Tag: journey

gems

.Reading time 4 minutes.

here i am
or so it seems
on this rocky sea bed
strange fish swimming by stare
impolitely
at me
i would like to, crablike, crawl
deep into hidden crevices
and seek counsel
from the wise octopi

Honorable Octopi,
i seem to have sunk down
quite gill-less and un-finned
uh, rather hapless here
a mere, terrestrial, mortal in these depths
Could you please perhaps advise?
As nearly everything seems to have gone awry.

five large octopi
pulsing, and
floating gravity free bobbing lightly
look at me
and then at one another
and then at me again

(i anxiously regret every takoyaki i’ve ever eaten and consider
this may not necessarily end all that well
for me)

five pairs of eyes narrow, and
i don’t know how many long flowing tentacle-like arms start
unfurling around my face
landing soft inquisitive pokes and jabs
then suddenly
one arm like a flash of lightening
hurls a small sparkling stone behind me
and i swivel
ready to run away but am stoped by the five octopi

What are you doing, Tako? I ask, both nervously and annoyed
We are not Tako…
But in Japanese…
NO, not Tako!
Um, Yaki? I laugh, unable to stop myself.
A flurry of arms move the water all around sweeping me off my feet,
and ten eyes narrow in on me…
We are the Honorable Consortium of Octopi, we are
Your High Holiness the Grand Octopi of the Deep!
I squirm. All ten eyes seem to burrow into my soul, leaving no stone
unturned
And my long laundry list of woes out of the water surface
bubbling up one by one
bobbing, floating, gravity free
just like
The Honorable Consortium of Octopi

like rhythmic gymnasts, these five octopi begin playing with
and dancing,
twirling and tossing, spinning and balancing
all my woe ball bubbles
around!

You terrestrials take everything much too seriously
said the octopi, laughing
at me
All these woes of yours… what are they really?
Look, look closely, very closely, carefully…
they instructed while holding out one particularly large woe ball bubble
to me
resting it lightly in their long sucker-lined arms

and as i looked, my so-called woe ball bubble was shining softly,
like a crystal ball
drawing me further and further into its round sphere
where memories and emotions slid around shifting like sand
like a kaleidoscope
new patterns continuously emerging into view
one after another, each one
special somehow, beautiful, and entirely unexpected
mesmerizing
i was spellbound

tap, tap-tap…
an octopus tentacle on my shoulder
snapped me out of my woe ball bubble turned crystal ball kaleidoscope reverie
See? Terrestrial, it’s infinite, like mirrors mirroring mirrors
an endless parade of possibility
a playroom, perhaps
or a dance
a gem

and-just-like-that—
poof!
The Honorable Consortium of Octopi
disappeared,
all but right winked out of time and space…

Your High Holiness the Grand Octopi of the Deep,
i whispered
into the watery silence around me,
Thank You.
And, um… No more takoyaki for me. I promise. From now on it’s tomato-yaki.
but, The Honorable Consortium of Octopi
had vanished
without a trace

i take a deep breath and am about to push off this sea bed
to swim back up to the surface
but then i spy
a small sparkling stone
and i see it is not just any small sparkling stone
it’s a gem
smiling, i put it in my pocket
and i know

we’ll be alright

[Image by Erik Tanghe from Pixabay]

evolution

.Reading time less than 1 minute.

here, out on the shore
teetering on edge
i need the warmth of your hand
holding mine
my chest, burning with the ash and smoke of yesteryear
rises and falls,
swells with deep ocean waves

i want salt on my tongue
the grit of sand in my mouth
as i plunge
into the unknown
into this darkness
descending
further and further down
to the very
rock
bottom

to the fissure where
lava meets water
steaming
and hissing like snakes out of nowhere
out loud
screaming
where this primordial earth is churning
and grinding
the bones of my ancestors
into diamonds and pearls
into gold
into the fiery horizon
of new day

and at the break of dawn
hand in hand
we fly

stroll

.Reading time less than 1 minute.

the sun cradles these soaring birds
while my feet
on this soft and sound earth
walk west
and drenched now in your honey and gold
my body disappears
into sky

religare

.Reading time less than 1 minute.

may my body be a prayer
folded and kneeling
before this altar of love
and in my hands
an offering
one sacred flower
of life

本道

.Reading time less than 1 minute.

there may be
a billion trillion stars
in the night
but only one of them
—the most beautiful and the most precious one of all—
is the light that i need
the song in my heart
and the fire in my soul
guiding me
at times carrying me
all along this long long way
winding through the mysteries
through the magic
and all throughout timelessness itself

how can i bow
before a sun that never fails
to rise?

the kintsugi artisan

.Reading time less than 1 minute.

it is as though
i knew you before i knew you
you—like second skin on my soul
carried me home
before, even, i’d known i was lost
you found me
heart-splintered and a thousand pieces scattered
but you gathered them all
one by one
like the wayfarer who scours the sandy beaches
for seashells and sea glass
for an unusual rock, driftwood, or feather

and,
with your light
with your yellow and gold
with your beautiful love
you gently pieced all of them back
together
back into this whole heart and breathing body

it is as though
you know me better than i know myself
as though you have always known me
ever since the sun and the moon
first touched
the sky

Folding Cranes

.Reading time 3 minutes.

