A Daily Practice

26 September 2012

Come now.

  You can’t have come these many years

   and not bear the mark of life upon your breast.

It is there.

  You just can’t see it

  for all the veils behind which you hide.

Shut off the TV

  Disconnect the computer

  Kill the video games

  Put down the glass and the cigarette and the pot

  and all the other vises you use to escape

  the feeling of life.

Strip bare all that covers you.

  Stand naked and gaze upon the

  the babe without the swaddling clothes;

  the bruises, gashes, wrinkles, sags and

  blemishes, sorrows, shame, desires…

  All of it.

This is you.

Dare now,

  in full light of the All that is you

  to embrace, gift compassion to,

  feel unconditional love for,

  your

  self.

Then look deeply into your eyes,

  your soul,

  and see a blessed and mysterious being

  worthy of the love and compassion

  you have gifted it.

Witness now the babe, 

  nourished from love.

  And see the rest of you,

  the dreamer, the lover, the creator,

  the beauty and hope and promise

  that is no other,

  but you.

Walk this day in the light

  that is you.