"The Bright Field"

Turning Aside to Behold the Strange Sights

"The Bright Field" by the Welsh poet R.S. Thomas is one of my favorite poems:

I have seen the sun break through
to illuminate a small field
for a while, and gone my way
and forgotten it. But that was the pearl
of great price, the one field that had
treasure in it. I realize now
that I must give all that I have
to possess it. Life is not hurrying

on to a receding future, nor hankering after
an imagined past. It is the turning
aside like Moses to the miracle
of the lit bush, to a brightness
that seemed as transitory as your youth
once, but is the eternity that awaits you.

The reason the poem resonates with me is because it captures the thesis of Hunting Magic Eels, that modern disenchantment is due to pervasive attention blindness. Re-enchantment, therefore, is a practice of attention.

Every day we pass by sacred moments. Each of these moments is the pearl of great price. Our days are filled with fields of hidden treasure. And yet, as I describe The Shape of Joy, we hurry past, lost within ourselves. Trapped in nostalgia or regret about yesterday. Fretful or planning for tomorrow. We're never present to the moment and, therefore, miss the sacred encounter.

To see God we must turn aside, like Moses, to the miracle of the lit bush. These are the "strange sights" I describe in Hunting Magic Eels, those moments in everyday life where eternity awaits us.