How To Build A Smile

Appreciate.
Appreciate.
Appreciate.

A child can fall in love
with a piece of string.
A cat can fall in love
with drops of dust.

What did you fall in love with today?

Oh. Oh.
You forgot to fall in love?

Try it now.

Let’s love the day we’re sitting in;
revel in how it rolls out its mysteries
like a drunken artist, hoping someone,
anyone, will notice its design.

Appreciate.
Appreciate.
Appreciate.

Whatever we bless
turns into a poem.

Speaking of Beauty

Any way you cut it, here’s a truth: there’s nothing like sheer smarts flavored with compassion to make the angels dance.

And that’s exactly what we’ve got moving into the Oval Office: a mind with a heart. How did we get this lucky?

What’s riveting about this luminous and brilliant new president is that he doesn’t come from privilege, he has flaws, he was dumped by his father and he can’t bowl. Despite these obvious dents, he has what really counts: he's ecstatic about ideas and his consciousness is wide enough to include all of us.

When a country’s psyche is in shreds, as ours is now, what we need is a blazingly fresh pair of eyes. Eyes that can imagine. Eyes that can explore. Eyes that can hear as well as see.

We got it.

This year, silent Christmas

Yes, I’m giving myself a different Christmas this year: a day of silence. Family members and friends are far away, and so I want to unite with the most illustrious guest I know: Jesus. According to all reports, He does well in silence. It’s His mother tongue.

I’m nowhere near as fluent in silence as Jesus, but I have a sneaking feeling He’ll forgive me. He’s probably tickled pink when any of us are willing to try communicating without words, given our obvious preference for out loud talking.

So even though my silence skills are middling at best, we’ll be sitting together, Jesus and I, and I’ll be listening to every word He doesn’t speak.

If all goes well, He’ll wrap me in a blanket of Peace and put some sweet nuggets of inspiration and awareness into my stocking. He’s good at that.

What do I have for Him? Not much, really. A huge box of gratitude. Awe. The willingness to spend time with the Peace Guru and let Him help me remember He is my brother. Oh, and He can have some of my Cherry Garcia ice cream if He wants.

Don’t get me wrong. I know most people picture Christmas as a scene of heart-softening music, multiple moving bodies and scads of harmonic food, more than you can ever possibly eat. That’s nice, too. I’ve done lots of those Christmases, the kind where you eat yourself silly and laugh at the jokes we tell while we’re cleaning up wrappings and washing up the pots and pans. I’ve never regretted any of those days: they’re just wonderful.

But this year, it’s Silence.

Are You Here?

Right now, are you here?

Are you conscious of the ground beneath your feet, the in-and-outness of your breath, the beating of your heart? Do you notice the brilliance of your fingers that wrap perfectly around a pen? Are you aware of the brother or sister who sits next to you in your office or on the train?

Are you seeing the vast sky? Are you noticing the deep silence that underlies every sound? Are you clasping the hand of your own divine spirit?

Your spirit is the wealthiest asset you will ever possess.

Please.

Do not forsake it to dance with fear.

Come back to here. Come back to now.

Come back to You.

Hats Off To Us

Look at us, everyone.

Look at the diamond we have discovered amid the mud of war, terror, lack and a gasping economy.

The diamond is our own True Self, arising to help us unstumble ourselves and our broken world. Together, we chose a blazing bright new President and in so doing we now have a reflection of our own soul, eager to inch us further into oneness, into unity, into wisdom.

As a result – in one blindingly wise and visceral moment - one of the deepest scars on our national consciousness has dissolved into near nothingness.

Hurray for us, hurray for our country, hurray for the world.

VISION

One of the fascinating things about vision is that it falls by definition ahead of the curve; thus, at first, it can sound unfamiliar and alien.

Consider this. Gandhi’s notion of returning India to Indian rule by nonviolent action was initially perceived as eccentric, invalid and dangerous. Only after it worked did it become a heralded method of speaking truth to power.

Family and friends of the Wright Brothers ridiculed their insistence that a machine could –and would- fly. Their idea was thought to be dead wrong; yet how did it turn out? They were Wright.

And, centuries ago, Jesus’ revelation that God is within us, not outside us, was considered false and heretical; in fact, it was held frightening enough to get him prosecuted and killed. Then, as now, a new vision doesn’t land lightly on closed minds.

So when a young politician appears on our horizon carrying a fresh and transcendent approach to national and world affairs, how can we be surprised that there are loud, angry protests from minds rooted in unoriginal thoughts?

Obama, a man gifted with both brilliance and vision, is speaking out for governance by sanity rather than tribal rigidities. To those who cannot allow themselves to see the power of that concept, he is and will remain unacceptable.

Yet. Think how extraordinary and life-enhancing it could be if it turns out there are more of us who see his vision than those who don’t.

Imagine.

You Are Not Alone

Don’t go thinking
you’re just one leaf,
assailable and discrete.

Think rounder.

A leaf is part of the
branch is part of the
tree is part of the
soil is part of the
earth is part of the
universe.

You, too, are linked to
everything there is.
End of story.