Month: January 2018

There’s a Big Love Out There

big love dining room

Big Love

There’s a Big Love out there
Expanding and expanding
Like the Universe
No one has seen its edges
Not even come close
Expanding beyond stars
Beyond galaxies
Beyond bounds

That Big Love out there
Keeps moving, growing
That’s how it stays alive
It never sits still, never waits
Always pushing further
Beyond you
Beyond dreams
Beyond me

The Big Love vibe out there
Can you feel it?
Close your eyes, open up
Can you feel it now?
Expanding inside, expanding
Pushing against your walls
Beyond prejudice
Beyond self
Beyond I

It’s a Big Love thing, you know
Vast and beyond reach
But in you, in me
In that tree, in song and story
A dog’s smile, a cat’s eyes
Sunshine and Autumn’s smell
Beyond sense
Beyond senses
Beyond seeing

There’s nothing beyond Big Love
But nothing outside it
Our attempts to contain
Failures of our smallness
Small minds, small hearts
Our rules can’t rule it
Beyond religion
Beyond law
Beyond isms

Big Love defies definition
As definitions have borders
How do you hold
Beyond in a box?
Why even try?
We can’t handle its Bigness
Beyond thought
Beyond science
Beyond us

But Big Love defines us
The definition of definitions
The One unity, shared
By all despite all differences
Despite borders, despite spite
Uncontained contains all
Beyond tribe
Beyond kin
Beyond us

Big Love is expanding ever
We can’t stop it
It will not be conquered
Or caged, or labelled
By those it contains
Those it embraces
Beyond fear
Beyond hatred
Beyond me

There’s a Big Love out there
Meant for you and me
A Gift beyond all giving
A Hope beyond all hope
You can’t run from it
It’s too Big
Beyond
Beyond
Beyond

 

Ronald Kok, January 21, 2018

The Tenacity of Hope

Ronald Kok, The Tenacity of Hope, Markers on paper, 2018

If you’re like me, Hope is something you may have in short supply these days. But with that in mind I want to point out the almost-obvious: You still have a supply.

That’s the funny thing about Hope, there seems to always be some, even in the darkest of times and places. I know that depression and circumstances have driven people to complete despair, but, amazingly, this is not the rule.  It is astounding how much human beings can endure and still cling to Hope. Really, Hope is what has given people the strength to press on, to keep going, to shake off the awful stuff and get on their feet.

Hope is tenacious. I looked up “tenacious” in Webster’s dictionary. The first definition given was “not easily pulled apart: COHESIVE, TOUGH”. A synonym given was “STRONG”.  Hope is not easily broken. Hope is like super glue that way: A tiny drop of it can adhere to your heart and mind and soul so strongly that almost nothing can tear you apart.

Hope, really, is a testament to the human spirit. What is the source of Hope? We place it in many things – God, other people, our circumstances, our money – but when you think of it, Hope finds its source in us. If Hope was just external, it wouldn’t have the strength or cohesion we need to endure hardship. The truth is, we are the main authors of the Hope that sustains us. This is the true miracle – We have within us the tenacity we need to keep our heads above water even in the worst of storms.

The artwork posted here is my first finished piece for 2018. It came from an idea given to me by someone who saw my artwork on line. She envisioned a woman drowning, yet drowning in her own tears, and those “waters” were things like shame, abuse, depression, etc.; above her was a hand coming down, “Hope”, just out of reach. I took that idea and put my own spin on some things. Overall, the image is more melodramatic than I prefer, but that in and of itself is not a bad thing – Sometimes we need images to point directly to our internal battles. Artists can get a little too cute with making things obscure and I have certainly been guilty of that.

Hope soars down in the form of an eagle, a symbol of the Divine. To me, that can be God and/or the Image of God in all of us.

Ultimately, I have the hope that an image like this helps you see that there is always Hope. It is tenacious – strong, resilient – and so are you.