Not With Wings

Not With Wings 

Here soar,
not with wings,

but with your moving hands and feet
and sweating brows -

standing by your Beloved's side
reaching out to comfort this world

with your cup of solace
drawn from your vast reservoir of Truth.

Here soar
not with your eyes and senses 

that turn their backs 
on the earth's sweet stumbling dance 
which needs you.

Here love, O here love,
with your mouth tender and open upon your lover,

and with your heart on duty 
to the souls of rivers, children, forests, animals. 

           I love that line about your heart being on duty for souls, for Love. I would think there is not a better employer in the world. Love encourages you to grow, so that you no longer can turn your back on the world and the missions that you hold dear.
           When people say "a true love won't make you change who you are", they're mistaken in some sense. True love should not only change you, it should transform you. Love, when it is real, provides an extra catalyst to reach your dreams. Take that to mean whatever it should personally. Maybe it means you did it sooner, or finally set sail, or found that someone became your cheerleader, or just your friend to come home to. And suddenly, the daunting tasks of the world weren't yours to battle alone, but dragons to fight together. Love is intention, love is action, love is active participation.
          “If I love, then I care—that is, I am actively concerned with the other person’s growth and genuine happiness. I am not a spectator in this; I am a participant. If I love, then I am responsible, response-able—that is, I respond as best as I can to his or her needs—to those needs that he or she can express, and even more so to those needs that he or she cannot or does not express. – Erich Fromm, The Sane Society

Ordinary People (2004), John Legend 

More Inheritance

More Inheritance 

Love creates a synchronicity with what Love 
loves. 

Why wouldn't it do that,
knowing harmony's vital role.

The calm heart's reach is vast and lasting.
Bring yourself, again, into the presence of 

someone who knows Love, 
for more inheritance is there for you. 

Like a special day when you 
can naturally feel uplifted 
by something in the air,

Love should be a truth 
we always carry. 


       Love is our inheritance, our legacy, our purpose. There is a life without love, but it is dark and worse, about the complete opposite of everlasting. Love welcomes you to the infinite, without it, we are so very human  - our days numbered, our influence limited, our legacy incomplete. And I am not talking about romantic love, but just love - the love of this life and this journey. The love of yourself and your purpose. The love that surrounds you - the people, places, and animals that make up your world.
       Of course there is romantic love. Eros holds its own candle to the flame. It is worthwhile to think about what makes two people fall in love. I have. I think you fall in love with someone for a million little things, for the knowing glances, for the laughter, and for the way their face might look twenty years from now when you sit together. I think you fall in love with someone when you realize they're your best friend, when you realize you want them by your side to fight life's dragons (or if you're like me, raise them instead from cute little dragon hatchlings), and share in the joys that come your way. No matter who that special someone is, enjoy the feeling with all your heart.
      Mary Oliver wrote a wonderful poem about Love's necessary presence in our lives, and I have included it below:

“West Wind #2” 

You are young. So you know everything. 

You leap into the boat and begin rowing. 

But listen to me.

Without fanfare, without embarrassment, without

any doubt, I talk directly to your soul. Listen to me.

Lift the oars from the water, let your arms rest, and

your heart, and heart’s little intelligence, 

and listen to me. 

There is life without love. It is not worth a bent penny, 

or a scuffed shoe. 

It is not worth the body of a dead dog nine days unburied. 

When you hear, a mile away and still out of sight, 

the churn of the water as it begins to swirl and roil, 

fretting around the sharp rocks—

when you hear that unmistakable pounding—

when you feel the mist on your mouth

and sense ahead the embattlement, 

the long falls plunging and steaming—

then row, 

row for your life toward it.

Can You Feel The Love Tonight, Elton John

She Responded

She Responded

The birds' favorite songs you do not hear,
for their most flamboyant music takes place

when their wings are stretched above the trees 
and they are smoking the opium of 

pure freedom. It is healthy for the prisoner 
to have faith 

that one day he will again move about 
whenever he wants; 

feel the wondrous grit of life - less structured -
find all debts stamped, canceled, paid. 

I once asked a bird, "How is it that you fly 
in this gravity of darkness?"

She responded, "Love lifts me." 

                      How is it that we get through difficult days and trying time periods? How do we find the strength when it seems as though life has handed us struggle after struggle? If we stop to ask ourselves why the words of Hafiz have staying power, it is probably this: It is because they evoke parts of our soul that needed to be illuminated and it is because they remind us of those we love. And because love lifts us, yes, love raises us to our potential.

All of Me (2013), John Legend 

What That Moon Language

What That Moon Language

Admit something: Everyone you see,
you say to them, "Love me." 

