Summer Haiku
By Don Iannone

1
June disappearing
...gold finches and wrens don't mind
......their young carry on

2
angry skies cry rain
...wind lashes watercolors
......hearts cleansed everywhere

3
memories of fall
...dance lightly on summer's stage
......final act to come

Your Second Life

Americans are increasingly concerned about their retirement years. The Japanese have a different approach to the retirement phase of life. Rather than using the word ‘retirement’ to define the final stage of life, Japanese people have the concept of “Second Life,” which is the period of time in your life when your family responsibilities have changed and you can focus on your ‘inner peace’. It is a time for getting closer to your soul and dispensing your wisdom to benefit younger generations, and even those your age or older. I rather like this concept. Don't you?

How Long Can This Go On?
By Don Iannone

The Earth hurts for love.
Her gut wrenches
with every new car,
every new house,
every new inch of pavement
we cover her with.
It's too much, she says,
to bear it all,
and not expect
at least some tears.

The Earth begs for release
from the burden
of carrying too much
too long
that is not of her making.
Her face is ashen
and filled with sadness.
Is it any wonder
the earth quakes,
the seas surge,
and the skies are falling
her desperate tears?

Adyashanti

Check out this post over at Anonymous Dharma. This sums up exactly how my own spiritual journey is unfolding. Thank you Dan!

Hay for the Horses
by Gary Snyder

He had driven half the night
From far down San Joaquin
Through Mariposa, up the
Dangerous Mountain roads,
And pulled in at eight a.m.
With his big truckload of hay
behind the barn.
With winch and ropes and hooks
We stacked the bales up clean
To splintery redwood rafters
High in the dark, flecks of alfalfa
Whirling through shingle-cracks of light,
Itch of haydust in the
sweaty shirt and shoes.
At lunchtime under Black oak
Out in the hot corral,
---The old mare nosing lunchpails,
Grasshoppers crackling in the weeds---
"I'm sixty-eight" he said,
"I first bucked hay when I was seventeen.
I thought, that day I started,
I sure would hate to do this all my life.
And dammit, that's just what
I've gone and done."

Affirmation
By Donald Hall
(Our New U.S. Poet Laureate)

To grow old is to lose everything.
Aging, everybody knows it.
Even when we are young,
we glimpse it sometimes, and nod our heads
when a grandfather dies.
Then we row for years on the midsummer
pond, ignorant and content. But a marriage,
that began without harm, scatters
into debris on the shore,
and a friend from school drops
cold on a rocky strand.
If a new love carries us
past middle age, our wife will die
at her strongest and most beautiful.
New women come and go. All go.
The pretty lover who announces
that she is temporary
is temporary. The bold woman,
middle-aged against our old age,
sinks under an anxiety she cannot withstand.
Another friend of decades estranges himself
in words that pollute thirty years.
Let us stifle under mud at the pond's edge
and affirm that it is fitting
and delicious to lose everything.

Meaningful Work

Just started a new discussion group over at Zaadz on meaningful work. Click here to catch the buzz. You can join for free. Just follow the instructions here.

Summer Haiku
By Don Iannone

1
tiny butterfly
...floating in perfectly thin air
......making my heart jump

2
cherry blossoms open
...a new tomorrow is born
......blessing every moment

3
woodpecker alone
...drumming a new awakening
......suddenly I'm free

Love Flows
By Don Iannone

It has been said
that love flows best
that flows freely,
And so
let your love flow
without boundary
or reflection,
And may it touch
the heart of the universe
lying wait
for your heart chord to sound,
releasing its perfect light
that all may flow together as one.

Catch the New Buzz at Don's my del.icio.us.

This is a cool tool that you too can use to capture information from the Web, retain it for your use, and share it with others.

You can get del.icio.us for yourself for free! Click here.

