presence

5-23-24

There is always more to see, always more to learn.

Learning how to break the bonds of self-improvement.

Stepping away from judgement, learning how to be humble.

Learning how it is not my purpose to be better,

My purpose is to be honest.

Today people will die from floods and drought, from starvation

and overabundance, I cannot change the laws of nature.

Today I will know less about right and wrong than I did yesterday.

Today I will place more value on acceptance and less on correction.

Today I will make connection and I will detach from connection,

That is how I will best help others.

Today I will not allow anyone talk me out of my sorrow.

Today I will be foolish and I will be wise, but I will not know when.

Today I will remember perfection creates more mistakes.

Today at least one time I will hold to silence when I have the impulse to speak.

5-5-24

Today I have a strong feeling that it is all here for me now.

Everything I have ever wanted, everything I have ever known.

As I hold to this feeling, two goldfinches arrive, they land in

front of me on a dying tree.

They are the first ones I’ve seen this year.

While they stay I give them my full attention, but they are soon gone.

In my life of emotions the feeling of peace, of presence is stronger now.

Their coming, their going, their moment of eternity.

Today I am learning I can hold these inspiring moments to memory,

as easily as I can my worries.

My worried mind has not gone away,

It wants to concern itself with their survival, or relive some embarrassment.

It will take some time to turn this ship around, and that is the one thing I

have been freely given.

4-23-24

A return to stillness, it is good to be home.

To view a changing sky from a familiar spot.

To be held again by familiar ground,

To return from being lost, again and again

Lost often enough to learn,

Being lost just means finding your own way.

And after a brief respite, the journey beckons.

Stumbling, loosing my way again;

Knowing full well, peace will not be found in discovery,

But in acceptance.

Keep seeking, keep discovering, keep living the paradox-

It makes the world a better place.

4-7-24

Called again to wonder,

Disarmed by the moment,

To be less than one and more than i

There is no secret that I have failed to understand.

The spirits of the forest

The people of the land

The angels of the atmosphere

Know the sacred is at hand.

3-31-24

And now, again and again and again.

I don’t want to know everything,

I want to feel everything.

Again and again and again,

Until I come to realize there is only one feeling.

And that is peace. Only this.

3-24-24

Today I am becoming more aware of how life works.

Loosing my importance.

Coming to see a larger truth.

When I remove myself from the equation..nothing changes.

My absence will mean a minor adjustment for some,

that will become quickly unnecessary.

It is helpful to realize I am becoming a forgotten memory,

a “what ever happened to”.

It is life that moves on, and for the time we’ve been given,

we get to move with it.

I feel more present, more grounded, more emotional,

less understanding.

A dying tree, a glowing dawn,

Here for a moment, the moment gone.

3-12-24

A strong weariness holds me today, I seem to tire so quickly.

Maintaining relationships is becoming a burden.

My thoughts will not allow me peace.

Let me just be grateful for these moments of awareness.

I can look to the sky, and my thinking will ease.

It’s ok to have these thoughts, and it’s ok to let them go.

I will not let feelings of fear or self-pity energize them.

There is nothing in me to fear, nothing to guard against.

No hidden anger to ambush me, no lurking depression to derail me.

Feelings are the colors that enhance my day, they are not

the hidden motivation that drive my life.

The more they are known, the more helpful and the less powerful.

3-17-24

Another morning of complete stillness,

In the sky, in the trees, and on the ground.

And yet somehow when I don’t oppose the stillness,

It seems like these are the mornings when I feel the most alive-

The most connected.

Maybe it is in non-doing that we accomplish the most.

Let me be grateful for these moments,

When my simple presence is enough.

2-25-24

Today, having recovered from a minor illness, I arrive at the park with greater appreciation.

I feel gratitude for my body that struggled through to reach recovery.

And now the moments arrive and I get to observe.

The overnight cold is releasing its’ grip, yielding to the warming sun.

The full moon has lost its’ appearance here, and now shines over a distant land-

I hope the people there love it, as I do.

A blue sky, with occasional shades of white passing.

Leafless trees sway slowly in the breeze.

Occasionally geese pass overhead, in pairs or single fliers.

The ever-present squirrels are unseen, maybe there is a hawk that I am unaware of.

The newness of today is the same newness as yesterday or tomorrow,

I hope that I will always take time to appreciate it.

3-2-24

I seem unable to give up expectation.

This will be the last obstacle, this will be the final struggle.

When we get past this it will be smooth sailing.

Peace is at hand, just one more problem to navigate.

What am I unable to figure out, what am I not getting?

The next moment, the next season, the next year it will be better.

Returning now to the same lesson I’ve learned a hundred times before.

This moment, this season, this year.

This singular instant of grace is fulfillment.

My acceptance of the moment, not the desires of the moment is the only refuge.

Today I am asked to be present, body, mind and soul, when I do that-

I am grateful for this ever-changing life.

2-18-24

Now the circle is slowly closing, my eyes begin to see.

The truth I’ve been opposing, was the sacred side of me.

We arrive with unknown purpose, we arrive without a plan.

We allow someone to tell us what it means to be a man.

Yet following the lesson of others never did fit just right.

We loose ourselves in the confusion, and our life becomes a fight.

Having fought the battle for so many, many years,

I am grateful for the laughter, even more so for the tears.

Now my days they are not over, there is living left to do.

At peace with being more than a crazy mind, there is a sacred side of me too.

2-4-24

Although hard to accept, I have come to believe it’s true’

Our childhood perceptions still drive our life and our choices.

We offer the world our adult personality, but it is our childhood

Trauma and the fears the trauma created that drive us.

We choose fear and safety over new experience.

I definitely know the feeling.

I am a good swimmer as long as the water isn’t over my head.

I play an ok guitar as long as no one is in earshot.

In so many ways I play it safe-

How bravely we dream, how frightened we live.

Let me see my protection for what it is; childishness.

Let me loose my need for approval.

Let me stand in the center of my own circle.

Trusting my experience, but trusting my vision even more.

2-10-24

Walking alone is an excellent way to release our worldly concerns.

Walking is to spirituality what sitting is to thinking.

And if you walk. When you walk. Your own singular vision will form.

It will take root and grow, it will connect you to what is sacred in you.

Your vision will transcend the rights and wrongs, regrets and worries.

Its’ reality will come to mind more often, and bring you peace.

It will sustain you as the world passes by,

And you will know gratitude for your moment of eternity.