entering the silence

walking in two worlds, half-spent in the half-light of a waxing moon
willing to risk, accepting anxiety, confusion of motives, the humanness of being...
willing to yield, fully present to the spirit's profound beauty...

my priest, where is eucharist for those
who cannot repent of their bodies
who are on spiritual fire to burn down the artifice of religious debate
in order to recreate love

enter the silence, he says
dismantle the structure of knowing, he says
disrobe the mind of its creative impatience

enter the silence
cover the window of the soul's naked longing
walk past the remembrances that trace the face of the beloved on the walls of the heart

enter the silence, he says
...one might as well walk through the fair portals of hell

and yet, when is love silenced
but that a distant keening rises and calls the whole body to tremble and shout out for mercy

and when is passion smothered
but that the heat of one word ignites a flash fire of joy and consummate clouds of hope

and when is the soul's longing denied
but that the eternal opens a thousand windows and ten thousand doors of the pavilions of heaven on earth

here be angels

been laughed at, scoffed at
been asked what i'm smokin
on this issue of angels...
of course they are around
everywhere
sometimes you feel them
and if you know how to look
you can actually see their auras....
everybody has one
even you
anybody can see one
it only takes practice

so what do you do with one when you find one?
listen hard
learn something

but i thought we'd have more time...

eddie died yesterday

he was so good
we need people like eddie to stay here a lot longer
his were the hands and the heart of the One True Carpenter

although it's for sure he got a standing ovation upon arrival in heaven
you wish you could have just
reached into God's back pocket
and pulled out a cure for cancer instead

i'll try to be a better friend to ann
and maybe eddie'll toss that on my 'good' pile...
against a very tall stack of not-so-much

thanks, eddie
well done

if there is anything we know at all
it is the first thing that we learned--
God is Love

and the second is
that with God
anything is possible

we are empowered
both by Love
and by Free Will
to negotiate this life

no one else is living our life
the only thing that limits us is
us

some limits are 'givens'...
our body
our genetic family
our environment
our soul's past and future...
none of which are merely the luck of the draw
or something God saddled us with
without our knowledge...
what if...
we asked for all of it
and accepted all of it
for this life to have meaning
for the maturing of our soul

perhaps
if we acknowledge that there is, in fact, a divine plan
it becomes possible to accept that there is
meaning
in the unexplainable in this life...such as
why some of us are born with no arms or legs
why some are born down syndrome, or epileptic, or homosexual
why some are born black or white or German or Chinese
why we have different gifts, talents, undeserved beauty
why "the poor you always have with you"
why 'evil' prospers
and then the question becomes moot
as to why a loving God would ever "condone"
aids
starvation
suffering
war
injustice
innocent death...
...perhaps everything is always in the process of being loved and healed