SIT WITH YOUR HEArt

Sit with your heart for a few moments,
Just quiet mind chatter briefly and let silence be.

You may find something rather amazing
Beneath everyday anxiety and worries and busy-ness.

You may find a pool,
A deep spring of gratitude –
Of gratefulness in the acceptance
Of all the opportunities
Everything that happens to each of us
Offers us.

Ah, but you may also find
This pool is only accessible
In this moment, in this day.
One can drink from it
Only out of cupped hands.
 
Can you bring buckets? Huge containers?
Can you hoard this life-sustaining water?
Store it up against shortages in the future,
Future droughts?
Not in my experience.
 
You might find you can only come to this pool
When you need it
And drink from cupped hands
Enough to quench your current thirst,
Supply your current needs.
 
Trust
This pool is not prone to drought –
Unless
 
Mind forgets gratitude
Holds onto thoughts of entitlement
Becomes resentful
Judges all around by measures of expectations
Shedding ‘shoulds’ on all it sees and hears
Poisoning the pool.

​Now what to do?
Try letting mind open once again to trust,
To acceptance,
Rooting out resentments
Refusing to entertain thoughts of entitlement
Jettisoning judgements
Emptying itself of expectations.
 
Approach the pool again,
Watch the waters clear
Cup your hands
And stoop once more to drink
And taste the sweetness of the purity of gratitude,
Its graciousness.
 
Drink deep
And be sustained through all times
Even times of terrible darkness
And sometimes seeming overwhelming challenge.
 
It seems the waters of Heart’s pool,
The spring of hope and healing,
Always renews itself
If we but give it the chance –
And remember to trust,
To accept,
To appreciate.

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Poem by Lorraine Brown