September 11, 2013

…still so present

…still so fresh
after all of these years…

eyes frozen on images, pulling at my heart, calling on my soul to…to what?  jump up?  to hide?  to fight?

this chest heavy, this throat tight – choked with emotion.  this heart trying to hold it all…

the fear, the anger, the grief.

do me a favor will you?

let us sit.  together.  let us sit and invite these emotions to be our friends, our teachers, shall we?

before we act out of turn, let us allow time and space to do their work, for the fear, the anger, and the grief to shed their weight and reveal their gifts.  shall we?

even as the door to our heart begins to close under the overwhelming burden of it all, even as our chests tighten again and our tears freely flow, let us allow a window in our heart to open.

a window for fear, a window for anger, a window for grief. 

shall we dare?

even as we feel fear, we can allow a window in our heart to open to all others who feel fear – fear of loss, fear of age and illness, fear of death…
even as we feel anger, we can allow a window in our heart to open to all others who feel anger – anger at loss, anger at injustice, anger at feeling powerless…
even as we feel grief, we can allow a window in our heart to open to all others who feel grief – grief for loved ones gone, grief for dreams not lived, grief for the mortality of life…

shall we dare?

shall we dare Life, even in the most tragic of circumstances, to reveal Her Beauty?

if we dare to open the windows of our hearts
if we dare to allow such nakedness – such vulnerability
if we dare to open our eyes – to see how we all suffer the same fear, the same anger, the same grief…

then, even as the Lotus growing out of the mud, reaches up revealing Life’s Beauty
we, too, can grow from the darkest and most tragic places in life, revealing that we are also capable of Beauty

shall we dare?

~ j