One of the more difficult but rewarding states to achieve in today's world, where we seem to hover on the one hand between being completely overwhelmed by other people or finding ourselves in extreme states of isolation and loneliness. All the more necessary then, to learn how to be rewardingly alone, to find solace in the familiarity of our own breath and our own body and perhaps even, if we are lucky, our own garden. Resting into our aloneness, we inhabit our bodies as a beautiful unspoken question, rather than a fraught and never ending explanation.
AT HOME At home amidst the bees wandering the garden in the summer light the sky a broad roof for the house of contentment where I wish to live forever in the eternity of my own fleeting and momentary happiness. I walk toward the kitchen door as if walking toward the door of a recognized heaven and see the simplicity of shelves and the blue dishes and the vapouring steam rising from the kettle that called me in. Not just this aromatic cup from which to drink but the flavour of a life made whole and lovely through the imagination seeking its way. Not just this house around me but the arms of a fierce but healing world. Not just this line I write but the innocence of an earned forgiveness flowing again through hands made new with writing. And a man with no company but his house, his garden, and his own well peopled solitude, entering the silences and chambers of the heart to start again. -from The House of Belonging
Overwhelmingly peaceful poem. Your words and presence are palpable. I have a sense of kinship and peacefulness in loving myself as I am today. I am not alone and afraid of being myself and the absolute joy that overrides my fears. That’s who I’m meant to be in this fleeting journey of life that invites me into a new life. Your heartfelt words have helped me through this difficult journey and I thank you. Everlasting love expressed through your words on paper.
This poem alone could be my practice for the rest of my life. I am very grateful to have these words to give hope and reality for a new way of being.