What is hell?

What is hell?
I feared the flames and torture,
As a child hearing our minister sermonize about it.
This alternated with the message,
Of unlimited love and acceptance,
From Jesus, God and the saints.
This always confused me.
And ultimately I abandoned God,
Who I felt had abandoned me.
But spirit always called to me.
That never stopped.
And it must come from somewhere.
Whether named or unnamed
Whether organized into a hierarchy,
Of priests and ministers,
Or found in the wonder of all we see,
The awe that even with all the damage,
Humans have inflicted on the earth,
That it is still reborn,
Resilient and ever new,
The waves and tides,
The storms thunder,
That shakes our very foundation.
The blessed seasons of birth, death,
And renewal.
The mystery, the unfathomable reach
Of time, of our universe.
And here we are, with our petty squabbles
And concerns.
Here we are,
The beings who can truly witness it,
And we throw that ability away.
Losing it in desire, greed, lust, boredom.
If we could just learn,
To sit, listening to the miracle
Of birdsong, the cries of a new baby of any species,

The sounds of mating foxes and lovers…
It is enormous,
And so little to ask of us,
To use these brilliant minds to look,
To cooperate, to find connection.
How do we climb out of hell?
With love,
With insight,
With becoming who we are truly meant to be,
Open and without an agenda.
Basking in the universal love,
That evolution has allowed us,
To see, hear, taste and feel.
What a miracle,
What an opportunity to return,
To who we really are….