Work With Meaning and Purpose
By Don Iannone

Work as though life matters
...as though you matter
...as though those you serve matter.
Allow your work to carry you
...in the direction of meaning and purpose.
Let it lift you above self-pleasure
...and money for the wrong reasons.
Let your work be an integral aspect
...of your whole life, and not
just eight or ten hours of your day
...when you work at making a living.
See yourself as inseparable from
those who pay you and who you pay.
Never forget
...that your work is your spiritual energy
...manifested toward specific ends.
Are these ends ones that matter?
At the end of the day
...have you contributed to greater meaning and purpose
...in your life and the lives of others?
Don't allow yourself to become your job
...but at the same time
...don't discount the value of the work you do.

My del.icio.us:

What is it? It's a new tool I've added to Conscious Living to add links and short summary descriptions of online resources I've visited and thought you, as a Conscious Living reader, might have an interest in as well.

Where can you find it? Just look along the right hand margin and you will see a button for del.icio.us. Also, you will find links to the online resources themselves.

Don't be shy. Check it out and let me know what you think.

By the way, you can create your own del.icio.us by clicking on this link. Free of course!

Summer Haiku
By Don Iannone

1
golden buttercups
...dance lightly in summer breeze
......remembering youth

2
morning glories play
...sweet summer adagios
......listen with your heart

3
water lilies float
...where chanting bullfrogs echo
......across sweetwater pond

Morning Muses
By Don Iannone

Long wisps of sun sweep buttery light rays
through the summer green leaves
of the white birch trees in the front yard.
A lone dove twitches and preens herself
while singing mournful love songs to a lost mate--
too slow to avoid the powerful clutches of the red-tailed hawk,
who lives fully each day Darwin's code of survival.
The muse within contemplates the ever so fine line between
the sacred great chain of being stretching across the whole of life
and the more obvious food chain of life that does the same.
The sun now paints the yard in broader golden strokes,
more like a dreamy Monet watercolor than any Rembrandt creation.
The muse says Monet saw the sacred great chain
and Rembrandt saw the more practical food chain.
I think the lone dove must see both this morning.

Sedona Rainbow
Dedicated to Mary
By Don Iannone

The rain will fall so love it all
In the distance, wild birds call,
You, like a magical rainbow, appear
Bringing undying hope and good cheer,
Days and night blur happy as larks
Soaring high leave their marks,
High school melodies sweet to the touch
Never one I've loved so much,
Eagerly await each precious moment we share
Nothing much else do we care,
Sixteen years together we've been
Never a better time, I can't think when,
Ahead we think, but today we live
More and more we have to give,
On this 24th day of June you shall always be
A Sedona rainbow just for me.

Photo Credit: Rainmaker's Art

When Darkness Falls
By Don Iannone

Closed eyes shut off from the world
...filled with tearful visions forever washed away.
Finally darkness falls
...heavy and cold as an Alberta Clipper
...muffling last desperate cries and whispers
...frozen still on trembling thin blue lips.
The darkness drinks in the last of my shadow
...leaving only what I myself must take away.

You Keep Me Hanging On
Diana Ross & The Supremes - 1966

Set me free, why don't you babe
Get out of my life, why don't you babe
'Cause you don't really love me
You just keep me hanging' on
You don't really need me
But you keep me hanging' on

Why do you keep a coming around
Playing with my heart?
Why don't you get out of my life
And let me make a new start?
Let me get over you
The way you've gotten over me

Set me free, why don't you babe
Let me be, why don't you babe
'Cause you don't really love me
You just keep me hanging' on
Now you don't really want me
You just keep me hanging' on

You say although we broke up
You still want to be just friends
But how can we still be friends
When seeing you only breaks my heart again
And there ain't nothing I can do about it

Woo, set me free, why don't you babe
Woo, get out my life, why don't you babe
Set me free, why don't you babe
Get out my life, why don't you babe

You claim you still care for me
But your heart and soul needs to be free
Now that you've got your freedom
You want to still hold on to me
You don't want me for yourself
So let me find somebody else Hey!

Why don't you be a man about it
And set me free
Now you don't care a thing about me
You're just using me
Go on, get out, get out of my life
And let me sleep at night
'Cause you don't really love me
You just keep me hanging' on...

