Eyes Closed

Under the canopy, eyes closed

The breeze cradling the forest in its arms,

The dance of light and shadow

Ushering in the quiet communion—

I awoke and understood 

That this is how a soul is known—

As a dance of light and shadow,

Eyes closed.

The Secret Heart of Forgiveness

 The secret heart of forgiveness is to stand in a proper relationship with time. We are not part of time’s fabric, tethered to past or future. We are, at every moment, in the eternal now. The transgressions we must forgive belong to a time we no longer have access to. They do not belong to us, but to another age, another way of being.

To understand this about others’ transgressions, we must understand it first about our own. When we break with them and leave them where they lay, we become more fully present in the now, and future possibilities begin to branch in infinite directions. You must afford yourself the opportunity to break with your own past in order to extend the grace of this possibility to others. 

Another Way

I've tried to write my story
But it takes a turn toward silence
Every time the limb I'm standing on
Begins to creak under my weight.

Perhaps its just illusion that
Transforms my speech into a song,
But when the tune undoes me,
And the branch snaps suddenly,

Instinct spreads my arms which may
Have always had these feathers, and
Perhaps the tale I long to tell
Unfolds another way.

The Conscious Observer

 Meditation cultivates our ability to become self-observant, to recognize our own internal patterns of mind, emotion, and decision-making from a place of detachment. The more you do it, the more you come to realize that the observer is actually who you are, and that your habits of thought and emotion are merely that— old habits. They may define you to others, but not to yourself. They are not core to your identity; your identity sits sovereign in the chair of the observer.

And the more you think about that reality, the more you start to wonder whether that true self ever changes at all, or is some sort of enduring, fundamental feature of the universe. I recall having this same level of consciousness when I was very small; the world of experience at my disposal for observation was just extremely limited.

Realizing that the observer is the self is wonderfully liberating; it means that there is infinite possibility for self-reinvention. We can truly change our lives from the inside out. And if we can master ourselves, imagine what else is possible. 

Quiet Hinges

The caves of the wilderness open their doors

To those who walk with an open heart—

Quiet doorways behind swaying pines

Whose hinges creek in the wind,

A slit in the sandstone, buried in shadows

That opens into a small, dark world,

Like a pocket sewn into a seam of time.

If there is anywhere about this earth

The smallest of rents in the veil,

I think it must be in the deep, dark woods,

Or deep in the human soul.

Degrees of Freedom

Clothed in white against the window,

Backlit by the salt glare emptiness 

Of winter’s brazen stare, you sit

Composed, a grin flashes and fades,

Whole worlds rise and fall behind your eyes,

You say nothing. 

                                The love that breathed here

Once feels evanescent now, concealed

Behind statistical probabilities 

Like an atom in the quantum field,

Taking shape only when observed.

The inner workings of the world

Invite us to a different view. 

The Dance

I have seen the mask slip

On the face of the world

In the void underneath

All the timelines converge

Back to the dance

All the steps are reversed

And only the hard, unrelenting smiles

Keep us in time til the rhythm returns

With one foot on the stage and one in the void

The music we’re born with dances with time