Stand still. The trees ahead
and bushes beside you
Are not lost. Wherever you are
is called Here,
And you must treat it as
a powerful stranger,
Must ask permission to know it
and be known.
The forest breathes. Listen.
It answers,
I have made this place
around you,
If you leave it you may
come back again, saying Here.
No two trees are the same
to Raven.
No two branches are the same
to Wren.
If what a tree or a bush does
is lost on you,
You are surely lost. Stand still.
The forest knows
Where you are.
You must let it find you.
-- "Lost" translated by David Wagoner
from a Native American elder
***********************************************
When We Let Spirit Lead
When we let
Spirit
Lead us
It is impossible
To know
Where
We are being led.
All we know
All we can believe
All we can hope
Is that
We are going
Home
That wherever
Spirit
Takes us
Is where
We
Live.
--Alice Walker
Absolute Trust in the Goodness of the Heart. 2003
***********************************************************
"For the white person
who wants to know
how to be my friend.
The first thing you must do is to
forget that I'm black.
Second, you must
never
forget that I'm black."
Pat Parker 1944-1989
A black, lesbian poet and activist who died from breast cancer.
***********************************************************
If we divide into two camps--even into violent and the
nonviolent--and stand in one camp while attacking the other,
the world will never have peace.
We will always blame and condemn those we feel are
responsible for wars and social injustice, without recognizing
the degree of violence within ourselves.
We must work on ourselves and also with those we
condemn if we want to have a real impact.
-Ayya Khema, "Be An Island"
Copyright Wisdom Publications 2001. Reprinted from "Daily Wisdom: 365 Buddhist Inspirations," edited by Josh Bartok, with permission of Wisdom Publications, 199 Elm St., Somerville MA 02144 U.S.A, www.wisdompubs.org.
***********************************************************
Attentiveness is the path to true life;
Indifference is the path to death.
The attentive do not die;
The indifferent are as if they are dead already.
-Dhammapada
From "The Pocket Buddha Reader," edited by Anne Bancroft, 2001. Reprinted by arrangement with Shambhala Publications, Boston, www.shambhala.com.