Simon Paul Harrison

William Blake once wrote,

“To see a world in a grain of sand 
And a heaven in a wild flower…”

We’re going to turn this one on it’s head, because it’s almost too easy. No, I’ll be more accurate. The illusion that we can do it is almost too easy. It plays too much to our pre-exising ideas of beauty and worthiness. We constantly need to flip to the other side of things to ensure we’re not tricking ourselves into a shallow and superficial relationship with life.

So, I’ve got a very simple challenge for you today:

Can you find heaven in a turd? It could be your own, your child’s, an animal’s. Any will do.

Not mine, you’ll be pleased to know.

Spend a few moments with it. Look deeply into the nature of the turd. Can you see the same beauty as in a wildflower? I’m not saying the same kind of beauty. I’m saying the same essence, the same rhythm. Beauty that goes beyond beauty. Big difference.

There are a few words you can substitute into the question to replace “heaven”. It’s such a loaded word, just use whichever you feel most comfortable with. Oneness, peace, beauty, freedom, might be good starting points, to name but a few.

Is looking for beauty in turds crazy? Maybe. But if this proves difficult it shoots up a huge red flag for us that we have arranged life in hierarchies. We might have decided some parts of life are superior to others. Some are to be pulled closer, while others are to be pushed away. Peace will be very elusive if this is the case. We’ll always be fighting against life.

So, in a strange way, we might just cultivate great peace by finding heaven in a turd. Happy searching!