Bearing Another's Cross
By Don Iannone

I saw him
naked
standing atop the hill.
He walked toward me
bearing his own cross.
I wasn't supposed to see his smile,
but I did.
As he disappeared over the hill,
his words glowed inside me:
Don't follow me
for this is mine to bear.
Get down from yours
and carry your brother's
that he may get down from his
and carry another brother's cross.
And once all the crucified are free,
the light of all shall be joined,
And then, Heaven shall appear.

Cleaning Your Basement
By Don Iannone

Trash piles high in the basement,
reaching from floor to ceiling
and from wall to wall.
Filling everything and nothing
because there is nothing to fill
and because nothing fills
the emptiness in your life.
No room for what really matters
in life any longer,
just trash-- things we hold onto
because somebody someday might need something
that we hold onto,
or so we say in justification
of why our lives are so filled with needs that clutter
and other unreal nonsense--
holding the open space in our lives captive.
Never any reason other than we are afraid to let go
because we fear letting go means the end
and because the end means death.
Take out the trash in your basement
and let go of your life that lives there too.

More Than You Bargained for in the Attic
By Don Iannone

A single naked light bulb dangles
weak illuminations on a shattered past,
like old cracks in the tarnished silver mirror
your grandmother used morning and night
to comb her long flowing golden hair
long before you knew her.
Faded dreams stare back at you
like haunting crimson devil eyes
from the other side of the mirror.
An ugly place you never intended to go
but found yourself crying tears of protest
like swollen rivers after a torrential rain.
Heavily fingered black and white polaroids--
stark images of colorless times
when secrets overshadowed life's mysteries
and we were even greater slaves to our past.
Hoping deep inside for buried treasure--
finding salt rubbed in sacrificial wounds
too old to bleed, too deep to heal.
Musty smells igniting off-centered memories
belonging to someone other than you
but now you, because you looked and saw them.
An old pressed flower in yellowed wax paper
dredges up the shrill piercing sound
of the 3:13 AM coal train
whose horn haunts you still
like the night your cousin died.
No ghosts, but even worse
realities too intense to bear
shaken loose from the album in your aging hands
and now forever a part of you.

What Do You Know About Yourself?

If you want to find out more, click here.

Do You Know Who This?

You Should. Click Here to Find Out.
Hint: She was a Hero.

Buzzin' in the Basement: Call the A/C Medicine Man
By Don Iannone

Machines have more brains
...than we give them credit for.
Take for example
...the nifty keen Honeywell electronic air cleaner
...on the central air conditioning system
...in our nice and usually cool house.
The infernal thing started buzzing
...like a swarm of bumblebees
...bright and early this morning.
At first
...I panicked that I was about to be attacked
...by the world's largest mosquito
...like the dinosauric critter in Komarno, Manitoba.
Quickly I discovered
...after a swift trip to the basement
...twas no skeeter
...twas instead
... the poor overworked Honeywell gadget
...that was just letting us know
...it was about to go kafluey
...and needs to see the A/C medicine man ASAP.
After all
...even self-cleaning A/C air cleaners
need a little help healing sometimes.

So Very Wise

"You're like the reinforcing rods in the life highway we travel everyday. Knowing you are there, helps me to travel the road more confidently." Anonymous Dharma (Click and check out what Dan is telling us)

A Metaphysical Approach to Creating Affluence

A stands for all possibilities, absolute, authority, affluence, and abundance. The true nature of our ground state and that of the universe is that it is a field of all possibilities. In our most primordial form, we are a field of all possibilities.

From this level it is possible to create anything. This field is our own essential nature. It is our inner self.

It is also called the absolute, and it is the ultimate authority. It is intrinsically affluent because it gives rise to the infinite diversity and abundance of the universe.

