Tag: love

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

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”)

    ground

    .Reading time 1 minute.

    i want to break open
    my heart
    at dawn, and
    at dusk
    with the flight of a thousand birds
    rising
    wind streaming over my body—skin bare, like bones,
    i feel the shadows trailing wingtips
    of ravens
    and their silent caress across the bleached stones below

    i want to dissolve
    the day
    into these rushing waves as they run
    up onto this sandy shore
    kissing my toes and
    pulling earth from underneath my feet
    i fall into their sea
    sinking and drowning
    all the heaviness of my heart

    and in the glimmering darkness of night
    i want to dance
    here in the secret garden of wild roses
    together
    with my love
    with sweetness and with honey, and with
    a belly full of dreams
    i want to plant each one in this soil
    in this soft sacred ground
    growing worlds

    of beauty

    Seréin

    .Reading time less than 1 minute.

    here
    and
    now
    sailing this river
    with you
    silence is serene
    like
    the warm sun traveling over my skin
    like silk
    and the darkness is sanctuary
    is peace
    is free from every day cataclysm
    from the deluge of chaos and turmoil
    here
    with you
    this river is wide and deep and gold
    and sailing underneath a canopy of sparkling stars
    i find myself
    home
    in your enveloping arms
    home
    in your everywhere love

    now
    the sun is rising
    in your eyes

    sacré

    .Reading time 1 minute.

    i want to worship here
    in this temple
    of the body
    where love is the altar
    and where dance is the prayer

    All life is sacred. Every-body is an embodiment of the divine. We are how the divine knows itself. We are divinity realizing itself. And what is “the divine”? What is the “divinity” of which we speak? Why, it is love—nothing less and nothing more.

    Maybe this is it… This is the awakening… to know this not as conjecture, conviction, philosophy or belief… but to experience this as reality—the same way in which we experience the rain, sunshine, wind and soil. The same way in which we know who we are and in which we know our own names.

    So… let us dance, you & i, together.

    Six Suns

    .Reading time less than 1 minute.

    walking along the seashore
    i heard my dragon
    breathing
    wave after wave after endless wave
    of love
    timeless and boundless
    infinite
    like every sun in the dancing blue
    dazzling its light
    and there too i saw him
    in a threaded flight of swans
    homebound, and, one thousand strong
    singing all his ballads
    to me
    and just waiting for my soul to fly
    together
    hand in hand with his
    all throughout this numinous sky

    flow

    .Reading time less than 1 minute.

    like water
    i want to know all life
    to seep into the soil and soften stones
    and under even scorching suns
    rise
    into a sky where
    i billow
    buoyant all throughout the light blue

    and like water
    i will fall, steadfast, and
    surrendered to gravity
    give in to fate
    to this unknown yet inevitable destiny

    streaming and rushing
    i will run, i will run like the water
    to my sea
    to my beautiful dragon
    calling me
    calling me to come home



    The Flower of Forever Love 🌸

    .Reading time 1 minute.

    in this garden where
    you and i meet
    one mysterious flower grows
    quietly, and unseen in bright broad daylight
    more fragrant and far sweeter, more velvet than
    all these colorful
    flowers
    pink and yellow
    that come and go with a cyclical sun

    this flower is a rarity
    it is the sun’s flower, and it is called—
    The Flower of Forever Love
    it blossoms
    in this garden where
    storm clouds dance and calm seas steep
    the light, where
    rain, busy in the skies, forgets to fall and
    fires sometimes fail to spark…..

    this one mysteriously flowering forever love
    grows
    in this garden where
    rainbows are red, and
    white roses scatter upon the beach
    while dolphins swim along my shore side strolls
    even hawks gift their feathers to me
    and hearts write themselves into a vivid blue sky…..
    all because, and, just because
    here in this garden
    you are together with me

    …p.s.
    it is said that
    the sun, the moon, Saturn, and every single star aligns
    whenever and wherever
    The Flower of Forever Love
    blossoms
    Have you ever seen the flower of forever love?