Not so sad now…

A young woman saw a smiling photograph
and said, “You look sad.”

How did she know?

I was sad so long,
not knowing what I missed,
until mind and ego fell away
and I remembered:

First in a frightening flash:
a boy alone in a canoe,
the bedrock calling me;

The ridiculous beauty of
a candy bar wrap
on the floor of a late night bus;

After a sweatlodge
called to a vision by a chicory bush,
on my knees, hands wrist deep in earth;

Deep in meditation,
face to face with Christ.

Now I know Divinity
in the garden and its weeds
springtime sparrows building nests
swollen puddles pocked by rain
the honey on my breakfast toast
the truck that takes my garbage
and in the garbage too.

And astonishingly, beautifully, effortlessly,
In the face of
every one
of you.

Have you dreamed this awesome knowing dream?
Have meditation’s clouds and shifting veils
opened for you
this incandescent truth?:

There are dimensions,
universes interleaved,
an ever-shuffling deck of cards.

Our souls move
life to incarnated life.
We come
to this dense flesh
amnesiac
mind ego-bound
and limited.

Earth’s domain
the queen of spades
in this great game of hearts,
but in this game she is sought,
not shunned:

celebrated by our own
and kindred souls
for learning gained
and contributions made.

Each life an opportunity
all death, merely transition;
to “Welcome home again.”

Since I’ve seen that all is one
I’ve been musing on
how to function here.

Dissolution of my skin-bound self
into knowing of beauty
that dazes any impulse of description;
ineffable compelling Love –
when these are all present,
now what?

I s’pose I could take the garbage out
or do the dishes
maybe the laundry

Or some other joyful thing.

In my soul, my heart, and my body, I know that Love is the basic quality of the Universe. As I sit with this knowing, my mind seeks to grasp the truth of it.

From a place in my body I sense joy about this understanding among unseen beings whose consciousness reaches to us from other places and other dimensions. Then I know myself to be an infinitesimal and vital part of What Is.

Buffer

Love is the buffer
without which
we,
in the presence
of our
Source

would surely
cease to
be.

And yet
and yet

I yearn for my Source
as a raindrop
yearns
for the sea.

June 29 2022