To Breathe, and Breathe again

What we need is a cup of understanding,

a barrel of love,

and an ocean of patience.

                St Francis de Sales, as quoted by Jack Kornfield, A Path with Heart, p.59

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we have become attentional spastics

our minds careen around like

crazed monkeys

we are not present to the world

we are not present to others

we are not present to ourselves

we have no patience

and because we have no presence

we have not love

so we are left

with ideologies and principles

we only partly understand

we look back with regret

and forward with anxiety

but we are not awake

to the love and hope that lies in the moment

we do not see the rising sun

or hear the song of the bird

we do not see the fleeting deer

and the person in the mirror is a stranger to us

gifts are missed

and love is lost

ah to take a moment

to breathe, and breathe again

to find our point of focus

discovered in a word

a phrase

a prayer

it matters not

there we find Sacred Presence

there, as we bring our heart back

patiently

again and again

we waken

and come fully alive

to all that is around us

to the world

Sacred creation

to the precious souls

who are part of our lives

to

ourselves