I cradle my brand-new grand niece,
fresh from the other side,
and look into her wide-open, unfocused brown eyes.
Why would she so soon focus on earthly things
when she's just come from the Infinite,
just looked eye-to-eye into the great and open Origin?

At one point
we were all just seconds from the Beginning,
still dazzled by the face of God.

And we knew.

And then we became babies–
mortals–
and lost our original vision,
shifting focus to mom or dad,
the mobile slowly revolving above the bassinet,
the rattle, the breast,
the single, thick finger
around which we wrap all of ours.

Do some children remember?
Do some grow up
still seeing the image of the True Presence,
floating just there, beyond, above?

Imagine somewhere deep in our cells
lies hidden
the memory of that Face.

Text and image © 2012 by Dirk deVries. All rights reserved.