freer than a thundercloud’s choice
to hold its charge
or release it.

But that
which seems inevitable
emerges
from countless small choices
of direction
within its own cloud of possibilities.

And when directions diverge
tension arises.
Dark thunderclouds gather.
If it continues, they grow.

Eventually, the lightning becomes inevitable.

But when compromises are made
the tension decreases.
Then rain falls without lightning.

And when people meet
in mutual understanding
the tension falls quickly.
The cloud dissolves
and the sun appears.
Then neither rain
nor lightning is needed.

But a completely cloudless sky
for too long –
means drought.

And in that way, everything is
as it must be.

Lightning strikes where it must,
rain falls when it must.
Sometimes the clouds dissolve
and the sun appears.

We may believe we control the course,
but we are just as much
a part of the storm
as the cloud itself.

So we play our roles.
Some gather charge.
Others release it.
Some try to calm the wind,
others intensify it.

The one who does not learn
to ground their inner tensions
becomes just another charge
in the cloud.

The storm is also driven
by stories
of what threatens us.

The one who decides
what is to be feared
and who is to carry the blame –
also directs the lightning.

And the people are the lightning rod –
once fear has taken root.
There, the lightning always seeks
the easiest path –
through the shallowest thoughts.

And in the belief
that we are defending the good,
we are deceived into fighting
for our illusions.

Until the lightning strikes.
It illuminates the clouds
and reveals, for a moment,
not only the path that was taken –
but all the others
that were not.

Pain.

The tension fades.

The insight remains.

The clouds scatter
and the sun appears.

And in the end
insight becomes
just another cloud.