Life is Making Us Luminous
November 2, 2025
Story # 47
Dia de los Muertos
All Souls Day
Written by Bill Pautler
Life is Making Us Luminous
“The spiritual life does not remove us from the world
but leads us deeper into it”
Henri J.M. Nouwen
Life Is Making Us Luminous
I am still sitting in the wake of a family member's death. There are just two of us kicking around the house, and when I leave, there will be just one.
Life all around keeps revealing itself to us, in its quiet perfection. The lizard in front of me lies in the sun; the dragonfly darts up, down, and about, the sun spreading light on all it can reach, and the insects coat my auditory system with a low-level orchestral cadence, as the random bird cry pierces the ambience.
The pearl in the oyster is quietly formed, a piece of sand has disrupted its perfectly sculpted environment. A small grain of sand, an irritant, becomes the catalyst to create an illustrious piece of beauty.
The oyster doesn’t seek the pearl
It simply responds to irritation, to what wounds it. Our quiet and patient response to the discomforts of life becomes beauty through our inner alchemy. Abrasions turned into grace.
Our shell protects us, but it also confines us
We need our shells — our habits, our defenses — until the day we don’t. When we open, even slightly, the hidden light inside us glimmers into the world.
Our pearl is not created by striving
It forms quietly, slowly, through a natural intelligence that knows how to heal and transform. Life knows what it’s doing. Life takes care of life. Maybe we only need to allow the process.
The ocean carries the oyster
It doesn’t cling to the tide or fight the current. Universal Consciousness carries us. We can resist, but it's fruitless. Better to rest in the vastness that holds us — a reminder that life carries life. We are not sustained by our past or by our future; we are only held in the now by the hand of Consciousness.
Our pearl belongs to no one and everyone
Our pearl starts as our secret gift to ourself. Developed deep in our hearts by our inner alchemy. But true beauty cannot be contained; it is revealed to all, that have eyes to see and hearts that are softened.
Sacred Creating
In the dark cathedral of the ocean
the oyster kneels in silence
it does not chase the pearl—
it dreams it into being
a moon born from sorrow
slowly gathering light in its sleep
No hand commands the opening
no will directs the shining
Within the hush of salt and shadow
a sacred labor unfolds unseen—
pain turning to prayer
darkness into radiance
The sea does not instruct
it holds, it breathes, it remembers
Every tide is a hymn to trust
Every grain of sand, a messenger of grace
And when the shell parts at last
the pearl does not boast—
it simply reflects the infinite
the still face of the Beloved
who has been forming it all along
So too we are consecrated
softened by mystery
polished by the unseen hand
And when we open
we discover:
Life was never against us
Life was making us luminous
deep and sacred creating to you all bill
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