"In trying to show what binds together the seeming scatter of things, I find myself pointing to an elusive energy, a shaping power that flashes forth in nature, in gesture, in human speech and action. And when I glimpse it, I can do little more than cry, 'There it is!' All the names we use for the fire at the heart of matter are risky — God, Yahweh, Creator, Allah, Manitou, among countless others — for each comes freighted with a long, compromising history. From all the possible names I favor spirit, because the word seems to catch the lightness, radiance, and wind-like subtlety of the power that I seek.
"This power seeks me, as well, or so it seems, for time and again I feel the pressure of an inescapable force that is sometimes delicate, like a wing brushing my face, and sometimes fierce, like a hand squeezing my heart."
