Can you imagine moving through your day, appreciating the hearts and spirits of those you engage with, the beauty of clouds, birds, grasses, and trees? Of course you also include what’s painful, perhaps your anger toward someone who’s hurt you, or the suffering of a friend whose partner has Alzheimer’s. Yet still, there’s an awareness that remembers the goodness that animates our beings. Thomas Merton wrote, “Life is this simple: we are living in a world that is absolutely transparent and the divine is shining through it all the time. This is not just a nice story or a fable, it is true.”
~Tara Brach
and when I know how to feel, I listen….
inquiry for today~ when something is not grounded, then what?
This is not a stage
for me to tell you
how to improve
in any way.
There is dignity
in staying with whatever’s real
with a long spine bathed in breath,
even as we fall.
If you’re still
listening, thank you.
May we turn
from this tiny contact here
toward the opening day grateful,
with gumption,
receiving what we belong to.
Last night I dreamed
a baby cow fell
from a periwinkle sky,
and when I helped him
stand,
the vertebrae under velvet fur
rose and fell like little hills
beneath my happy hand.
I’m telling my young son this dream.
He’s laughing sparks
of hilarity out his eyes,
their beauty barely matched
by the softly falling snow outside.
~Brooke McNamara
