And Could It Be More

In the other room I hear
my father snoring
and imagine how
he’s stood before
outside my door
and listened
to my tides of sleep
with, could it be,
as much love for me
as I have now for him—
his shore is my shore,
our heart sails
open.


~ Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer

Nothing Else To Do But Rest

The tide you never valued has gone out.
And you are marooned on unsure ground.
Something within you has closed down;
And you cannot push yourself back to life.
You have been forced to enter empty time.
The desire that drove you has relinquished.


There is nothing else to do now but rest
And patiently learn to receive the self
You have forsaken for the race of days.
At first your thinking will darken
And sadness take over like listless weather.
The flow of unwept tears will frighten you.


You have traveled too fast over false ground;
Now your soul has come to take you back.
Take refuge in your senses, open up
To all the small miracles you rushed through.
Become inclined to watch the way of rain
When it falls slow and free.


Imitate the habit of twilight,
Taking time to open the well of color
That fostered the brightness of day.
Draw alongside the silence of stone
Until its calmness can claim you.
Be excessively gentle with yourself.


Stay clear of those vexed in spirit.
Learn to linger around someone of ease
Who feels they have all the time in the world.
Gradually, you will return to yourself,
Having learned a new respect for your heart
And the joy that dwells far within slow time.


~ John O’Donohue

Your Own World Visible

I can give you nothing that has not already its origins within yourself.
I can throw open no picture gallery but your own.
I can help make your own world visible…. that is all.


~  Herman Hesse

Touch the Holy

All this hurrying soon will be over. 
Only when we slow down do we touch the holy. 


~ Rainer Maria Rilke

Storyless, Happy

Once I heard about a woman who attended a workshop
where everyone dove deeply into their own stories,
trying their best to make sense of their lives,
to craft something stable and lasting and meaningful.

Exasperated by their tangled efforts to layer meaning upon the
raw experience of life, she walked out of the meeting hall
and into the summer sun, where she sat on a bench,
looked up at the open sky, and sighed in happiness and relief.

I, too, tire of the mind's endless prattle, the futile effort
to tuck the enormity of it all into one small package. We may be storytellers,
but we aren't stories. Or if we are, our stories are so much more vast
and beautiful than our small minds could possibly comprehend.

Perhaps the answer to happiness lies not in the stories we tell.
Maybe the answer lies in the bench, the blue sky, the easy breath.
In being present for the play of life while it washes through us.
In living each moment with whole heart and arms spread wide.

~ C. C.

One Peaceful Moment

Children, everybody, here's what to do during war:
In a time of destruction, create something.
A poem.
A parade.
A community.
A school.
A vow.
A moral principle.
One peaceful moment.


~ Maxine Hong Kingston

Suffering

The seed of suffering in you may be strong, 
but don’t wait until you have no more suffering 
before allowing yourself to be happy. 


~ Thich Nhat Hahn