Trails in Water

Do fish leave trails in water?
Do birds leave tracks across the sky?

My own footprints through life
leave clues of my journey,
give heart to those still on their way,
guide me back when I take a wrong turn.

Partly Seen

I see the image of a dog
in a tangle of tree vines.

Is the dog in the vines?
Or is the dog in my mind?

When I look at the world,
what I see is only partly seen.

The rest comes from inside.

Where Meaning Comes From

Where does
meaning
come from?

Does it come
from what I see
with my eyes?

Or what I see
with my mind?

Or what I see
with my heart?

None of these.

Meaning comes
from how I see,
not what I see.

Eye Level

The horizon always
remains at eye level,
even when hidden.

Inner sight is the same.

Darkness and light
are forever in balance,
even when unseen.

The Tricky One

It's easy to feel sad.
It takes a little more to feel happy.

To find exuberance in sorrow
is the tricky one.

Tao for the Body

Water
feeds us,
bears us,
washes us,
soothes us,
heals us.

It is like Tao
for the body.

The Next Turn

Winter hillside.
Birds and bare limbs.

Green river waiting
for the next turn.

It snows again today.
Not yet.

The Light Behind Me

When all I see
is my own shadow,
then I should know
the light is behind me.

Conformity and Diversity

Conformity keeps us all
heading in the same direction.

Diversity scatters us
along many paths,
but leads us to richer lives.

Earth Care

The earth can
take care of itself
without our help,
but it does us good
to do what we can.

Growing Vines

Vines are seekers.
They seek structure
to cling to as they grow.

Do they know this?
As much as any
living thing knows itself.

Where there is no structure,
the vine keeps seeking.

Whether finding or seeking,
the vine continues to grow.

The Acorn's Challenge

Yes, a mighty oak
grows from a single acorn,
but many others cooperate
to make it into a tree.

Cooperation is
the acorn's challenge.
To go it alone
is a fool's errand.

Tangle

All of life is a tangle.
Death cuts only one thread.

Given

Forgiveness is given,
never taken by force.

Love is also given,
never taken by force.

Twin gifts from
the forces of mercy.

Loves

To need love
is a curse.

To have love
is a mystery.

To enjoy love
is a blessing.

To give love
is a journey.

Bare Trees

When I look up at a bare tree,
I see roots burrowing into blue soil.

I see blood vessels branching
out to every cell of my body.

I see rivulets and creeks and
streams coursing into rivers.

I see the neural pathways
of my own wondering brain.

The one becomes many.
The many become one.

Nature repeating
and never repeating.

Top Down

To
think
that the top
of the mountain
is somehow better than
the skirt of the mountain or
that the skirt of the mountain
is somehow better than
the river valley below
is to think with
blinders
on.

Do and Not Do

Do and not do.

The first is about
doing something.

The second is about
letting go of the doing.

The first is about
taking action.

The second is about
trusting the Way.

Barred

I bar you from my house.
I fence you from my yard.
I bully you from my street.
I blackball you from my club.
I block you from my church.
I deport you from my country.

And every time I cast you out,
my life shrinks even smaller.

Same Thing

Buds appear on branches
even before winter is half gone.

What wakes them into being?

Insights rise inside me
even before I open my eyes.

What wakes me into seeing?

Where There Is Light

Where there is light,
there is a way to light.

Where there is light,
there are seekers of light.

Where there is darkness,
there is a way to depth.

Where there is darkness,
there are seekers of wisdom.

Always New

The new is always with us,
but where it will arise next
is anybody's guess.

To catch it while it's still new
depends not on where we look
but on how we look.

No Time

There is this moment,
and there is the moment
I remember in this moment.

Which one is real?
This moment or
the remembered one?

One possesses the body.
The other possesses the mind.
But what possesses the spirit?

The flow of eternity: no time.

Another Door Closing

The sun goes down every evening
because the earth spins in its orbit.

A sunset is nothing more than this,
and yet watching the sun go down
can lift some spirits and terrify others.

Another door closing.

Vessels

Where is Tao in the seed
that grows into a forest?

Where is God in the silence
that draws me deeper in?

When are the ten thousand things
not vessels for the Divine?

Sharpened

Family will always be
one of the grinding stones
that shape and sharpen us.

Forgiveness is the water
that cools each new edge.

Fear of Death

I used to be afraid of death.
That's when I was afraid of hell.

I don't believe in hell anymore,
so I don't fear death so much now.

Dying maybe. Saying good bye, yes.
But death itself? Not anymore.

That's what seeking Tao has taught me.

Hide-and-Seek

Seeing God
in the faces
of everyone
I meet is
even harder
than seeing
God in me.

It's like playing
hide-and-seek
with the Divine.