Sitting down this morning to write it all suddenly felt stale. This is how it goes sometimes, there are no more fancy words or startling metaphors to describe the places we find ourselves in. We’re like the Grinch, our puzzler is sore. And sometimes we don’t need more insight or unraveling of the riddle, another explanation or lesson, we just need to take a break, breathe, and be.

For me a lovely break brings with it a mystical scoop of poetry. Words and ideas with so many layers that there’s no logical figuring, there is just the breathless delight of the heart expanding when it runs into something unknowable that feels like home. This kind of poem stops the incessant whir of thinking and opens a window to let in a fresh breeze. This is a place where we can rest and restore. Where out of the world words climb deeper into our being and hearts creating space for something new to grow.

So I offer a time out this week, a languid pause on the long road of remembering. Let’s catch a deep breath of fresh air and recalibrate to a slower gear with the fine-tuned words that only come from the purest of hearts. May this small re-shifting bring us back to our essential essence sometimes lost in the chaos of living.

We Have Not Come To Take Prisoners

We have not come here to take prisoners But to surrender more deeply To freedom and joy.

We have not come into this exquisite world To hold ourselves hostage from love.

Run my dear, From anything That may not strengthen Your precious budding wings.

Run like hell my dear, From anyone likely To put a sharp knife Into that sacred, tender vision Of your beautiful heart…

For we have not come here to take prisoners Or to confine our wondrous spirits, But to experience ever and ever more deeply Our divine courage, freedom, and Light! – Hafiz

Pause, long exhalation.

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