All endeavors in life
need a start in Peace..
Peace is our experience
without the
thoughts and perceptions
which seem convincingly to
declare an independent world..
Another name is Silence
which all may experience
any time and any place..
That is the start..
Now appear words
of sameness and difference
which appear to break
the Peace and Silence..
Words bring longing
for that place before
wounding words unfold..
(The cosmic joke:
the place we were is
the place we are..?)
We await the arrival
of life's many teachers:
scripture and nature
neighbors and friends
an evening concert
a startling dream..
Teachers carry words
words as thorns
to remove the thorns
which hide the place
we long to return..
And finally: all thorns
burn in the glow
of returning Peace...

Sometimes I still long
for the places I used to be,
for the spaces I used to fill,
for the hands I used to hold,
and for the people which used to surround.
But then I look around,
see the places I get to go,
where I am today,
and the world I occupy daily.
I look within to see a healing and serene mind,
free from the whims of self-destructive thoughts,
yours or mine.
I see people that take my shortcomings
as I take theirs,
with love and steady comfort,
and I long
no longer.