LIFE

Star / You / Are

you are dancing in the stars
you are not far
you are near
you are dear
you are here
you dance
the dance
dances itself
dance

life is giving
wakefulness sojourn joyful butterfly
cast the sweetness
to the net to the sand to the bright sky
to the birds in your lovely eye
your lovely eye

i am here
i am always
you know
you know this
know this only
this is only what you know
this is only
this is
this

The Company of Truth

I seek The Company of Truth.

In this Lifetime, this space,
this Tiny Bubble I occupy.

I have long-known The Company of Truth:
the Color of their Eyes, the Clothing they wear;
the lack of Disguise.

The Company of Truth is the blessing of sharing time
with those who know, those who have walked
the path of Inner Freedom
amidst Outer Struggle;

Those who have crossed the threshold of the Open Heart,
and who celebrate the Beauty of Living
the consciousness of This Silent Glorious Song.

This is not trivial;
This is not the Popular Path of Lemmings;
this is not the Calling of Convenience,
the Temple of Day-to-Day Commerce,
the Sacrament of Obligation
to those who pull our Every String …

This is Monumental.
This is the Unconstructed Tower of the Spirit Of You.
This is the Fragile Sprout of your Innermost Core:
seeking maturity to Flower, To Vine, To Tree,
to Seed: to spread Abundance in the Wind,
Dandelion Birds soaring to unspoken Heights.

Unhinged.

The Company Of Truth is a Gift.
From one eye to another.  From heart to heart.
From empty caverns flow the Voices of Full Rivers.

From need, from Necessity,
from the Sincere Longing
to Know Home
to Go Home…
comes the Journey Itself.
The Map.
The Vehicle.
Driver & Destination.

The Company Of Truth
is Truth Itself.
Revealed in the Glorious Form
of Humans …
Being …
Rainbows ….

Support & Clarity

There are two items on the Human Menu that became important for me today.

Support & Clarity.

The issue of “support” arose, because life is a challenge, period.  No matter who we are.  Everything from the basics of literal survival to the arrangements and intricacies of relationship, business contracts, living spaces, health struggles … and on and on.

In our societies, we are taught the value of “independence” as a strength.  Rely on self only.  Be strong.   Don’t depend or lean on others.  And yet, as human creatures, we are very fragile.  In fact, extremely fragile.   We break easily.  Our apple-carts get upset easily.  Because of this “independence” vein that’s programmed in there, and also because of the way societies are structured, we tend to get isolated easily.   Alone in our own little room, so to speak.

The point is, we need others.  We all need help along the way.   When the illusions we protect ourselves with wear thin, we see and feel and know our own vulnerability.   We need a hand to help us row the boat in the storm; but more than that, we need the voice to ask.  This is the tricky part.  Who wants to appear weak?  Helpless?  Homeless? In dire need?

The beauty of humans helping each other is that so much more can be done.  One plus one truly becomes eleven.  Two pairs of eyes, four pair of hands, a dozen strong legs … this type of spirit can truly build a city.

Clarity has to do with our purpose, our innate reason to be alive.

Most of us think that being alive has to do with fulfilling the fundamental mundane requirements of day-to-day life, being comfortable and happy due to a protective layer of material “padding” around us.   For some of us, this no longer works.

The answer to why we’re here has to be deeper.  It has to be more fundamental – it has to resonate with our “core”, our spirit, our true heart.   It just can’t be tied to the “fluff”, the packaging, the eye-candy, make-up and gimmicks that propel the market-driven world along day after day.

There’s a voice inside of us that longs to be heard; longs to be listened to attentively; longs to have those deep, silent necessities take wing, be expressed by the heart and to the heart.  We need not only to communicate with the deepest pearls inside our own “cave”, but we need also to bring those pearls out into the daylight – to celebrate them, to share them with others, to remind and affirm to our fellow travelers, that there is so much more to life than the mundane; there is so much more to feel, to drink deeply from, to celebrate, to share, to acknowledge.   There is a dance to do that we all wait for, long for, pray for.