Of course you do not say this out loud;

still, though, think about this, this great
pull in us to connect. 

Why not become the one who lives with 
a full moon in each eye

that is always saying, 

what every other eye in this world is dying
to hear? 

           This is so true, we're all conducting our lives with the desire of being loved whoever we are, wherever we're at. We live out certain events because society tells us they are the standard, the order of conduct, the given. We live out other events because they speak to our soul, they're something that excites our being, they're worth the risk, the happiness, the reward. Some events are just personal. Yet still, the preference is to be loved. To be told that everything we're doing is worthy or cool, incredible or admirable - pick the adjective that you want, but no one can deny that "every eye in the world is dying to hear" this: "Love me, love me, whoever I am."

          So why not live with the lunar language, the glistening beam of the full moon, in your eyes?

Time After Time (1984), Cyndi Lauper 

I Think They Had A Point

I Think They Had A Point 

I overheard some days talking - yes, days.
I was at first alarmed, as you might have been. 

But then I came to believe they had a point,
which was:

That if they shortened the year by a few months
people would have less time to worry. 

What is your opinion? 

           Albeit not being faced with this esoteric message, we're often faced with this question: "What is your opinion?" And if not directly asked, often we demur ourselves over various facets of this world. I came across this song, "Follow Your Arrow", by Kacey Musgraves and I had two thoughts 1) she's a really pretty girl and yet is still anti-mainstream/unique (which is one of the dichotomies that girls face) and 2) that's a cute song. Here are the lyrics I enjoyed most:     Just follow your arrow

Wherever it points, yeah

Follow your arrow

Wherever it points

Say what you think

Love who you love

'Cause you just get

So many trips 'round the sun

Follow Your Arrow (2013), Kacey Musgraves 

Word Spreads

Word Spreads

The movement of our hands help build the unseen.

We add to the universe by our efforts.

Whatever we do, we should never think is is irrelevant; 

whatever we do, we should not conclude it is so important

either. 

Between those two poles find your balance;

between those two regions your talents will bloom. 

Word spreads about goodness in many forms. 

              This is powerful, your hands help build the unseen - the invisible fibers that connect the world. Your efforts are at once inconsequential and significant enough to change the world. Most of the time we will live in the zone between these two extremes, with our talents and cares allowing us to live our lives "in widening circles that reach out across the world" (Rilke, Love Poems to God).

             The Olympics brings this spirit to it. The human spirit is universally attracted to the power and greatness of winning, achieving, and working hard. This year, President Obama said: “How good you are regardless of where you come from, what you look like, who you love and that I think is consistent with the spirit of the Olympics."

            “Listen to the mustn'ts, child. Listen to the don'ts. Listen to the shouldn'ts, the impossibles, the won'ts. Listen to the never haves, then listen close to me... Anything can happen, child. Anything can be.” ― Shel Silverstein

Thank You, Mom

(P&G Commercial) 

In A Manner I Won't Forget

In A Manner I Won't Forget 

Tell me, Love, what I need right now so that
I might sing, and be alive, 
as my every cell craves. 

Tell me, dear, what I need right now,
but in a manner I won't soon forget. 

Then the world began to sway, 
its hips invited my arms,
its feet placed mine upon them,
that made all my effort easy. 


       I came across this beautiful decsription of what makes love lasting by Thích Nhất Hạnh: "There are two Vietnamese words, tinh and nghia, that are difficult to translate into English. They both mean something like love. In tinh, you find elements of passion. It can be very deep, absorbing the whole of your being. Nghia is a kind of continuation of tinh. With Nghia you feel calmer, more understanding, more willing to sacrifice to make the other person happy, and more faithful. You are not as passionate as in tinh, but your love is deeper and more solid. Nghia will keep you and the other person together for a long time. It is the result of living together and sharing difficulties and joy over time. In nghia, you feel gratitude for the other person. “Thank you for having chosen me. Thank you for being my husband or my wife. There are so many people in society, why have you chosen me? I am very thankful.” That is the beginning of nghia, the sense of thankfulness for your having chosen me as your companion to share the best things in yourself, as well as your suffering and your happiness."

          I think that is what makes love lasting, when you can find someone who puts your "feet upon them" and "makes all your effort easy". Lasting love is about loving the person as they are now and loving the person they desire to become. It happens because you have known sorrow and joy, because you have experienced ectasy and boredom, because you there is no one you'd rather just do nothing with and no one else you'd rather experience everything with. If two people stay together, as Hafiz would say, "until the fields of thier bodies turn gray", it is because of nghia. 

Thích Nhất Hạnh and Martin Luther King Jr. 

Here is a link to the letter King wrote nominating Hanh for the Nobel Peace Prize.