SPIRITUAL SOAP: Did You Forget What You're Looking For?

Against transcendental credentialism + a poem for finding It again.

Before we were The Black Sheep, we were a newsletter named Spiritual Soap. Please enjoy this article from our history!

Here is a poem for remembering the moments when you understood.

This is the cycle I’m constantly swirling around in; sucked into the daily noise, wilting after too much time without nourishment, remembering what I’ve strayed from, and returning to reality bearing the gifts of realization.

We’re not meant to stay in those moments of pure connection to meaning and transcendence.

Unless you’re going to stay meditating on the mountaintop, you have to come back and do the hard work of helping society function while bringing bits of transcendence to others.

Personally, I think it’s harder and cooler to touch the ecstasy of higher understanding and humbly come back down to share your discoveries with others. What’s so impressive about transcendence found as a monk in your mountain temple maintained by the villagers who work to make everyone’s lives more livable?

In my philosophy (that I’m totally making up as I go), we are all monks, but only for a moment.

The joyful Uber driver, the insightful stranger, the friendly cashier, the caring boss, the understanding lover—they are all monks for a moment, offering you a slice of deeper connection and openness if you’ll take it.

We can all be each other’s guides to higher being. Do not leave it to the professionals.

The poem below was born here, on a cozy rainy day, and with the help of good coffee (Maryland, near DC).

You’ve forgotten again,

gone in the wrong direction and can’t remember

why you left.

Fear stokes the appetite 

for material needs and fleeting hits of ego fuel.