One broken beautiful thing at a time

You can relish a rainbow and a cup of tea, sunrise and a flock of birds, a cemetery walk and a friend's newborn, the first blush of wildflowers in a patch of dirt and the looping rapture of an old favorite song. ... You can't mend a world, but you can mend the hole in the polka- dot pocket of your favorite coat. They are not the same thing, but they are part of the same thing, which is all there is — life living itself through us, moment by moment, one broken beautiful thing at a time.

When She Asked Me About Prayer

I don't know, but maybe
it has something to do
with sitting on the roof
and watching what's left

of the lunar eclipse while
crickets sing silence
into ecstatic buzz
and joy spills into my cells

till the idea of self washes away.
Or, when I'm shucked by loss.
The self in tatters. Raw.
Naked. Unable to know.

Utterly flayed. Then.
That's when I pray.

Prayer has the same inner dynamics as love

Prayer is easy only for beginners and for those who are already Saints. During all the long years in between, it is difficult. Why? Because prayer has the same inner dynamics as love, and love is sweet only in its initial stage, when we first fall in love, and again in its final, mature stage. In between, love is hard work, dogged fidelity, and needs willful commitment beyond what is normally provided by our emotions and our imagination.

To work on your self

One way to work on your self is by being present in the body. Another way is by expanding the heart. A third way is by quieting the mind. The wise person finds a way to work on all three at the same time.

Solitude can be a homecoming

Solitude is one of the most precious things in the human spirit. It is different from loneliness. When you are lonely, you become acutely conscious of your own separation. Solitude can be a homecoming to your own deepest belonging. One of the lovely things about us as individuals is the incommensurable in us.

How to be a Poet

Make a place to sit down.
Sit down. Be quiet.

Breathe with unconditional breath the unconditioned air.
Shun electric wire.
Communicate slowly.
Live a three-dimensional life;
stay away from screens.

Stay away from anything that obscures the place it is in.
There are no unsacred places;
there are only sacred places and desecrated places.

Accept what comes from silence.
Make the best you can of it.
Of the little words that come out of the silence,

The Now

One of the dysfunctional patterns of the mind is the assumption that the Now needs to be filled with something all the time.

Contemplation allows the soul to breathe

A contemplative life is not withdrawal. It is an active engagement born of stillness. Contemplation allows the soul to breathe and to meet the world with presence rather than reaction. Silence is not empty, it is full of answers if we care to listen.

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