Folding Japanese origami peace cranes is one of my early childhood memories. As as small girl, I watched my mother’s quick and nimble fingers magically fold and crease the single sheet of square paper with a graceful ease that mystified me. In the time that it took me to make one crane, she would have finished several of them, and then she’d laugh with amusement at my little-girl cocktail of envy, frustration, astonishment and admiration. We gave our carefully folded cranes away to friends and neighbors, and to strangers at peace rallies.

Now I am older than my mother was then, and perhaps I’ve made hundreds of peace cranes throughout my life, inspired in part by my mother and in part by the story of Sadako Sasaki—the young girl who folded paper cranes in the hope that her wish to be healed from leukemia would be granted. Sadly, in the aftermath of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima in World War II, Sadako died at the age of 12 but her wish for healing and peace symbolized in the act of folding paper cranes lives on. Every year school children from all over Japan, and people from all around the world, make thousands of cranes and hang them up at the children’s peace monument in Hiroshima.

In this time where the world seems to be teetering on edge and everyone seems to be running on empty, I asked myself what I can do to create more peace—for myself and for others. Folding paper cranes is something simple that I know how to do. And an ancient Japanese legend says that if you make one thousand cranes your wish will come true… so I decided to make one thousand cranes for peace. Starting just last month, I have only made 23 cranes so far and have another 977 cranes to go, but I am not concerned about how long it will take. I am folding them one by one and giving them away as I fold them, one by one. Each fold and crease, each crane, and each exchange—is one small moment of peace-making and one small moment of peace itself. The wish becomes reality already—in the folding, in the giving, in the choosing to continue one fold after another fold, one crane after another crane, one day after another… night. Journey and horizon become one prayer, one act of love, one choice for peace, one way of being, one path.

And when I have folded the 1,000th crane maybe I will start on another thousand or on some other peace project… but it doesn’t really matter because in the choosing now, in the folding and creasing and loving now, peace is already my world.

the journey

.Reading time less than 1 minute.

as haiku:

seven thousand miles
step by step and side by side
this journey of life

as free verse poetry:

in the middle of the journey
neither shore can be seen
in the middle
the deep unknown rises to the surface and stretches
seven thousand miles in every direction
and becomes
horizon

in the middle
there is no forwards nor backwards
there is only this journey itself
step by step
and life, like a siren to the soul,
is salt and honey
and the waves crashing

but even here, in the middle, in the deep endless blue
you stay
everywhere with me
like an angel, or
an immortal dragon—guardian of my heart
and together, side by side, we see
a bright shining light
polaris
of the night

A Prayer for the New Year

.Reading time 1 minute.

Lokah Samastah Sukhino Bhavantu
may all beings be peaceful
may all beings be happy
may all beings be safe
may all beings awaken to the light of their true nature
may all beings be free

(a Buddhist mantra for metta, loving-kindness, meditation)

Seeing the many images and videos of the Buddhist monks with Aloka, the peace dog, walking 2,300 miles for peace reminded me of the above mantra. Indeed, may we all walk a path of peace in the ritual of our day to day lives—in how we show up for ourselves and for others. Peace, not contained by religion nor political persuasion, is available to all of us.

may you be peaceful
may you be happy
may you be safe
may you awaken to the light of your true nature
may you be free
💛

*the photo above is the first sunrise of 2026

止め石 tomeishi

.Reading time less than 1 minute.

And then she stumbled
into an enchanted garden
where
just ahead on the path
sat a little wild rabbit, cute and captivating
stone-still
but unlike Alice she flew
up into worlds
with endless sunlight
and fields of flowers for as far as
she could see
Her rabbit,
being sometimes a stag or a dragon or a jaguar
an angel or
polaris itself,
holds her hand
and together they venture further out and beyond and further still
into this garden
into this deep well of light
where
all the paths converge, and where
only love itself
shines
in the darkness

(this is something of a sequel to my last post, “rolling stone”)