The ultimate goal

The goal of education and training, 

Of learning to contain and control 

 Our wilder impulses, 

Is not to keep us fenced in, but grounded: 

To give us the tools and resources we need 

To more fully and more safely 

Live into our freedom, 

Appreciating and exploring 

What the world has to offer 

 Without losing our bearings; 

To ensure we’ll always know our way home.

Follow your heart

What would it take for you to make that shift; 

To be and do what flows easily; 

 To follow your heart; to listen for what it loves

 Instead of trying to mold yourself 

To a life that doesn’t fit?

Calming

There’s such appeal in emptiness: 

The silent clouded sky and waveless sea; 

The carefully constructed boundary, 

The easy path, the obvious destination — 

So peaceful, yet so rare in life… 

Breathe in, and let the calm 

 Assuage your troubled soul.

The music in the fog

Fog, that which obscures, 

 Makes some things clear. 

Once we ignore distractions, 

We begin to see the pattern that’s emerging: 

The shape of things; 

 How everything’s connected, 

Like musical notes upon an invisible staff, 

Singing a song only the heart can hear.

Empathy

A heart that is open might discover 

That even the simplest things 

Can arouse empathy: 

How is it that a simple wet rock 

Can awaken us to the pain and fear 

Of the hunted?

Connectedness

Standing here, on the edge of the earth, 

Watching as the sun, in its leaving, 

Colors the clouds, which color the sea, 

Which reaches out to repeatedly touch the land, 

How can we not see the connectedness 

 Of everything that is?

Simple needs

Look around you, and notice 

How, when our requirements are simple, 

Those simple needs are met; 

We have only to bow our heads…

On your own

No matter how many have gone before you, 

How much you’ve learned, 

Or how well you’ve been supported, 

At some point you’ll be journeying on your own, Forced to depend on your own inner resources — 

And there’s beauty in that. Can you see it?

Echolalia

The words — they tumble out 

From some mysterious inner source,

 Impelled by thoughts, emotions, memories;

 Triggered by images and events… 

How much of what we say is conscious, 

And how much automatic: stimulus, 

Leading to response, 

 While our hearts are off, dancing, 

Somewhere else altogether?

Open the door

Perhaps the time has come 

To open the door; to release the chains 

And reveal your inner self — 

 Not just to step into your shadows, 

But to welcome in the light.

Promise of dawn

Even as the dark is pulling at us 

With its angry tentacles 

The light interrupts, 

Calling to us in a blaze of color, 

Promising us that we will find 

 A way through to belonging.

Beauty exposed

Those times when, like a tree in winter, 

We feel all naked and exposed, 

 Knowing that everyone can see 

How confused we are; how frantic 

Our attempts to make some sense, 

To find some purpose for ourselves… 

Why do we assume there is no beauty in that?

Like the silver seas

Just as it takes a mix of clouds and light 

To turn the seas to silver, 

It’s the mix of our life experiences — 

Dark and light — that burnishes our souls, 

Rubbing up against us until we shine…

Dark edges

Life does, inevitably, have its dark edges; 

Those moments when we find ourselves 

 Standing in a place 

We were never meant to stand, 

Feeling emotions we never hoped to feel, 

Knowing things we never wanted to know — 

And yet, the clouds still drift before the wind, 

The sun, and moon, and tides still rise and fall, 

As if to say, this, too, shall pass, 

And what is now will someday be a memory…

What isolation teaches

What if we all agree that this is simply 

A dark corridor, that everyone must walk 

In single file, sampling isolation, 

In order that we might find ourselves 

 Back in the light, and appreciating 

 The blessings of community?

Rationalizing the irrational

As the cracks in our society deepen,

 I keep wondering: What is this urge we see, 

 This burning urge to destroy, to enact revenge 

On all that we hold dear, all that supports us? 

Why so much rage? Where does it come from? 

And why do we insist on justifying 

And rationalizing the irrational? 

Why does our hunger for connection 

 Drive us to demolish what connects us?

