The Call

This is what it means to answer the call, to commit to being here in a human life, as a human being: 

to love what is mortal, 

to love what is unpredictably changing & impermanent, 

to love while being mindful that everything, 
every person, every place, every moment we love will change & pass, 
but to love anyway. 

And to love what you love fiercely, no holds barred, nothing held back, 
knowing that the reality of who & what you are here & now 
as a human being is inseparable from this world, 
this life you claim & inhabit fully.

                                               ~ Oriah Mountain Dreamer, from The Call


There's a fierceness, a fiery passion in what is spoken here. It takes commitment to live each moment in authenticity. To love life, each moment and each person, including oneself, seems an impossible task. Yet there are glimspes, flashes, moments where this is unmistakably experienced. And the peace that comes in those moments is beyond verbal expression. 

Free What Waits Within Me...

I believe in all that has never yet been spoken.
I want to free what waits within me
so that what no one has dared to wish for
may for once spring clear
without my contriving.

If this is arrogant, God forgive me,
but this is what I need to say.
May what I do flow from me like a river,
no forcing and no holding back,
the way it is with children.

Then in these swelling and ebbing currents,
these deepening tides moving out, returning,
I will sing you as no one ever has,
streaming through widening channels
into the open sea.

- Rainer Maria Rilke, translated by Joanna Macy

Rilke is one of my favorite poets. He is a master at taking the ordinary and creating something that transforms the reader bringing awareness into everyday moments. His ability to enchant us is his honesty, clarity and depth of seeing.

I'm not sure if everyone has this feeling, but I think many writers and artists do have a kind of yearning to express what is inside of them. It is what birthed this blog for me. The secret may be authenticity. To allow what is inside to flow without forcing or holding back. When I am able to rest in the moment, I feel the song riding on the deepening tides, "freeing what waits within me."