Four Sonnets - Part 1

1.       There appeared a darkly sparkling thin hardly bigger than a pin, that all afternoon  seemed to want my company,  It did me no hurt but wandered my shirt, my sleeve cuff, my wrist…

Oh, distant relative, we will never speak to each other a single kind word. And yet, in this world, it is no small thing to sparkle.

I am in Guyana and there are millions of things here I know not the name of – insects that bite and hum and chirp and whistle.  Along our walks today I hear a constant toning of a mediation bell, and it is a bee I am told.  Even if it is a large bee, it remains such a small thing to invoke the trees to bend in the wind as eaves in a chapel.  Out there with them I pray that I am aware that all beings sparkle.

What small things are with you in your life?

Anne - January 18, 2010

The daughter is mad, and so

I wonder what she will do....

...I feel my heart go wild, Anne,

I feel my heart go wild.

I know a hundred children,

But never before a child

Hiding so deep a trouble

Or wanting so much to please.

Or tending so desperately all

The small civilities.

Having just come from the North Atlantic Veterinary Conference with over 13,000 attendees I am mindful of the social pressures exerted when ever two or more humans are gathered, let alone families, communities, and global villages. I found myself watching others and watching myself about all the subtle ways we strive to belong, and as a corollary, exclude others. We hide who we are so that others might not see the truth underneath - that we all are so very flawed and less than we could be. Yet in this fumbling and bumbling of who we are there is perfection. If we could just loosen up a bit, I wonder what glory would shine through. If we would let our hearts run wild....

Where do you force yourself to behave in a certain way to gain acceptance or to belong? Who do you exclude?