A Garden Could Rise In Barren Places

A Garden Could Rise In Barren Places

If you don't watch out I just might say something
you will never forget. Then what will you do?

Those words might organize a gang inside your mind
who undertake a strategic plot or bully you
to make some changes in your life you have wanted to make
but could not, on your own.

A time-release capsule, my touch and sounds,
with secret instructions hidden within that can
slowly seep into the cracks your heartaches acause.

All of a suddden, you might find yourself cleaning your room more,
helping old people across the street,
or giving your money away.

Yes, my words are dangerous.

A garden could rise in barren place inside you
if our eyes met.
I could turn you into a store that sells shuttle tickets
to other planets.

I think someone should get more use out of you
for something that will bring pleasure to others. 

                   
            If you're pleasant enough you could "turn into a store that sells shuttle tickets to other planets". Isn't that a beautiful thought? Quite literally otherworldly.
            About a month ago, I watched the documentary "Life According To Sam", about a boy with progeria, a disease that causes premature aging. Today, I found out he died. Before his death, he gave a TED Lecture called "My Philosophy For A Happy Life". He told the audience: “Even though there are many obstacles in my life, with a lot of them being created by progeria, I don’t waste energy feeling bad for myself, I surround myself with people that I want to be with, and I keep moving forward. I have a very happy life." His life was quite beautiful, as the documentary allowed me to see, his understanding deep, his attitude inspiring. Surely, he was a garden that arose from what could have been a barren place. Conversely, with the support of his parents, both physicians, his family, his friends, and his community he left an impact. And when asked how, his final piece of advice? "Surround yourself with people who make you feel whole...and never miss a party if you can help it." Perhaps life is this party - remember to enjoy every moment you're given to attend.

My Philosophy For A Happy Life, Sam Berns

TEDxMidAtlantic 2013

When All The Haggling Is Complete

When All The Haggling Is Complete

"Die before you die," 
said the Prophet Muhammad.
What do you think that feels like? 

It is no game for the fainthearted.
It is living hell,

for there wil be nothing left of you,
but a molten, bright sphere.

Seems a pretty good trade though, 
a fantastic deal,
when all the tough haggling is complete. 

           It would probably be considered a privilege to die with everything complete, but we know that this does not happen. In philosophy, it is actually presented as a conundrum. On the one hand, if you die with everything complete, why did that happen? Does this mean that you set your sights too low and thus achieved "everything", even though in this case "everything" does not constitute a full potential reached. So the alternative, being that you die in the middle of something - a sentence, a project, in pursuit of an ideal, in desire of a dream, is presented as the preferred way. And perhaps, to the person who really dives deep into life, this is the only way. As long as you're alive, there is still work to be done and goals to chase after. However, it may be possible to die spiritually complete or emotionally fulfilled - you leave no anger, but only love, and lots of it, in fact, all you were able to give, to this world.

           I've always loved Mary Oliver, she has a quality about her that a lot of Sufi poets had. In one of her poems, When Death Comes, she pens a beautiful few lines that I will include below:

“When it's over, I want to say: all my life

I was a bride married to amazement.

I was the bridegroom, taking the world into my arms. 

When it is over, I don't want to wonder

if I have made of my life something particular, and real.

I don't want to find myself sighing and frightened,

or full of argument. 

I don't want to end up simply having visited this world.” 

Enjoy this truly beautiful song. 

To Where You Are (2002), Josh Groban

A Coat Rack

A Coat Rack

Let this poem be a coat rack 
you leave something on.

Something that you will be better off without.
Something that if you no longer carry its weight

then the scent of your love will reach others
and help draw them from their places of hiding
and their own shields they won't need anymore. 

The world will be known as more miraculous,
tender, fun and always giving,

and then your hands, will carry God with you 
wherever you like to go.

You could set Him all around in places 
that you wish Him found. 

                Everyone has a burden they could set down, an invisible shield that is becoming too heavy, and it would be kind, so very kind if the world provided coat racks. Some burdens are more visible than others, but the scars of life are beneath most human skin. Photographer, Mark Laita, with his Created Equal project attempts to reconstruct this polarizing truth thought deconstructing photographs of a myriad of walks of life.

Fast Car (1988), Tracy Chapman

Wells Within Your Heart

Wells Within Your Heart

There are different wells within your heart.
Some fill with each good rain,

others are far too deep for that.

In one well

you have just a few precious cups of water,

that "love" is literally something of yourself. 

It can grow as slow as a diamond

if it is lost.

This love

should only be offered 

to someone

who has the valor and daring

to cut pieces of their soul off with a knife

and then 
weave them into a blanket

to protect you.

There are different wells within us.

Some fill with each good rain,

others are far, far too deep
for that.

