Perhaps all the dragons in our lives

are only princesses waiting to see us act,

just once, with beauty and courage.

Perhaps everything that frightens us, is,

in it’s deepest essence,

something helpless that wants our love.

Rilke
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So whatever pain or problems we have, if it helps us to find a quality of presence—-where we can open to it, see it, feel it, include it and find the truth concealed in it——that is our healing.

He thought, I love you.
She said aloud, as if she heard
the words; I love you too.
He then knew
Yes. We are one.

For more haiku, tanka and other interesting poetic forms check out” One Deep Breath

He stared out at the ocean and said, “Look at the view, young lady. Look at the view.”
And every day, in some little way, I try to do what he said. I try to look at the view. That’s all. Words of wisdom from a man with not a dime in his pocket, no place to go, nowhere to be. Look at the view. When I do what he said, I am never disappointed.
— Anna Quindlen in A Short Guide to a Happy Life

To Practice This Thought: Take time to really see what is right in front of you.

On Toscanini’s eightieth birthday, someone asked his son, Walter, what his father considered his most important achievement. The reply was, “For him there can be no such thing. Whatever he happens to be doing at the moment is the biggest thing in his life — whether it is conducting a symphony or peeling an orange.”

To Practice This Thought: Stop whatever you are doing and remember that it is the biggest thing in your life. Then return to it.

This is not a literal dialog between two people exactly, rather it is about a dialog that took place a few years ago. I offer this for Poetry Thursday readers and all others who may find an interest.

When We Met

We spoke of those times of our foolishness

not without a hint of nostalgia,

of the feel of it coursing through our blood.

We spoke of it as if it were a good thing

to speak of, to remind ourselves of that

pain, that glory of sorts, that anguish of youth.

It was a miracle actually, we could speak at all,

as if it were just a simple story diluted with time

like a liquid ferment that changes colors like Fall.

The miracle was in the speaking,

in the braggadocio, the casual way with death

that denies the real and smells like a tomb.

We sweat in those times, now in absentia.

We were lost in the circles, those

circles of redundancy, an endless

loop that comes back to haunt us

recalling the time we stopped on the loop

and couldn’t remember how we got there,

so we got high and jumped back in to take

the turn ever lower on the spiral, to

the bottom at the end of the line of the times.

We won’t speak of it again….

The pain of its memory felt too good.

LotusFlower

When I awaken

The universe opens

When the lotus blooms

More haiku here at One Deep Breath

“YOUR EXPERIENCE OF LIFE

ISN’T BASED ON YOUR LIFE, IT’S BASED ON

WHAT YOU PAY ATTENTION TO.”

It must go by a way which is the way of ignorance.

In order to possess what you do not possess

You must go by the way of dispossession.

In order to arrive at what you are not

You must go through the way in which you are not.

And what you do not know is the only thing you know

And what you own is what you do not own

And where you are is where you are not.

The Spirituality of Imperfection.

T.S. Elliot described this spiritual path of the via negativia in “East Coker”]

Location, location, location….

My favorite shot from our trip to the Blue Ridge Parkway, near Blowing Rock, NC

Nature is nurture

Sunlight birthing our wholeness

warming us all

Let your light so shine

Nurturing glow abundant

Filling the whole earth

More haiku here at One Deep Breath