the more we accept the world as it is,
the more readily forgiveness and gratitude appear
human living
in the grand drift of evolution
human beings: Special only to ourselves.
lineages come, lineages go.
still, leaving the room,
I turn off the lights
that all things are empty
doesn’t mean that any thing
is other than it is
a thing is what it is
by virtue of how
we interact with it
drink up!
while everything is evanescent, gold and glory pass more, much more, quickly than wisdom
our notion of God is a tool that shapes us as does any tool
(with thanks to Marshall McLuhan and Lewis Lapham)
today — the window in the chest is open, songs fly in and out
everyday the doves come by to visit,
lured by scattered seed,
a small gift for the guests
Happy emotions come and go, so do unhappy ones. These are, in themselves, not signs of suffering, potential or actual. They are signs of living.
when the body is still,
the heart can blossom,
the mind enjoy itself
azure-skyed April afternoon,
even the bees are idle
giving up success and failure,
there is nothing to regret
retired? no
I’d rathered be leisured
which poet will I read
will I be
today?
inspiration is everywhere,
some days I’m just too lazy to look
too much money denies the pleasure of a simple life
Q: What is most wondrous?
A: Each day death takes lives beyond counting,
yet none who live think –
this day
death
can come to me.
(Adapted from William Buck’s translation of the Mahabharata)
true enough: we cannot be happy in the future,
we can only be happy now, in the present
the same is true for unhappy
go figure
not distinguishing pain from suffering is itself suffering
past and future exist only in the conversations we have about them
each moment is as it is;
to say that it “should” be some other way
only burdens the one who says, “should”
the one free extension is almost done,
taxes are due in three more days,
I have no IRS approved excuse for delaying any longer;
I could do them now,
but there’s still three days
instead I write thes lines;
absent a true emergency
they’ll be filed on time,
they always are
I used to worry and call myself a procrastinator,
now I worry not and just call me me
gratitude arises along with the preference for what is
what turns you on is what turns you on . . . and sometimes it surprises you
in America one speaks not of the attendant sorrows of aging lest one be thought old