A home for all.

Few visit this place. So often, I sit alone in this high meadow.

When others are here, we share a natural bond — and questions. What brought you here? Were you fleeing, are you seeking, both?

As for me, this is my home. Do I have a special obligation, as the dweller?

❖

We remove our sandals, for this is holy ground.

We listen for messages.

We try to surrender our will.

Let me try to make others at home in this place.

– from the mountain

Consider:

Can I spread welcome, in all places?

Reading:

“Shared solitude is sacred; it is a fellowship of those who seek.” — Dag Hammarskjöld

❖

“Where shall I find refuge? In fellowship, in the shared path, in the quiet mind.” — Therīgāthā

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“Put off thy shoes from off thy feet, for the place whereon thou standest is holy ground.” — Exodus 3:5 (KJV)

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A way to be remembered.

Look! A cairn left by another. Careful balance.

Stopping, admiring, thinking: what does this mark?

Who left this?

What was their frame of mind? Were they in sorrow, reverence, joy?

❖

If I built a cairn, what would I leave behind?

Is my legacy to be an inscrutable pile of stone, Lord?

Let me leave a mark on those around me, that we may remember one another in our stories unto the ages.

– from the mountain

Consider:

Can I send ripples of love to my fellows?

Reading:

“Footfalls echo in the memory, down the passage which we did not take.” — T. S. Eliot

❖

“Your own self is your master; who else could be?” — Dhammapada 160

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“The memory of the just is blessed.” — Proverbs 10:7 (KJV)

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When we become one.

It is market day.

We mill around in the square, a crowd swaying this way and that.

Look more closely: each of us on our own path with a starting and end point. One is selling bread. Another carrying news. One repairs the stalls.

❖

I am drinking it all in, standing still as worlds spin around me.

Lord, let me feel part of your grand order.

– from the mountain

Consider:

Can I feel my connection to my fellows?

Reading:

“The world is full of living poetry.” — John Ruskin

❖

“Order is not pressure which is imposed on society from without, but an equilibrium which is set up from within.” — José Ortega y Gasset

❖

“He hath made every thing beautiful in his time.” — Ecclesiastes 3:11 (KJV).

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Sometimes the correct option.

I was going to market today, but I stayed home.

I was going to mend the fence today, but I stayed in.

I sat today, seeking you and reading your messages. You were knocking, and I opened.

Did I squander time better spent in action?

❖

No day I give to you is wasted, dear Lord. The market, the fence, the world will all be there after we are done. They will be there tomorrow.

Let me dwell with you today.

– from the mountain

Consider:

Can I give myself grace to rest?

Reading:

“Sitting quietly, doing nothing, spring comes, and the grass grows by itself.” — Zenrin Kushū (Zen verse anthology)

❖

“The butterfly counts not months but moments, and has time enough.” — Rabindranath Tagore

❖

“Wait on the Lord: be of good courage, and he shall strengthen thine heart.” — Psalm 27:14 (KJV)

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