This “dance” IS the essential reason, the central purpose of human life.  We know this in our core.  Not because it was part of our educational or parental programming, but because we were born with it, we came into the world with it.

So, how important IS this?  We, the weary travelers who come and go.  We, who know in our guts that we’re just passing through, that we really don’t belong here, that this is really NOT our true home.  How important is it to acknowledge the inner gift, the higher purpose, and to remind each other, so that we’re not lost and lonely in our isolated little rooms of discontent, attempting to “manage” the unmanageable – the meaningless day-to-day trivial pursuits that drain us, frustrate us, and exhaust us …?

Clarity: knowing self, reminding self, reminding others.

Every tiny spark of light helps us all see the way.

Eye Passing, Life Catching

The Precious Moments of Life are Slipping By
It is noon, it is midnight, it is an Orange color moving through the Sky
Pets are fed, Rumi is Dead, mother has baked another Perfect Apple Pie
The Dogs on the Sled, the nuns in the Bed: all perform effortlessly as they
look in my Eye … And Life keeps Passing relentlessly by.

The Precious Moments of Life are Moving On
The Trains, Planes and Cargoes are catapulted through the Orange Colors of Dawn
Mystery Speaks; Ghosts in the Closet Squeak; Neighbors on acid Freak …
and Dead Poets, Live Lemmings, Drunk Singers and Retarded Swingers
all Dance in Synchrony, as they look in my Eye
… And Life keeps Passing Relentlessly by.

The Sad & Happy Moments of Life are Departing
Like a Drunken Missionary, embarrassed by his own Farting
They Walk out the Door, They look relaxed and Sore,
They claim to all Know the Score (of Hockey Games to Come)
In God’s Kingdom On The Run; in Buttered Club Med in the Sun
… As Life gazes Lovingly in my Eye and relentlessly passes on By.

The Family Tree is Bearing the Fruit of Ecstasy
Relatives living and dead, lost uncles buried in my head
Aunt Jemima’s bejeweled vagina and Cousin Leroy’s recurring Angina
And the long sullen list of Februaries missed and Octobers’ Toenails Kissed
We’re all waiting in the Shooting Gallery of Love,
for the Silent Soldier with the Pearly Glove
to pull that Trigger – we figure – that will lift us all Above.
… And the tears roll out from the Elephant’s eye
as Rivers flow on … and Life Passes by.

The Art of Eternal Childhood

An email from an old friend. He’s in the throes of raising an 11-year old daughter – amazed by the pure and vital energy of childhood – and asks, “why have we lost this as adults…?”

My answer would be, we haven’t lost this, but we’ve left this. We’ve left this for a set of distractions, protections & consequences that effectively annihilate our chances of returning to the place of innocence, possibility and magic that we knew as children.

As a child, I always knew there was something suspicious, inauthentic and dangerous about the adult character in general. We all know a lot as children, and have access to an amazing range of “emotional intelligence” – intuitive, perceptive and creative capabilities. We sense and live in the spontaneous and ongoing beauty of childhood; we don’t understand or comprehend the “hardening” that has masked and throttled the authority figures around us.

As we grow older, we silently, agreeably adopt and adapt – internalizing all the subtle toxicities and poisons that are handed to us on silver platters: ego, emotional suppression, material obsession, power acquisition & manipulation, playing the proper game and saying the proper words at the proper time – in the proper tone of voice. We learn to obey the Kings of the Adult Architecture: bosses, families, spouses, preachers, pundits and obligations … all at the cost of our own soul.

My own personal journey into Adulthood was interrupted by a “side-trip” into the Land of Self-Knowledge. A side-trip which became the Journey of Life Itself. All the other “main trips” eventually panned out as distractions and misadventures; the subtle and frail voice that pulled me into the heart of Knowing Self, became the most powerful, beautiful, joyful and insightful voice in my being.