Deepak Chopra
Creating Affluence: The A-Z Steps to a Richer Life
New World Library, 1998

Wisdom Versus Knowledge

“Never mistake knowledge for wisdom. One helps you make a living; the other helps you make a life. “

- Sandra Carey

2:53 AM
By Don Iannone

Dead silence
...so loud
...it awakened me
...from my dream.
Something about...
frozen red roses
...sparkling from afar
...and then suddenly within reach
...of my imagination.
Reminds me of...
frozen strawberries.
Eye candy.
Bright red, sweet, cold, sticky.
I wish I could remember
...more of my dream
...and forget other things
...tapping their long gray fingers
in my head.
We had a spat of rain last night
...a few tinny taps on the roof
...but enough
...to make me look at the clock.
Am I really awake?
Why does that sound
like a spiritual question
...and not just an innocent question
...you ask yourself at 2:53 AM?
The air is thick
...hovering about
...like my dream
...but without words.
Why do I feel the rain
in my head?
It's long gray fingers drumming.
It's no longer 2:53 AM.

Sailing the Uncharted Waters of Your Life
By Don Iannone

Sail gently
...into the uncharted water
...of your life.
Let the waves of passion
...carry you beyond
...the horizons of knowledge--
bringing fresh new self-understanding.
Dive the depths--
beyond the barrier reef
...you call your life for now.
Trust the gods of the sky
...to tell you things about the water
...that the water can never tell.
Then listen as the gods of the water
...whisper secrets darker than
...the pitch black sky
...causing you to shudder deep
...in their steel cold clutches.
Watch for the signs
...as you pass from the light
...to the darkness
...and back to the light again.
Prepare for the storms
...ravaging hearts and timid sailors
...capsizing their hopes and dreams
...never again to re-emerge.
Batten down your life hatches
...as the storms come
...but re-open them
...when the skies have cleared.
When you feel you've gone too far
...cut yourself some slack
...and let your ebb carry you back.
Let your soul rudder you
...in the direction of your dreams
...but don't trust them
...unless tried by self-knowledge.
Remember always
...the wind is your friend.
Respect her
...dance with her
...but never under-estimate
...how she can forever change
...the waters of your life.

Early Summer Flowers

Blessed Words
By Don Iannone

Buried deep within this poem
is a very special blessing
from me to you.
This blessing has nothing, whatsoever
to do with me--
it's all about you.
You don't have to believe anything special
or do anything different
than you normally do.
There is no choice to make
about what this blessing relates to
or how you can use it
to get what you already want.
It's not my blessing.
I have none--
other than those passing through me
as I make my way through life.
How do you know
there is a blessing in these words?
In our minds
you don't know
and neither do I.
So why trouble yourself
about a poem claiming a blessing
you can't see or touch?
There is no need to trouble yourself.
Just consider the faintest possibility
that I "felt" blessed
as I wrote this poem.
Then
consider the possibility
that you might "feel" blessed
as you read these words.
If in your heart
you feel an ever so slight tug--
you will know
this blessing has been passed on to you.

PS: Feel free to copy this poem, post it to your website,
send it to a friend, hang it on your refrigerator, or use
it in any other way you feel is appropriate.

Morning Word Rush
By Don Iannone

Spastic fingers clumsily type
euphorically exotic word rushes
onto an unlined virtual page
like an out-of-control waterfall
spewing liquid rainbows
on thick droopy half-opened eyelids
sagging from an opium overdose
of early morning REM sleep.

Suddenly a poem appeared.

Mockingbirds
By Mary Oliver

This morning
two mockingbirds
in the green field
were spinning and tossing

the white ribbons
of their songs
into the air.
I had nothing

better to do
than listen.
I mean this
seriously.

In Greece,
a long time ago,
an old couple
opened their door

to two strangers
who were,
it soon appeared,
not men at all,

but gods.
It is my favorite story--
how the old couple
had almost nothing to give

but their willingness
to be attentive--
but for this alone
the gods loved them

and blessed them--
when they rose
out of their mortal bodies,
like a million particles of water

from a fountain,
the light
swept into all the corners
of the cottage,

and the old couple,
shaken with understanding,
bowed down--
but still they asked for nothing

but the difficult life
which they had already.
And the gods smiled, as they vanished,
clapping their great wings.

Wherever it was
I was supposed to be
this morning--
whatever it was I said

I would be doing--
I was standing
at the edge of the field--
I was hurrying

through my own soul,
opening its dark doors--
I was leaning out;
I was listening.

