…are you still here?
in this beautiful light that accentuates all of your best qualities?
the only qualities that speak to my heart.
I watch as tears roll down your cheeks and a smile reaches up to the sky.
Wings spread, we fly
and in outstretched hands layers of
human reaction,
mountains appear,
immovable.
Yet time has a way of eroding
everything but the truth.
Tripping Over Joy
What is the difference
Between your experience of Existence
And that of a saint?
The saint knows
That the spiritual path
Is a sublime chess game with God
And that the Beloved
Has just made such a Fantastic Move
That the saint is now continually
Tripping over Joy
And bursting out in Laughter
And saying, “I Surrender!”
Whereas, my dear,
I am afraid you still think
You have a thousand serious moves.”
― Hafiz, I Heard God Laughing: Poems of Hope and Joy
I wake up for nine days with the chin of an eternally optimistic chocolate Lab resting on my hand or arm, with tail wagging and bright eyes imploring, “let’s play!” Because she is the sweetest and most well behaved critter on four legs, I surrender to the hour, 6:15, throw on some clothes, harness her up and we explore the neighborhood–new to me and always new to her no matter how many times she has sniffed that patch of ground.
She doesn’t know me but loves me regardless and I don’t know her but the feelings are mutual. It is the wonderful thing about dogs and I personally am grateful for a little extra LOVE this week! Thank you Lily.
…this glorious moment, this presence and our heart, the jewel that provides us everything.
The Stairway of Existence
We are not in pursuit of formalities or fake religious laws,
for through the stairway of existence we have come to God’s door.
We are people who need love, because love
is the soul’s life, love is simply creation’s
greatest joy.
Through the stairway of existence, O through
the stairway of existence Hafiz,
have you now come, have we now all come,
to the Beloved’s door.
–Hafiz, from a Year with Hafiz by D. Ladinsky
A Different View
Pale grey skies
pierced by red shingled roofs
and a line of trees,
ragged silhouette upon a soft horizon.
In between here and there,
metal towers carry rows of wire for miles
across narrow strips of vacant land,
a slice of green in an otherwise homogenous zone
of concrete and pavement and compliance.
Still, the ocean roars,
the late afternoon breeze still brings with it
an invitation to roam;
to discover that there is nothing between here and there
except the knowing of love and beauty
that is the nature of everything–
never mind the appearance to me while glancing over this very different view.
It is the same.
Sunrise Pickering along Lake Ontario
“The Infinite is working in everything. All the different eddies of motion called life are controlled by that Cosmic Intelligence”~Paramahansa Yogananda
If so, there is no need to be concerned for this or that, run here or there, feel less than or that anything should be more, better or different as it is exactly as it should be. How could it be otherwise? As such we can all enjoy a stress free and peaceful Monday leading into a whole week of the same.
Be Still 