It’s been a long time since writing.  Months of discomfort, surgery, infection, blah, blah.  And so much work ahead. So…  much… But bitter as it can be — bitter as hops — easily creating an off-kilter state — it is time to look, move, forward.  It is life.  The heart of life.  I wish that we could teach this, gently, in school — from a young age.  Dear ones — this life is not a smooth ride.  The elephants are grey — not pink or green (and see how much sweeter the grey ones really are?), the guns are not plastic (for the most part) and truly hurt, our lives are precious and easily broken (see this skinned knee? broken arm? childhood cancer?), there are disagreements, fights, and wars, and there are always places to learn and grow and work with others to make the world better, there will be people who love you for yourself, and you are made of, from, with, and for this world. Reminders of pain and of strength.  When the excrement hits the rotating blades, it is not because you deserve it — excrement happens — but so does sweet strength, so does healing, adaptation, and recovery.  You are strong and while it can be very hard — you have a deep well within that you can dip into and find strength even in very, very hard times and you can find people around to carry you at times (remember when you were carried when you were so small?).  So greet this day, dear child, with your whole heart — for this is the day we are given — may you give yourself to live it fully, deeply, and well.

So that is first grade.

Or it is just my own inner talk today. Below are the good words of the late Irish poet, writer, thinker, John O’Donohue.

A Morning Offering

I bless the night that nourished my heart
To set the ghosts of longing free
Into the flow and figure of dream
That went to harvest from the dark
Bread for the hunger no one sees.

All that is eternal in me
Welcome the wonder of this day,
The field of brightness it creates
Offering time for each thing
To arise and illuminate.

I place on the altar of dawn:
The quiet loyalty of breath,
The tent of thought where I shelter,
Wave of desire I am shore to
And all beauty drawn to the eye.

May my mind come alive today
To the invisible geography
That invites me to new frontiers,
To break the dead shell of yesterdays,
To risk being disturbed and changed.

May I have the courage today
To live the life that I would love,
To postpone my dream no longer
But do at last what I came here for
And waste my heart on fear no more.

~ John O’Donohue ~

(From To Bless the Space Between Us)

May we find the taste of life to be richer and sweeter, maltier.

Rise and shine.