While I stood here, in the open, lost in myself,

I must have looked a long time

Down the corn rows, beyond grass,

The small house,

White walls, animals lumbering toward the barn.

I look down now. It is all changed.

Whatever it was I lost, whatever I wept for

Was a wild, gentle thing, the small dark eyes

Loving me in secret.

It is here. At a touch of my hand,

The air fills with delicate creatures

From the other world.

…..James Wright

this shift in perception is a lifetime of following, of listening, of sinking into all that is unfinished….like looking up at trees, down through roots and in between soft words….this plentiful life seethes into light, lit up in diamond waves…..

We can begin again every day. All we have to do is wake to the countless opportunities to unlock our heart, as if we’ve never opened it before. To practice opening our mind and heart, the pianist and teacher Michael Jones offers three archetypal ways. First is the search for whole-mind thinking, which can re-establish our sense of the living Oneness we are a part of. This is often done through metaphor. Then there is the search for belonging, which can renew or bond to the living. This is often done through storytelling. Finally, there is the search for authenticity, which can reanimate our experience of beauty and truth. This is often done through poetry. Whole-mind thinking is not only viewing our experience from the largest perspective possible but, more importantly, remembering when we can’t that there is a larger view than what we’re limited to in any given moment. But why insist on seeing things from beyond us? Because, as the teacher Prasad Kaipa says, ‘To see more expands and deepens our wisdom and to feel more expands and deepens our compassion.’ Together, they braid a lifeline that can withstand almost any storm……Mark Nepo

the modern-day mystic listens

You awaken. You know who you are. When self is present, there is nothing that is not self. Self is indivisible. It is essentially whole and coherent. Simple awareness of what we are thinking and feeling in any moment. That is all. Heart open, eyes alert. The ecstatic moment. It is always there…..Paul Ferrini