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To support the development of this site and the work of soul friendship you are invited to express your appreciation through the spiritual practice of Dana

RADIANT POEM

IF

by Rudyard Kipling

If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you
But make allowance for their doubting too,

If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or being hated, don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise:

If you can dream--and not make dreams your master,
If you can think--and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same;

If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build 'em up with worn-out tools:  

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it all on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breath a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew

To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: "Hold on!"

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with kings--nor lose the common touch,

If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you;
If all men count with you, but none too much,
If you can fill the unforgiving minute

With sixty seconds' worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And--which is more--you'll be a Man, my son!

RADIANT SONG

ONE OF US

by Joan Osborne

If God had a name what would it be?
And would you call it to his face?
If you were faced with him
In all his glory
What would you ask if you had just one question?

And yeah, yeah, God he is great
Yeah, yeah, God he is good
Yeah, yeah, yeah-yeah-yeah

What if God was one of us?
Just a slob like one of us
Just a stranger on the bus
Trying to make his way home

If God had a face what would it look like?
And would you wanna to see
If seeing meant that
You would have to believe
In things like heaven and in Jesus and the saints
And all the prophets

And yeah, yeah, God he is great
Yeah, yeah, God he is good
Yeah, yeah, yeah-yeah-yeah

What if God was one of us?
Just a slob like one of us
Just a stranger on the bus
Trying to make his way home

Trying to make his way home
Back up to heaven all alone
Nobody calling on the phone
Except the Pope maybe in Rome

[Instrumental]

And yeah, yeah, God he is great
Yeah, yeah, God he is good
Yeah, yeah, yeah-yeah-yeah

What if God was one of us?
Just a slob like one of us
Just a stranger on the bus
Trying to make his way home

Just trying to make his way home
Like a holy rolling stone
Back up to heaven all alone
Just trying to make his way home
Nobody calling on the phone
Except the Pope maybe in Rome.

What if God Were One of Us?

One of this Irish storyteller’s favourite things to do is to pick up his white guitar and sing songs.  I have sung at various venues in England and Ireland with many kinds of singer and musician.

Sometimes you come across a song that simply speaks to the heart. It is a song that works on many levels. A very talented young lady sang such a song at a club I recently played at. It was the song “One of Us” by Joan Osborne.

The chorus goes:

"What if God was one of us?
Just a slob like one of us
Just a stranger on the bus
Trying to make his way home."

  (see full song lyrics - left)

For this writer it is almost a mystical text. It asks a question that invites you into the mystery.  Some might think that these lines are sacrilegious and that they are in some way dishonoring of religious sentiment.  This is only if you take the words literally.  Even then, this storyteller thinks that in a literal sense these are an invitation that manages to be both funny and profound.

Some people have issues around the word God.  This is hardly surprising given the way we are as a species, having used the word for purposes of greed, power and self-interest.  However, every time you see or read the word God it can be changed to the word Love (yes, with a capital L).  You can also change the word from His to Her.

For this writer, the song is a great invitation to the quest into Love.  Like many great questions it invites the creative imagination.  It does this through the opening words “What if…” The great poet and writer Rudyard Kipling composed a world famous poem of invitation using these same words.

When I sing this song or any song (or any song I sing for that matter) I sing from different levels of intention.  I sing for entertainment. I sing to invite the heart into the awareness of God. In other cultures this is called Kirtan. This is what most authentic singer/songwriters intend to invite.  This is not just sentimental love songs but invitations to know that you are not a stranger to Love nor is Love a stranger to you.

Of course, we are estranged from Love most of the time.  Music and song invite us to remember this estrangement and try to make our way home. We are the prodigal sons and daughters of Creation traveling on the bus of time and form, not quite sure where this mode of transport is heading.

For this storyteller God is one of us and all of us together. God is apart and whole and wholly us.  You are not the Godhead but neither are you separate from the Godhead.  You are a reflection of the divine in form, ready to radiate the return to Love.  All mystics and soul friends invite you to live this life of Love flow from the eternal.

God is a stranger on the bus trying to find his way home in the sense that you are estranged from your essence and you will feel incomplete until you find each other.  There was a mystic, I think it was Meister Eckhart, who said:

It isn’t so much that you are looking for God (or love) but that God is looking for you.

This is the ultimate homecoming.  When this homecoming is felt within the heart then no one is truly a stranger.  Everyone on the bus, train, car or any other form of transport you can think of is seen to be God playing at finding His or Her way back home.

© Tony Cuckson 2008

God - Home Planet