Hearts of Stone

True love and prayer are learned in the hour when love becomes impossible and the heart has turned to stone.”

                             Jack Kornfield, Seeking the Heart of Wisdom: The Path of Insight Meditation

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there are times

when my heart turns to stone

when no light penetrates

no life giving water seeps

into that deep place

from which life comes

the seat of compassion

and generosity

there are times

when I am frozen

with anger

and hate

there are people

and events

acts of true horror

which leave what should be warm, alive, responsive

hard and cold

and dead

in such moments

I seek the Beloved

I hesitate to call it prayer

it is more of a primal scream

a cry of the heart

a final plea

there is so little life left

I wonder

If even the faintest whimper escapes

and yet, it does,

in that place

where all has turned to stone

where all has died

something is stirs

for Love hears

even the faintest whisper

in the darkness

even the smallest fragment of light

glows fiercely

and where love and life are absent

even the mere hint of life

births hope

and thus

in inexplicable ways

the heart is reborn

and love is possible

again