Adrift – By Mark Nepo

Everything is beautiful and I am so sad. This is how the heart makes a duet of Wonder and Grief.

The light spraying through the lace of the fern is as delicate as the fibers of memory forming their web around the knot in my throat.

The breeze makes the birds move from branch to branch as this ache makes me look for those I’ve lost in the next room, in the next song, in the laugh of the next stranger.

In the very center, under it all, is where what we have that no one can take away, and all that we’ve lost face each other. It is here that I’m adrift, feeling punctured by a holiness that exists inside everything. I am so sad and everything is beautiful.

Yes, We Can Talk – Mark Nepo

Having loved enough and lost enough,
I am no longer searching,
Just opening.
No longer trying to make sense of pain,
But trying to be a soft and sturdy home
In which real things can land.
These are the irritations that rub into a pearl
So we can talk awhile
But then we must listen,,
The way Rocks listen to the Sea
And we can churn at all that goes wrong,
But then we must lay all distractions down,
And water every living seed.
And yes, on nights like tonight
I too feel alone, but seldom do I
face it squarely enough
to see that it is a door
into the endless breath
that has no breather
into the surf that humans shells
call God.

“I worried” – by Mary Oliver

I worried a lot Will the garden grow, will the rivers
Flow in the right direction, will the earth turn
As it was taught, and if not – how shall
I correct it?
Was I right, was I wrong, will I be forgiven,
Can I do better?

Will I ever be able to sing, even the sparrows
Can do and I am, well,
Hopeless.

Is my eyesight fading, or am I just imagining it,
Am I going to get rheumatism,
Lockjaw, dementia?

Finally I saw that worrying had come to nothing.
And gave it up. And took by old body
and went out into the morning,
and sang.