That Longest Road
Bob Ryan - vocals and guitar
(Lyrics)
Words & Music by Bob Ryan (C)2010

I feel the wind blow
Moving right on through
Calling me to follow
As if somehow I knew

The speaker and the doer
Where actions follow words
Calling me to enter
To the highways of the birds

And I tread that road without symmetry
As like to laugh when I should cry
Sure to bypass signs to guide me
As I tread that longest road

Everywhere I travel
I seek to find the Friend
On every bridge we manage
Over every fence we mend

The thinker and the dreamer
Heart alongside the mind
Calling us forever
To be wise as well as kind

But I tread that road without symmetry...

And the light from the Mirror lights the room
With a rich and heavenly glow
And the distance between us melts away
As we travel the longest road
For me the longest road has been traveling from the place of having a materialist point of view over to the point of view of a spiritual being.  Where the beginning orientation of my approach to life is informed by the fact that I am ultimately a spiritual being who is, for a very short time, intimately associated with my physical aspect - that my spiritual reality existed before my body and it will exist after my body has returned to the earth.

And it is also true of each and every person I meet.

And that those great beings - the Manifestations of God - such as Moses, Zoaraster, Krishna, Buddha, Jesus, Muhammad and Baha'u'llah, have faithfully revealed divine guidance throughout the ages to assist us on our journey.  Encountering sincere followers of these Divine Educators is always a blessing and a continuing source of assistance and encouragement.

And the motivating power and source of all of this light is that Great Spirit, God, the Creator.
"Having created the world and all that liveth and moveth therein, He, through the direct operation of His unconstrained and sovereign Will, chose to confer upon man the unique distinction and capacity to know Him and to love Him -- a capacity that must needs be regarded as the generating impulse and the primary purpose underlying the whole of creation.... Upon the inmost reality of each and every created thing He hath shed the light of one of His names, and made it a recipient of the glory of one of His attributes. Upon the reality of man, however, He hath focused the radiance of all of His names and attributes, and made it a mirror of His own Self. Alone of all created things man hath been singled out for so great a favor, so enduring a bounty."

(Baha'u'llah, Gleanings from the Writings of Baha'u'llah, p. 64)
The potential of the mirror of the human reality, when oriented toward God, is such that it can be free from all rancor, hate and envy - it can be an effective agent of change in the ongoing effort to realize a spiritual civilization on this earthly plane.  This is a journey full of joy and pain, of requiring both great effort and a profound "letting go."  Needing a great faith in our true nature as beings created of Spirit as well as an ongoing process of regulating those impulses arising from ignorance of that true self.

It is rarely a path trod with constancy.  Often the road is characterized by the pulse of crisis and victory.  And I am so very appreciative of the help of those many, many souls I encounter every day who are conscious wayfarers of the road.  Those who extend a warm welcome and show a great patience in the face of tests and difficulties.