It is the simplest of paradoxes:
You can’t see what you are in.
As soon as you try, you are no
longer in it. This is the trap
of self-consciousness.
You can’t see the ocean
when you are in the ocean.
You can’t see the bird flying,
if you are the bird flying.
You can’t see how the lungs
work when you are struggling
to breathe.
Nor the contours of the path
when you are breaking trail.
Only looking back can we
make sense of what has
unfolded.
Looking forward, we can
only open our heart like
a fire to the sky and live.
A Question to Walk With: Describe a trail you have taken or made in your life and what it looks like looking back. What do you see now that you didn’t see when you were in the middle of it?
This is from my book of poems in progress, The Fire Dialogues.
MAY 23–27: Weeklong Retreat, The One Life We’re Given: Saying Yes to Life, The Modern Elder Academy, Baja, Mexico, ( web link) — IN PERSON
JUNE 24–26: Omega Institute, Rhinebeck, NY, The Deeper Teachers: Fear, Pain, and Grief, Weekend Retreat, (web link) — IN PERSON
AUG 26–28: Mercy By the Sea, 167 Neck Rd, Madison CT, weekend workshop, Reclaiming Our Humanity: Being Fierce and Tender in Our Call to Love, Fri 7–9:30PM EST Sat 9:30–5:30PM EST, Sun 9:30–1230PM, ( web link) — IN PERSON
