Take Heart

No heaven can come to us unless
our hearts find rest in it today.
Take Heaven.

No peace lies in the future which
is not hidden in this present instant.
Take Peace.

The gloom of the world is but a shadow;
behind it, yet, within our reach, is joy.
Take Joy.

And so, I greet you, with the prayer
that for you, now and forever,
the day breaks and the shadows flee away.

—Fra Giovanni

The Road Not Taken

A few 'experiences' on a relatively, balanced out Monday, trigger me to pause a moment and reflect. My eidetic memory of circumstances, choices, decisions, a confetti of emotions, manage to catch me at the least unexpected of times. It has always been, well, amusing, undescribable, gut-wrenching, complex. I do not know whether I shall ever manage to tell it as it is.. tell it the way it is, for me..

Here's a poem that resonates..

And somewhere, just as it is, in the last stanza.. I would hope to find solace in the fact that it shall be told, heard and understood.

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveller, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I--
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference

-Robert Frost

If, for once

If, for once.
You would admonish your own pain,
You’d put it aside, to see how it is an attempt in vain
To take notice of the small precious moments it refrains
The anguish it caused and causes all – in disdain

If, for once,
You would recognize that your child has been harmed
Would have come to you when confused and unarmed
Who’d have looked up to you for guidance & care
Nurturance, support and comfort to be there

If, for once,
This could happen, then we might understand
That what we seek is a protective loving hand
That all suffering has a reason
And sometimes a season

If, for once,
You might see how we all are affected
How life paths are all interconnected
And to ensure that karmic energy is absolved
Not carried forward, empathetically resolved

If, for once,
To reflect how conflict takes from life,
Our natural life force that is all encompassing
To operate from our inherent goodness
To forgive and redeem ourselves

Maybe, then
Relief in the aftermath of severe tribulation
A moment of connection, a sign of compassion,
From the natural joys and highs that flow
Like a babbling brook or an afterglow

Maybe, then
This beautiful life would seem light
Our hopes and aspiration might seem right
Our dreams would be ones to look forward to
To know that this life journey was worth it all the while


Everyone mistakes the limits of their vision for the limits of the world.