hopefulness

among the soft words of the place

i know as home

so many are spoken

so kindly

so truthfully

that they compel through their mere existence

the need to be addressed

among them and most especially i know

the voice that passes through me

and honouring that voice

amid the turbulent divergence

and diversions

that i know as life

gives me hope

hope sings its song

in the language of every listener

shaping its body to the form of the cup

from which i drink

of life's experiencing

hope asks me to see

by the flickering candle flame that is the short-lived gift of my life

the great and small possibilities

that i am

and to love and respect

each as fully as my very own children

hope compels me

to embrace

my reflection

in the wine

that is this world

circulation

to see the possibility of what i intuited could happen so many years ago when i mistakenly assumed that the emerging digital connection was the very edge of what was possible or even necessary . . .

a manifestation of connectedness that speaks in one voice through many hands, minds, and hearts

the guitar circle of europe ~ circulation

possibilities

when i see myself stopped

and consider

the harmony or dissonance

in the echoes of my actions

when i watch myself stopped

and see the sometimes synchronous sometimes chaotic

dance of my choices

swirling outwards and intersecting

even melding

with the choices of others

i'm drawn into the kaleidoscope

of real and imagined worlds

possibilities

and actualities

even as they fall

around me like rain

and soak into the soil of this world's becoming self

benevolence

trees love themselves and extend that knowing of love into their sense of all othernesses

in whatever form they may take.

i know this as loving kindness.

it's a pairing of words that bears reflection and consideration.

loving kindness.

loving kindness allows for the possibility of a state of care that is unconcerned

with like or dislike, right or wrong.

loving kindness is entirely present in the possibility that maybe, just maybe, everything, all things,

are features, perhaps even signs pointing to the process of love that emerges unimaginably

and without condition from a creative moment we express as "the creation".

the creation manifests in our own experiencing as a sort of creative infinitude that embraces the tiniest plankton, the most ancient joshua tree, the most beautiful sunset and everything in-between,

despite and other.

all are expressions of love.

the creation is an unfolding gift within which it is possible to refine the presence of the soul that in this incarnation manifests as the youness of you.

and so as i stand on a streetcorner (as i did this very day) and watch the sun break through clouds painted pale violet and the softest of sienna and (if you can imagine)

turning my head ever so slightly to look further south

i watch a frostbow form and see the colours that will become spring fall to the earth

i am keenly aware of the finite features of my bodies' life and then the ebb and flow of the seasons and the larger cycles of our planet which in turn sing of the orbiting of the worlds comprising our very tiny place in this universe which even as it becomes and fills the space in its plentitude is already aware of the necessity of its return to the essence of love from which it exploded.

please understand that the extraordinary and almost unbearably beautiful forms that i am so graced to share this place with leave me filled with the overwhelming compulsion and desire to share the deep feelings of gratitude and awe that i would wish to contain but whose ownership i cannot isolate and so as an echo of the unconditional loving kindness which they reflect, i choose to share them inside my emerging understanding here.