Echoes of the magnificence within

Think of that surge of joy we feel,

 Upon seeing the magnificence 

 Of which the sky is capable, 

As a sort of call and response: 

An echo and reminder 

 Of the magnificent possibilities within us, 

Waiting to bloom forth and be seen.

Waves of experience

The curl of the wave as it rises,

That slight backward pull

As it draws on its resources 

The clarity with which we see through it,

The color that’s lost 

In the splash as it falls to the ground…

Perhaps they’re an echo 

Of our progress through life — 

The clarity we find in our rising expectations, 

Fueled as they are by both present and past;1

The loss of life’s color 

When our hopes are dashed,

And the never-ending progression

From stillness to hope and then, once again,

Loss, and then stillness; then hope…

Lighting the way

Never fear, but trust, and keep walking: 

The way forward and the means 

Will surely be illuminated 

 By those who’ve gone before us 

To light the way.

Reduced perspective

The less we are able to comprehend 

The details that enrich the landscape of life, 

And the more our perspectives are reduced, 

With a corresponding loss of the larger picture.

On a sunny day

A sunny day, 

And the world seems full of possibilities; 

Our sense of isolation less debilitating… 

We remember we are not alone in this.

Walk and reflect

A walk, and a reflection: 

Two gifts we give ourselves 

 To help keep us on the path 

Toward health, toward growth, 

And a fuller, richer life…

As clouds recede

Though the storm still shakes the trees 

And lifts the waves to crash upon the beach, 

The sun still rises, edging the receding clouds 

With color, and with light, reminding us 

This, too, shall pass, and hope will rise again.

Focus on the light

Why, when there is so much light, 

Do we insist on focusing 

On the darkness that lies within? 

When will we learn to trust that the dark 

Will always be contained and circumscribed 

 By the light?

Textures of the ordinary

In wintry times, 

 When chills and disappointments mount, 

We find ourselves dreaming fondly of summer. 

And in summertime, 

When heat can steal our breath and tempers rise, 

We long for cooler days. 

In troubled times, inevitably, 

 We hunger for and treasure 

The textures of the ordinary 

 Life we left behind, savoring the memories 

And longing for the past to return. 

 When will we learn to patiently accept what is?

How shall we endure this storm?

In the midst of the storm 

We take shelter as best we can, 

Protecting what we can 

And hoping that what losses we endure 

Won’t be too hard to overcome. 

But the measures that have been taken 

Over the past decades and centuries 

 To protect the intangibles in our lives; 

The principles that guide us, 

The institutions and the promises — 

How shall we protect them from the storm?

Sunlight and shadows

Sunlight and shadow, both familiar, 

Shifting as the day revolves: 

Why, then, do we worry, 

When the shadows fall on us? 

Can we not remember 

 That the light always returns — 

Or choose to move to where the light falls next?

The light of love

It’s not that this scene, or you, or even I 

 Might be considered beautiful. 

It’s the light; it’s always the light: 

Like love, it can make even the simplest thing

 Attractive and appealing. 

Where is the light of love 

Shining in your life today?

Brighter days

Whatever challenges you face, 

Do not lose hope, but trust 

That you are cared for, and watched over,

 And there are brighter days to come.

Bridging the gap

When the gap between us looks insurmountable, 

Step back; remind yourself 

That beneath our disagreements we’re connected, 

And then begin again 

 The challenging task of building bridges, 

 Reaching out across the chasm, 

 Trusting the common ground that unites us both.

Wake up and celebrate

And so it begins again: another year, 

Another opportunity to learn and grow; 

To set aside old habits and build new ones; 

To tackle all the tasks we’ve left undone; 

To pontificate less and listen more 

 And find a way to reach across the gap 

That separates us from that we’re meant to love. 

But first — wake up! And celebrate! 

 And breathe a prayer of gratitude 

 That we’re still here, and still have the chance 

To become and do 

 Who and what we’re born for: 

 To achieve and fulfill our destiny.