The Real Work You Do

What is the real work you do in your life? I used to think mine was economic development consulting. Not anymore. Yes, it is a great way to make a living and will continue to be that in the future. But what is my real work? It's poetry, spiritual healing, and teaching.

What is your real work in life?

The Light That Holds Us
By Don Iannone

Be not afraid--
for your love
is strong enough
to lift you far above
any dark night of your soul.

Lose not hope--
for there is a power
greater even than the sun
whose light is so strong
we must close our eyes to see.

Remember always the truth
that gave birth to you
and will always be with you
no matter how dark the night
or how cold the wind may blow.

A Tribute to All Who Have Suffered
By Don Iannone

Let the gentle being
that you most deeply are
fill the missing pieces
begging for the touch
of a loving hand.

May the many parts of you
grow together in harmony
like a beautiful tapestry
floating
in pure sunlight.

May each new breath you take
lull you high above the clouds
where peace lies waiting
to kiss away the tears
for so long you've cried.

And may magical harps play
familiar sweet lullabies
that wove threads of hope
into the soul
of the precious child within you.

Flowering Spirit Guides
By Don Iannone

...In the still morning air
......I am one
.........with the flowers
............in spring bloom
...............calling out
...................with resonating voices
.......................reminding us
..........................to seek
..............................beyond gravity's reach
..................................and beyond
......................................anything we can imagine.

Flowering Beauty in the Soul

End the War
By Don Iannone

Listen closely and you'll hear
the sounds of canon and gun fire
off in the inner distance.
Look deeply and you'll see
the maimed and the dead
left as reminders to all
at war with themselves.
Why draw battle lines and blood
when peace will come
the moment you surrender to it.

Seeing and Understanding
By Don Iannone

So much we don't see
or really understand in life.
What I don't see or understand
isn't of any real consequence to you.
It's important for you
to see and understand your life.
It's your mirror
and your life
that must meet
and tell the truth to each other.

A Sunrise Beyond Words
By Don Iannone

Morning clamoured her way
into being one fine June day,
Such a picture she painted
so much beauty we nearly fainted,
With salmon pink, yellow, orange and blue
she appeared quickly and suddenly I knew,
A sunrise sketched so perfectly true
Never will words quite describe the view.

A New Day is Born in Cleveland Without Words

Tucson Without Words

At times, light within...

"People are like stained-glass windows. They sparkle and shine when the sun is out, but when the darkness sets in, their true beauty is revealed only if there is a light from within."

- Elisabeth Kubler-Ross

Morning
By Don Iannone

She swallows me whole
in the amber sun
...gently beating on my window.

There's no escaping her grip
...tighter than a vice clamping...down
...silencing...my throbbing heart.

I lose myself
...for a fleeting moment--
that seemed...like an eternity.

Everything changes...when
you surrender all you have
to the start of a new day.

Gloriously helpless
...I turned over
what I had left...to her.

Another Take on Commitment
By Don Iannone

If we're not careful,
we become nothing more than
what we commit ourselves to in life,
and our commitments,
in return,
become all we are.
We don't feel alive,
unless,
we have filled our lives to the brim
with commitments to do, think, know,
or otherwise be in certain committed ways.
We don't feel worthwhile or meaningful,
unless,
our daily calendars are overbooked,
and look like Grand Central Station on a Monday morning.
At times,
we believe we will only continue to exist,
if we commit ourselves to being and existing.
Hold up a mirror to your life.
What do you see?
Perhaps like me,
you see yourself looking at yourself.
That's you--the one looking,
and not all the commitments you cling to,
and hope will make you exist.
Look past your commitments,
and discover the one
to whom all the commitments belong.
Perhaps you, like me, will see
a need to commit to less,
and in so doing--be more.

In Search of Nonduality
(Of course without searching because there is nothing to seek.)

Nothing to do,
Nothing to force,
nothing to want -
and everything happens by itself.

--Venerable Lama Gendun Rinpoche

To study the way of the Buddha is to study your own self.
To study your own self is to forget yourself. To forget
yourself is to have the objective world prevail in you.