Part of the process of Knowing Self seemed to be the reconnection and resurrection of the lost inner child, that – it turns out – is really “me”, after all. The “sweet part” of us, it turns out, is still very much alive, and simply waits like a long lost seed, in the deepest cavern of our hearts, for springtime to return.

But, yes, life presents the challenge of feeling somewhat unique and alone in your “child-craft”; your innocence, beauty and magic seek others to play with – others to share the innate beauty of life with – but, alas, such companions are few and far-between. Most so-called “adults” are busy with the concern of the “adult world” – politics, money, relationship frustrations, sarcasm, jadedness and various mixes of toxic distraction and approved anesthetics.

It does make you value what you do have: access to your own inner song. It makes you value the few companions in life who can indeed share your hearts’ journeys. It makes those moments of play, delight, rainbow-watching, flower-sniffing …. all that much more precious, fragile, fragrant and delicious. And, last but not least: it makes you savor your True Companion, the inner friend you’ve known all along, the one who has been and will be with you every step of the way.

So, the celebration of Eternal Childhood seems to be where it’s at for me.

Sorry, other stuff bores me.

I just don’t have the time be be “grown up” anymore.

The field of life awaits, and it’s brilliant with a million colored flowers.

The Agreement of Connection

Something about Nature, and the act of Being Out In Nature.   There’s a Cosmic Oxide produced by Running Water, Falling Leaves and Shooting Stars.    This replenishes  lost juices in your solar cortex.

There’s the smell of rotting leaves mixed with October Mist, punctuated by cold, gurgling streams, offset by the distinct possibility of Bears and Cougars in the territory.  There’s the raucous cawing of crows, an occasional eagle soaring high, high, high in Penthouse Douglas Fir Apartment-Land.  There’s egrets with no regrets, herons with no errands – silently sitting and waiting as gaunt lifeless silhouettes, on placid sparkling canals.

They invite you into their own mystique: soaring, calling, waiting, floating, swimming in the invigorating dance of their own True Little Bird-Souls.  Betraying the divine, detached, perfect beauty of their own unique program – performed flawlessly on this majestic stage of Nature’s mantle.

Something about Nature and the Art of Feeling It, Seeing It, Hearing It … as it really is.   There’s something about being inwardly at rest, far from the incessant internal dialogues we’re plagued with – in a place where the Glorious Cool Fingers of Fall can enter us, fondle our 3rd Chakras, spin our eyes counter-clockwise, send our Kundalini spiraling up the Central Pole of Sensory convergence.

We come to Nature – but Nature also comes to us.  So many times, I’ve sat and waited in silence – only to have been approached by insects, cats, ducks, raccoons, moths, butterflies, zebras … they come calling.  They come looking for “connection”.  They come inquiring about the Soul of the Visitor: they say, “how are your Insides feeling today, long-lost & weary friend …?”  They say “who are you?”, without noticing your face,  your wallet, your underarm odor or any of your failures in the world of finance or relationship.  They come for connection, and connection only.

The silent unspoken agreement that we all enter into, upon re-acquainting ourselves with Nature, is this Agreement of Connection.  We notice it, we feel it.  Our skin-of-skins breathes it.  Our heart-of-hearts knows it.  The Deep Silence, the Dreamer, the Lost Soul within us, finds home once again … settles into Knowing the Beauty of the Known, rather than struggling with puzzles and eating the fibrous, uncooked recipes of doubt & desire.

We settle in to the reassuring meditation of What Is, rather than the unsettling mysticism of “what was”, “what might be” or the rancid smells of all the unattended pots we’ve left on back-burners through our myriad lifetimes.

Something about Nature, the act of plunging into cool water, the Sacred Art of  Being Alive.  The beautiful symphonies that broadcast to us on a frequency only we know.  The whispers of Wind in Tall trees that we inhabit, with the Eagles.  With the Silence, the Mystery, the Dancing Clouds.

And that one Agreement we made, before the World of Words became Flesh ….