Dear ,
I hope you are well. Here in the Northern hemisphere, it feels as if spring is about to
arrive. The world feels ready to burst forth with life and light - and I feel the same!
I’m still working diligently on my prose book, The Leap, but every now and then a poetic piece bubbles to the surface (like a spring flower blooming) and demands my attention. Here are two pieces which you might enjoy:
You Can Never Be Anywhere
Except Now
No matter how many prizes and possessions you collect
no matter how much power or prestige you gain
no matter how many great achievements you accomplish
or how great your influence has been, or will be
It’s always just you, in the here and now,
with nothing except your being, and your experience of this moment.
And nothing determines whether you’re content or not
except what is here and now:
not your reputation or wealth, not your future or your past
but only the nature of your
being
and the quality of your experience
in and of this moment.
The Reality of Connection
It’s easy to hate in abstraction
to create enemies in your thoughts
based on stories you’ve been told, or made up yourself
or on memories of a slight or insult
that have simmered inside you for years
feeding you with resentment
and fuelling fantasies of revenge.
It’s much harder to
hate in reality
in the presence of real human beings,
sitting opposite them, looking into their eyes.
Face to face with your enemies,
waves of anger and anxiety might sweep through you at first,
but underneath the surface, a connection will slowly form.
A secret exchange of empathy will begin, a flow of
fellow-feeling,
from the depths of both of your beings.
Those depths have no thoughts or memories, and therefore no hatred.
They can only feel their sameness, their common core,
and so can’t help but be drawn together, in presence,
like two small children who smile at each other, and begin to play,
while their parents are
busy arguing.
And so soon, almost in spite of yourself,
your perspective will begin to shift, your anger will fade
and your resentment will melt away, as you empathise with your enemies
until they’re no longer enemies but equals, fellow human beings
who you can understand, respect, and forgive.
Abstract hatred can’t survive
when our reality is connection
and our reality is love.
