War Stories

Col. (Ret) Nate Slate: A Military Homecoming

Homecoming is the quiet recognition that we were never apart, that in the trials and the light alike we move within the same divine pulse binding my family, my service, and the turning of the galaxies.

As I contemplated my homecoming to America, I began to think about what a homecoming is.  For sure, it was being reunited with loved ones – my wife and my children.  But, on a deeper level, it begged the question of separation.  Were we ever truly apart.  In a spiritual sense, it seemed that my family was always very near to me.  When I discuss this experience with my loved ones, I’m convinced that they shared my service in a very real way. 

Advertisement

In a spiritual sense, I never felt closer to divinity than during the trials of the deployment.  So, what is a spiritual homecoming?  If we are created in the image of God, can we be separated?  Do we exist by way of divine thought?  Are we part of the divine pulse?  If we are, then separation is a delusion, a fancy of the corporeal mind – an exercise of the human ego. 

God’s magnificence is manifest across the universe.  There are an incomprehensible number of miraculous manifestations to consider.  Is our homecoming simply regaining our sense of belonging to creation?  When we choose to reconnect to divinity and realize our oneness, is this the homecoming we all seek? 

 

Advertisement

HOMECOMING

 

Advertisement

The galaxies,

like a farmer’s fields,

are sewn in radiant suns.

Advertisement

Around them,

life buds – animate and inanimate.

 

Planets and moons move mystically

across the fields,

revolving in turn,

reflecting light.

 

At the center of the universe

a resplendent sun

transcends science

and convolutes a black hole

into a spring of life.

 

Suns, planets, moons –

life, animate and inanimate –

move to the center

and drink from the well.

Advertisement

What readers are saying

Generating a quick summary of the conversation...

This summary is AI-generated. AI can make mistakes and this summary is not a replacement for reading the comments.