the Greatest Gift
any parent can give a child
is their undivided attention
to be fully present with them
in the moment
even, if only for a moment

the child's greatest goal
is to be acknowledged
not to be told what to do
what not to do...

but it is our inability
to exist in the present
(always chasing the future or caught up in the past)
that prevents the moment from existing

"If you bring your full attention
to any moment, it becomes holy"

Eckhart Tolle

though we touch and are touched
by each other, in this life
the time will come
when the stars are so aligned
that our lives truly intertwine

the fibers of our hearts
will weave a love unbounded
by space and time
a New Reality

your life and mine
will become as one

until that time, my beloved
stay one in your heart
as will I
you unto me, me unto you

a moment in love however brief
exceeds all the time-spanning
of linear reality

Holiness or sacredness
is categorically different
from secular experience
in the sacred, experience is numinous
resonating with transcendent energy
in the secular, time is but linear

Time marches on
as seen by passers-by
but, in this holy moment
Creation begins and ends
in the blink of an eye

That man is richest
whose pleasures are cheapest

Henry David Thoreau

of Love true and practical
I know it can't be
but for a moment
my heart soared again
alive and free...

but now all resettles
into that stagnation
that is reality...

Beyond Original Sin
is Original Innocence
man's True Reflection, True Being
if we should ponder
then should we not seek the Source
dwell not in the Shadow of Evil
but bask ye in the Light of Truth

with modesty and reserve, the wanderer
side-steps the onslaught of the material world

Mah-to-tah-pah, war chief of all the Mandans
and Mah-to-te-ha, the shaman
smoked together in the Medicine Lodge
and their warriors rushed to douse them with water...

i went to Buckweats this morning
eagerly anticipating a healthful experience
but, they asked me if i was an owner
and unwilling to submit to filthy accusations
i walked out, preserving my integrity

I own but a few things
i am not bound by ownership
freely, i roam the broad plains
following the straight and narrow

everything you own owns you
You have to care for it, store it.
It becomes an appendage...
If you are burdened by these things
and they become the center of what you have to do to live,
is that really positive?

Dr. Mary Grigsby, "The Voluntary Simplicity Movement"

i love you
beyond even my own desire
i love you
press no claims upon you
i love you, as you are

We would like to be quiet, but our restlessness will not allow it.
Hence we believe that for us there can be no peace except in a
life filled up with movement and activity, with speech, news
communication, recreation and distraction. We seek the mean-
ing of life in activity for its own sake.

Thomas Merton

There is a perverse form of contemporary violence (that is) activism and
overwork... The rush and pressure of modern life are a form of violence. To
allow oneself to be carried away by a multitude of conflicting concerns, to
surrender to too many demands, to commit oneself to too many projects, to
want to help everyone in everything, is to succumb to violence. The frenzy
of our activism neutralizes our work for peace. It destroys our inner
capacity for peace.

Thomas Merton

In Love

all things are beautiful
In Love
all things are possible
is there any reason, not to be
In Love

looking upon
a gray-haired, little ole lady
my vision reconfigures
and i see a smiling, care-free child

in mindless delight
i poison myself
with a greasy cheeseburger
fries and a coke

once you've been wounded
cut to the core
endured the dark nite of the soul
yet kept your heart open
vulnerable
then and forever more
you feel others pain
as your own
you bleed and continue to bleed
every traumatic event is a re-play
of your own wounding
deep pain is transformed into deep empathy
empathy evokes Sacrifice and thus, healing
for it is thru Sacrifice that the Holy Spirit is summoned
and only Spirit can heal the world

in seeing with Light
the Kingdom manifests