is nothing
between you
and God
Just as being truly compassionate doesn’t mean always being sweet and nice (sometimes it means being cold, harsh), being truly honest doesn’t mean speaking your thoughts and feelings as they arise. Other awarenesses and intention must be at work—and a recognition that the truth is not solid. (—Susan Piver Browne, “Right Speech")Leaky faucet --
LIVING ROOM
I’ve heard him coughing hard since four.
Sometime later he’s dragged his chair
across the floor to sit and watch
the sunrise, a half-filled cup of pitch-
thick coffee steadied on his thigh.
He doesn’t say the light is gathering
in the eyes of children not yet born,
that dawn’s the time to call the Lord,
before the whole world wants to. I’ve heard
both before. In the space he makes
for me against his chest I drift away
for what seems like years to me. I wake
into the life another day brings
and the heartbeat in my ears is deafening.
(Poem by Christian Wiman)Screen door returns from transplant operation at route 90 surgical where white parrot outside cage gave perspective to huge block and tackle its three wheels setting above sturdy hook like old-timer in country store waiting to be asked the work he’s done.
Wanting nothing with all your heart, stop the stream
When the world dissolves everything becomes clear.
Go beyond this way or that way,
To the farthest shore where the world dissolves,
And everything becomes clear.
Beyond this shore and the farthest shore,
Beyond the beyond,
Where there is no beginning, no end,
Without fear, go.
(-- Buddha, from the Dhammapada)