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Wild Geese
You do not have to be good.
You do not have to walk on
you knees
for a hundred miles thru the
desert, repenting.
You only have to let the soft
animal of your body
love what it loves.
Tell me about despair, yours,
and I will tell you mine,
meanwhile the sun and the
clear pebbles of the rain
are moving across the
landscapes,
over the prairies and the
deep trees,
the mountains and the rivers.
Meanwhile the wild geese are,
high in the clean blue air
are heading home again.
Whoever you are, no matter
how lonely,
the world offers itself to
your imagination.
Calls to you like the wild
geese, harsh and exciting-
over and over announcing your
place in the family of things.
-MARY OLIVER
Birdwings
Your grief for what you have
lost
lifts a mirror
up to where you are bravely
working.
Expecting the worst, you
look, and instead
here is the joyful face
you've been wanting to see.
Your hand opens and closes,
and opens and closes.
If it were always a fist or
always stretched open,
you'd be paralyzed.
Your deepest presence is in
every small
contracting and expanding,
the two as beautifully
balance and coordinated as birdwings.
-RUMI
Happiness is not a matter of
intensity, but
of balance and order and
rhythm and harmony.
-THOMAS MERTON
My Heart,
sit only with those who know
and understand you.
Sit only under a tree
that is full of blossoms.
In the bazaar of herbs and
potions,
don't wander aimlessly,
find the shop with the potion
that is sweet.
If you don't have a measure,
people will rob you in no
time.
you will take counterfeit
coins
thinking they are real.
Don't fill your bowl with
food
from every boiling pot you
see.
Not every joke is humorous,
so don't search for meaning
where there is none.
Not every eye can see.
No every sea is full of
pearls.
My heart,
sing the song of longing
like the nightengale.
The sound of your voice casts
a spell on every stone,
on every thorn.
first lay down your head,
then one by one,
let go of al distractions.
Embrace the light,
and let it guide you
beyond the winds of desire.
there you will find a spring
and be nourished by its sweet
waters.
Like a tree,
you will bear fruit forever.
-RUMI
It Felt Love
How
did the rose
ever open its heart
and give to this world
all its Beauty?
It felt the encouragement of
Light
against its being.
Otherwise,
we all remain
too
frightened.
-HAFIZ
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