To understand and accept the harmonious integration of everything

It is now

To accept that love is on its way in its time and is present

It is now

To breathe in the cool air of the morning understanding that it came from the planet Zargus

It is now

To touch my fingers together and experience ecstasy

It is now

To understand that the future is mine, along with the past and the present

It is now

To feel peace, and to go nowhere and be nowhere but here

It is now

To watch the first snowflakes of winter, turning under a grey sky

It is now

To think and read about longevity, and then to realize it is irrelevant

It is now

To love my body and to appreciate my body and to then return it to the earth

It is now

To surrender to surrender to surrender to surrender

It is now

It is now

It is

So, a while after writing the above poem I decided to go for a bit of a hike in the forest. It was a grey, cold day, with the winter’s first snow blanketing the peaks of the mountains. I strode up the steep road that takes you between the modest colonial buildings of the Coolidge estate and then kept on walking on a trail through the woods. I turned off and walked past a pond and came to a lean-to.  I stopped and clambered up some log steps into the enclosed area. There was a thin mattress on the floor, and stuck beside the mattress and the log wall were two pieces of paper. One was a lined four-inch sheet with a red heart embossed at the top. The other was unlined, and someone had written words on the paper in red and yellow ink.

Holding the paper I sat down, hanging my feet over the edge of the lean-to so I was facing the forest. A stream ran in a small ravine about twenty yards away. This snowflakes wafted through the trees. I unfolded the paper and read what was on it. After reading it I took a long, slow breath – I realized it was a message for you.

Here are the words that were painted on the paper:

Unearned but not undeserved

We are all children of the sun

Each of us deserves happiness

To be loved

To love dearly and tenderly

To be seen as we are

To feel safe and wanted

To speak and listen in the language of the stars

To heal from hurt, to be whole

Fully human, holy

To walk towards our destiny

Not alone, not afraid

With light.

Written on the other side of the paper was were the phrases,

Thank you for this peaceful moment

Of listening to the trees and my heart.

Father’s Day, 2014

Remembering that I was born.

I folded the paper and listened to the breeze in the trees and the river running below, and was thankful for this strange, serendipitous and sacred gift.

Feel free to pass it on.