--Dogen

The person is a very small thing. Actually it is a composite, it cannot
be said to exist by itself. Unperceived, it is just not there. It is but the
shadow of the mind, the sum total of memories. Pure being is reflected
in the mirror of the mind, as knowing. What is known takes the shape
of a person, based on memory and habit. It is but a shadow, or a
projection of the knower onto the screen of the mind.

--Nisargadatta Maharaj


God is Within You

When one realizes God, He grants knowledge and illumination
from within; one knows it oneself. In the fullness of one's spiritual
realization one will find that He who resides in one's heart, resides
in the hearts of others as well - the oppressed, the persecuted, the
untouchable, and the outcast.

--Sri Sarada Devi

"One man cannot do right in one department
of life whilst he is occupied in doing wrong
in any other department. Life is one
indivisible whole."

--Mahatma Gandhi

Create a New Ending

"Nobody can go back and start a new beginning, but anyone can start today and make a new ending."

--Maria Robinson

For Those Who Suffer About Going Home
By Don Iannone

Home
...where we supposedly
...live most freely
...and find our deepest peace and comfort.
Family
...those closest to us
...who supposedly
...care most about us
...and would do nothing to hurt us.
Love
...that which is supposedly born
...in all of us
...and is supposedly
...given freely to us
...by those closest to us.
Why then
...does it hurt so much
...for some of us to go home?
Why then
...do we feel so lost and afraid
...when we try to find our way home?
Why then
...is it so hard
......to find peace and love
.........when we try to go home?
There are always reasons.

________________________
PS: It's important for all us to make peace
with our pasts. It's important to forgive
ourselves and others. It's important that
we release ourselves and feel at home in
our life whenever and wherever we are.
If these things are important in your life,
may this poem touch you in some small
way and help you find the peace you have
so long desired.

Imemine posted a link to a wondeful little online book called The Lazy Man's Guide.

Thanks Imemine!

Get Away from Yourself
By Don Iannone

Too much of the time
we live...within time,
as though the hands of the clock
have some real meaning in life.
Simply not so.
Fashion yourself a cloud,
floating high above earth.
Let yourself drift...in the wind,
let it carry you...far...away
from wherever you normally are.
Find a new space...in life;
one empty all resistance.
Let that space open...you
to new things you don't know.
Get away from yourself,
and get to know...who you really are.

The Buffalo

Check out a wonderful poem by Mike over at Unknowing Mind.

Words Well Spoken

"The true follower of Tao...sees the fundamental emptiness of things..."
(Read the rest over at Anonymous Dharma.)

Karma
By Don Iannone

What follows us
...like the sun on a long hot summer afternoon
...or a hungry dog filled with vengance for the world
...or the sweetness lingering in our mouth
...after eating a fresh ripe strawberry.
Also, what shapes our future
...like the path we take to find love
...or the deadend roads we follow as careers
...or the steep mountains we climb
...in search of ourselves.
In each of us lies
...buried deep, the seeds
... that grow to become us
...or what grows out of us and after us.
In each of us lies
...an emptiness filled with unlimited possibilities
...like the infinite stars filling the night sky
...and like the great chain of life stretching
...from one end of the universe to the other.
Dance lightly on the earth
...we share with eternity
...that someday the cycle might be broken
...and we may join the karmic stars in the sky.

Testosterone
By Don Iannone

There are times when I think
this world would be better off,
if evolution made a corrective course change,
putting an end to testosterone.
Think about it: a world without war, murder,
and assholes on airplanes,
who think wearing a business suit
entitles them to push and shove people,
just to get to their first-class seat.

PS: Can you tell I was pissed off by some guy pushing and shoving
past others in line to get to his seat on the airplane?

Existential Tucson
By Don Iannone

Reality falls heavy upon me,
like the trenchant rays of Arizona sunshine,
penetrating the existential being
hibernating deep inside me.
Even the gentle parched breeze,
blowing magical stardust
into my wistful wandering eyes,
can't stop what the sun has started.
I may never be the same again,
but then, what was I ever,
but a faint hopeful glimmer
in the numinous father's eye.

