Do not be scared of vulnerability—of softening to the world.
Look at a flower… look at a baby…
There’s a beauty in fragility. There’s a sacred appreciation for that which lays close to death.
It draws you in… it holds you in presence… it gives you life…
Because anything that hardens you to the world moves you in the opposite direction.
Away from appreciation… away from presence… away from the foundation of life.
I love you
No words have ever left my lips
So effortlessly
My hands formed a heart
No gesture has ever been shared
So truthfully
No other words shared
Except those said by hands, hips, and feet
Yours in mine, against mine, with mine.
How strange
To go years getting to know someone
And hesitate
When mere moments
With aligned, raw, overflowing energy
Leaves no fear
How strange
To know that moment was enough
And to walk away
When those three words
That connection; that energy
Is what I went right back to seeking
Maybe leaving it there
Pure… innocent… wholesome…
As effortlessly as it was found
…was the point.
Maybe not looking back
Holding the purity of the moment
Forever in my heart
…is the destination.
P.s. You can read my other poems here.
Learn to appreciate what’s well made.
Art, music, a meal…
Buried inside quality is spirit. And to appreciate quality is to appreciate another’s spirit.
And what is it that does the appreciating exactly? …That’s right: your spirit.
Appreciating is as good for our spirit as it is for others’. We cannot pour love from a cup that doesn’t already contain love. And appreciating is a means that both gives and generates love.
…It’s a process that ameliorates the quality of life for all involved.
Equally important: avoid what’s spiritless—both from others and in what you choose to make.
Life is too short. The benefits of doing the opposite are too large.
And after all… what could possibly prove to be more important than the nourishment and growth of our and others’ spirit?
…Spirit, I think you’ll realize, is the very essence of it all.
If it’s true you can only ever meet people as deeply as they’ve met themselves…
Then understand that you are both the standard and the throttle of your relationships.
You’re the standard because how deeply you’re showing up is how deeply you’d like the people you meet to show up.
You’re the throttle because if the person you meet shows up with a deeper understanding, then it won’t go as deeply as they might like to go.
If you crave more depth in your relationships… always reinvest that energy back into yourself and your inner work.
It doesn’t take long for people to gauge an estimation of the depth to which the people they’re getting to know have travelled…
My recommendation is to move quickly with getting to know more and more people…
And move more and more slowly with the ones who match or challenge your standard.
I’m going to a music show this weekend.
…And I’m going to meet people I’m never going to meet again thereafter.
It’s a thought I have found myself ruminating on after past shows and I’m going into this weekend with it fully in the forefront this time.
…And it mixes in this sentimental sadness with the already anticipatory excitement—which makes it a depth multiplier if you will.
It makes each glance… each interaction… each contact… a little more meaningful, intentional, and/or deliberate.
It lays a foundation for more magic to occur. Because it can sometimes happen serendipitously… where two paths cross, magic occurs, and then they diverge for the rest of time. And what makes the interaction magic is how something about it also stays with you for the rest of time.
Maybe a look… maybe a line… maybe a touch…
Something that was maybe meant to stay. Something that maybe wasn’t meant to end. Something that formulated the whole reason for the paths to have diverged in the first place.
I’m not sure I believe in destiny more than I believe in retrospective sensemaking.
But one thing is for sure… I believe in the magic of connection. Even the kind that can happen in one singular life interaction. Especially when the culture of the environment is right… and it attracts the right kind of people… and the right aura and energy is being emitted.
Go into these moments with your senses open wide. Be present. Be courageous.
All it takes is the magic of one moment to alter the direction of the rest of a life—theirs or yours.
Love is blinding
It’s why we smother, cling, obsess
Awareness first
So we can heal, unlearn, relearn
Build a warm nest
One with no bars, traps, or ceilings
Just attraction, yearning, desire to fly back
Direct the love you want so badly inward
Never underestimate the size of an act
Every line written, conversation had, and insight scavenged
Every twig, piece of bark, and leaf neatly intertwined and stacked
P.s. You can read my other poems here.
At dinner tonight celebrating my step mom’s 60th birthday, I witnessed an adorable moment.
It was my step mom’s brother and his wife’s turn to order from the menu.
The waiter asked the wife what she’d like, and just as she realized she had forgotten, the husband ordered what she wanted for her.
The waiter then turned to the husband and asked him what he’d like, and just as he realized he had forgotten, the wife ordered what he wanted for him.
…The best part?
Neither of them thought anything of it. Didn’t so much as smirk or make a single remark.
Just selfless loving, careful listening, intimate partner understanding—business as usual—kind of stuff.