               What do you think this sacred well looks like? The one that has a limited supply? Some forms of love can be offered to the mouths of strangers, doled out like the newest passing craze. When we give this form of love, we know it will come back to us with each new rain (kind gesture, novel idea, compassionate thought, etc.). Conversely, there is a certain type of love that is just so sacred, so deep, so real...so ethereal that it may come only once in this world. And so we should save that love, and use it only when we meet someone who is also willing to use up their own stockpile. In this, I believe Hafiz means someone who will go the extra mile for you, someone who will be there for you, someone who will quietly cut pieces of their own soul in a time when yours requires replenishment.      

               And this is a rare find, a precious gem, a true beauty...the diamond that grows slowly, or not at all, if it is lost. For many, this will be the person they marry. Some cultures have such an emphasis on "saving yourself" for marriage. This I have never agreed with, for the physical self is such a small part of "Self", why would it be the most sacred thing to save? Instead, perhaps we should consider saving this deep well - be it the thoughts, emotions, stories, moments, etc. that make up a part of us too complex to be rejuvenated with each passing rain. Yes, save yourself for marriage, but only if that means saving the parts of your soul you plan to share with just one person.

Remember When (2003), Alan Jackson

A Day Too Great a Force

A Day Too Great a Force

Look how the Creator in the form of a mother
or father can then love the created, a child,
even more than themselves.

Look at the salvation and purpose
a person can find in that devotion of caring.

A day is too great a force to bear
without the heart open.

Time will slay your body no matter what,
but with love the impetus of your final movements,
will find eternal wings. 

                         You can love your body to an extent, but it will one day fail you, as the sands of time take over. However, if you love your soul (or another's for that matter) it can only get more enriched with each passing day, the hearty laughter that sounds like a song, the beautiful thoughts you think that echo. I think some are capable of loving another more than their own self, others are able to give selflessly to others. There are many ways to give the impetus of your final movements eternal wings. Pastor Lee Jong-Rak has that type of story.

The Drop Box 

A Legitimate Question

A Legitimate Question 

What do lovers do after their bodies have
performed all the little magic that they can,

after the enhancement of limb-caressing love
created such a force and a shelter of protection

the world was held at bay for precious moments,
and the future and the past waited as they always do
outside a seer's house, humbly,

in some shed out back where the garden tools 
are kept, and then lifted by the real teacher 
if ever she or he desires

to plant something in time's meadow 
that can benefit generations? 

I rarely write like that 
knowing most have a short attention span

it might have gotten more cerebral than I
intended or esoteric 

Good luck contemplating this poem
if you try

Nevertheless, I think I pose a legitimate question 
about lovers passing time,
and magic tools you have in your shed. 

          Love itself is a magic tool that can be planted now and reaped in future generations. True love helps you transform the landscape of your body. True love helps you harvest your own field. True love helps you become the best version of yourself. It is transformative, though it does not require you to change your essence. Instead, it encourages you to reach the summit of your own soul.
            I do think Hafiz poses a legitimate question, but I look at it differently. What is it about the moments of togetherness that makes them so "other", that we feel as though ordinary moments (the "before" and "after") are able to be compared to them. What is it about love that fills us? Perhaps the sacredness of love is that we allow it to possess us in the moments between our togetherness, which encompasses every facet of this emotion - the power, the beauty, the vulnerability, the ecstasy, the infinite.

      The Miracle of Love (1986), The Eurthymics 

Sheltered By The Sun

Sheltered By The Sun

Look what can grow from one shaft in a field, 
or from one shaft like a human being.

Beautiful cities can rise in our minds
or be burned there to the ground.

We can become so ripe
schools and buildings can be named after us,
and things we have written 
may come to be spoken in several tongues. 

What does love care about any fame? 
Not a thing!

But love does not mind any attention 
it gets either,
if that attention increases 
the capacity to give.

Love does not mind that place 
where it camped for a while in a physical form
or where that body many come to rest,

and may even then be revered if that body
became a unique nourishment for others

That is what greatness does: 
kindly leaves a shelter for us to gather under,
where more nourishment can be offered to all things. 

                   Sometimes I read others blogs and really feel like they've offered a gift with their writing. One such random occurrence, happened today with the blog "Life Rearranged". The blogger, a mother of a special needs child has the motto of her blog stated as "Life doesn't always go as planned. Help others anyway." And in this post, she explains "why it matters when we rub our bellies and say 'so long as it’s healthy'”. I have to say, this was a thought-provoking piece. I cannot say I agree with everything written, but I can say it stirred some emotions within my own soul. And it made me reconsider how I define a worthy body or even a body in general, and that maybe the best conclusion is the one Hafiz gave....something that increases the capacity to give, something that offers nourishment to others, something where love is found to reside.

Small Bump, (2012)

Ed Sheeran