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Breath

A simple puff of air
More magnanimous 
Than the greatest 
Of grandest gestures
 
You hold the essential
Of all that is
All that was 
And all that will be
 
Present as a mere undertone
An undercurrent 
Rarely front and center
Yet there is no me without you
 
Your ebb and flow
My love and joy
Your to and fro
My gift and glow
 
Within this cycle
Lays all that can be
Right here, right now
Not before nor after
 
So thankful for the reminders
So grateful for the chances
To feel present in letting go
To feel held in bowing low

Butterflies

Art by Svetlana Yunusova


The most authentic thing about us is our capacity to create, to overcome, to endure, to transform, to love and to be greater than our suffering ..

~ Ben Okri ~


To rise past all

That’s dares to smoother

The layers on layers

Commitments and constraints

 

To float above

The threat that tugs

The ties and chains

Of bonds and relations

 

To fly over

The snares invisible

The smoke and mirrors

The lies and illusions

 

Ah what relief

When the truth be known

To free my wings

To uncage my heart

Interdependence

What a virtue, what a trait

Independence!

Encouraged, applauded

Even envied

To stand on your own feet

To make and pave your own way

To rely on not a single soul

What an accomplishment!

But wait a minute!

Do you even open your eyes

Unless the sun

Comes peeking at your window

Bringing you a new day

How would you even get to bathe

Had the clouds not emptied

Or the snow not melted

So the streams could run and reservoirs rise

How would you smell your morning coffee

Had the sub-equatorial lands

Not grown and reaped the beans

Ground and brewed in your Keurig 

What clothing would you don

Had the cotton not been picked

The yarns not been spun

Garments not been stitched

So in true essence

Are we really ‘independent’?

Or are we ‘interdependent’!

And if so, what have we understood?

Do we accept and realize

Our co-existence

Our co-dependency

Our inherent need for allegiance

With the natural world

The countries we have created

To our neighbors

To our own selves!

Taken for a ride

By the good old ego

We pride ourselves

With a claim to independence

Yet looking deeper

Within and around

We are part of a whole

Where even a breath

Is not under our control

The gift of all gifts

Sent magically into your being

Silently with no fanfare

It’s time to question

Time to ponder and reflect

What an incredible existence

Where everything is so magnanimous postured

That blinded we have become

To the interconnections

That’s serve to sustain

Our universal existence

Time to wake up

Not to just smell the roses

But care for the roses

And all else on this blue planet

Day Light Robbery

Followed by the past
Regrets and sorrows
Allowing misdeeds to haunt 
And losses to be still mourned
 
Enticed into future unknowns
Anxiety brews and curdles
Then tighten like balls of rope 
Leaving you strangled 
 
Thus the theft goes on
Of simple joys of daily life 
Peace and delights of the night 
Left wide eyed yet seeing nothing 
 
Ways of the times
Add to the stealthy steal 
With incessant streaming
Procuring falsities, cloaked as realties
 
Living with this dichotomy 
The perfect portrayal  
The denied cracking shell
The emptiness deepens
 
The wealth of living
Thus robbed 
In broad daylight 
Voluntarily handed over
 
Man is left in his illusion 
Floundering with wolves at his heel
Questioning his purpose
Is there any way out?!
 
Is there no protection plan
From this theft
No solution to this anxiety 
To dissolve the pain
 
Yes, present and constant 
Granted at birth
Enjoyed most
As the carefree child
 
Willful to pursue and perceive
Simple wonders and delights
Joyful to embrace
Smiles, laughter and love
 
And free
From yesterday and tomorrow 
Living the only truth 
Found in the present of today
 
So be enamored
With what lays in the palm of the hand
Look back no longer 
And look forward only one step
 
Anchor in now
Allow no more theft
As the grandest of treasures
Is right here, right now!

If love is not…

If love is not fear
It must be bravery
Bravery to fight the demons 
That fuel all our fears
Bravery to stand tall and breathe in air
Knowing it is the shield in life
 
If love is not guilt
It must be freedom
Freedom to confront
The choices you’ve made
Choices leading to hurt
Then freedom to choose your healing
 
If love is not judgement
It must be acceptance
Acceptance that all is 
Just how it’s meant to be,
And that there is a path
Not of good or bad,
But of learning and discovery 
 
So love is… bravery
Love is…freedom
And love is… acceptance
 
Love in its deepest form 
Is acknowledgement,
That there is YOU
You in this time
You with this life
You with all your 
Demons and divinity,
Making the wholesomeness 
You are meant to be.

Don’t miss the Play

Photo by TW

In the grand scheme of this intriguing play
Perhaps we are insignificant
Like the little robin
In just another tree

Yet during the play
How positioned is he and we
To enjoy the array of fleeting pleasures
Dancing on the stage

From a hedge of roses
To fields of tulips
Mountain sides of poppies
And lakes skimmed with lotus

Where ever you may be
Rural or urban
Rustic or pristine
Don’t miss the current act

As some plays have one or two
Some three or four
But what is unknown
Is how many is yours!

New Dawn

Photo by Taruna Patel

 

With the rise of a new dawn
And with January,  a new year
We look out to the horizon 
And set a few goals
 
Another twelve months
Granted and held
Imagining with promise 
Times full of both harmony and peace
 
With losses abundant
Restrictions innumerable 
Set-backs repeated 
And devastation rampant 
 
From the year twenty, twenty 
And profound lessons learnt
I trust we embark
On an entirely different tract
 
Whirl pooling around us 
Negativity has left few untouched
Time now for a one eighty 
With light and positivity
 
A warmth, an inclusion
With more meeting of the minds
For a prevailing clarity 
So the darkness can be expelled
 
Perhaps rather than goals
We need instead to reset
The vision of hope
With the return to a strength and unity.