An Arizona Rainbow
By Don Iannone

Milky gray clouds give way
to blurred streaking pastel colors,
arched in celebration
across the darkened Arizona sky.
Hard lines dissolve
in the sky and in my heart
into misty half circles,
dipping down deeply
like magical paintbrushes,
dripping luminous watercolors
across the early evening sky.

Tucson Brush Strokes
By Don Iannone

Nothing hides the searing hot sun
at noon in June in Tucson,
where the maize-colored desert sand
befriends the olive-green sagebrush,
and the gangly octopus-armed saguaro
stretch lazily in powder blue sky,
and where ragged dull gray-green mountains
cradle you in their powerful arms,
while the old pueblo sleeping inside you
slowly melts back into its original abode.

Thought for the Day

"What is life? It is the flash of a firefly in the night. It is the breathof a buffalo in the wintertime. It is the little shadow which runs acrossthe grass and loses itself in the sunset."

--Eagle Chief (Letakos-Lesa) Pawnee

This
By Don Iannone

It flows through me
...and all other things.
There is but one--
consciousness.
Nothing separate
...or distinct
...to ponder, struggle with
...fix, or integrate.
In its presence I sit
...before a Tucson sunrise--
an extravagent display of light
...that sweeps through me
...and carries me away
...from all feelings of separateness.
I am nothing
...that all isn't as well
...and nothing is that I'm not.
We are here for one another
...and because of one another
...but not in the sense
...of there being a separate you or me
...but in the sense we are part of one.
We can't understand it all
...but there is nothing to understand
...once we know we are it.
We need only be in its presence.
It's a sense.
...you get sometimes
...and sometimes you don't.
When you realize your presence in it
...there is only "this."
Not "this" or "that."
Only "this."

From Tucson with Mary
sitting in the presence of the sun.

More Precious Than a Rainbow
By Don Iannone

Some where in time
lies a magnificent rainbow
with your name on it.
Some where outside time
lies an inner emptiness, far more
precious and lovely than your rainbow.
No where and at no time
has the reality of your own being
been more clear and powerful
than in this very moment.
Reach out gently,
and touch its wing, without grasping--
at yourself or the moment.

"Consciousness is the ground of all being."

--Amit Goswami, Quantum Physicist

Check out the buzz at Anonymous Dharma.

Reflecting on a Young Oak Tree
By Don Iannone

The young oak tree primped and prissed
in the mirror of a fresh, sparkling puddle of rain water,
gathered at the edge of the drive.
She seemed so pleased with her crisp green crown,
fancying itself a lady's green popover hat.
So stately, so appropriate for the occasion
of this ever so slightly cool spring morning.
Adorned by a pair of early-feeding cardinals,
a gold finch, and a baby sparrow--
all begging their moms for more food.
The adolescent oak settled into the easy cloudy day,
giving her a well-deserved day off from shading the yard.
Cloudy, rain-filled days are ones of reflection for oak trees,
whose enduring wisdom gathers and grows deeply in their roots,
for later sharing with all who search for time-honored truth.
Indeed beauty is truth in the young oak tree,
who gives thanks to the sky for the rain
that feeds what is true in her roots.
Is it any wonder she looks so lovely in her new hat?

Haiku Moment
By Don Iannone

cornstalks in snow
...imagine sun-graced pyramids
......let the stoic melt within you

Haiku Moment
By Don Iannone

smiling face
...spring orange blossoms
......freeing the laughter within me

"He who controls the present, controls the past. He who controls the past, controls the future."
--George Orwell

Do you all agree with George on this one?

Haiku Moment
By Don Iannone

faint shadows lurking
...light and darkness become one
......sunshine fills my heart

Questions of Will
By Don Iannone

Are you willing to live
...for what you believe?
Are you willing to let die
...that part of you that won't believe?
Are you willing to see
...living and dying as the same thing?
Are you willing to go beyond
...all notions of will, and
all notions of living and dying
...and just be?

"Serenity is not freedom from the storm,
.....................but peace amid the storm.”

Source: Unknown