Standing there, it seemed clear that beneath the cascade of our feelings lies the pool of everything that is eternal. And only on that shore is lasting relationship possible, not just with other pilgrims but with the Universe itself.  ~Mark Nepo

simply leave what does not serve…for we must see the fading light as a wish to be whole….to clean the heart for its cold dawn ahead….crisp and clear and ready……

We come apart to leave, and also to join. Over the grave, the Christian minister speaks Dionysian metaphors. “She is gathered to her ancestors”; “He unites with his loved ones”; “the community of the departed.” Perhaps it’s not our whole self that resurrects, but merely certain unique characteristics that must separate out from the whole. Then, falling apart opens that way to a new reassembling.  ~James Hillman

neverland

The season’s grief lies scattered on the shoulder of the road.

Each day we bring our sacks to pick up what debris we can.

The road flows over a hill we cannot see beyond.

We are clearing more than what has been discarded.

Travelers whiz by us in their speeding cars.

They are faceless. Sometimes they wave. Sometimes they slow a bit.

And sometimes there is too much left with a life of its own

in the scrubby grass between sumac and forgetting.

We stop to mop our faces. Above us a falcon rises on a thermal

and circles, weaving another tale high in the treetops. The wings

barely move so full are they of silence and fierce benediction.

~Gunilla Norris