Thursday, December 26, 2013

Ten Thousand Things



One thing we know for sure:
 this world is full of discord,
turbulence, and tribulation.

It does not heal
the wounds of Mother Earth,
to focus on all that tears
and plucks at her fabric.

We don't forget the starving millions,
the guns and bombs,
the lacerated hillsides,
the polluted skies and seas,
our distress but one tear drop
in a sea of global grief.

It is when we stop to marvel at
a certain slant of amber light
upon the trees at four p.m.,
catch our breath at gauzy morning clouds
enfolding the mountainsides,
or we listen to the ceaseless ebb and flow
of the forever tides,
following a lunar cycle as old as time,
that our one teaspoon of joy
is added to the river of blessings
overflowing to us, generously, still,
midst the clamor and the tumult
that is the way of man.

The dazzling display
of the ten thousand things*
is illuminated in golden fire,
as the sun rises and sets,
blessings strewn in our path
as lavishly as stars
flung across the heavens,
each to be noted and savored
through the spilling cornucopia of our days,
unwrapped with gratitude,
treasured, acknowledged,
then folded away,
each nightfall,
in memory,
with love.

*The Ten Thousand Things is the Taoists' way of saying "everything that exists"

14 comments:

  1. True. Got to get our dose of beauty to be able to get up and go back in and work ... and the dose of beauty isn't selfish. It's necessary.

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  2. smiles....to truly see those things...amidst all the other stuff...the dross...it def takes discipline....

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  3. let us all resolve to care for our mother earth

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  4. the slant of light really is more emotional at this time of year, isn't it? ~

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  5. There is so often something to marvel at if we look close enough. I will have to pay attention to the slant of light at 4 p.m. Hope you had a good Christmas, Sherry!

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  6. This is a timeous reminder to focus on the ten thousand good things, and more, that make existence worthwhile.

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  7. it is those good things that keep the "human" in human beings...

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  8. ...and I am grateful. Thank you Sherry for always reminding me of the ten thousand things some full of beauty others not. Hope your holidays have been good and that you are well.

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  9. it's funny, i also have been weighing man's sins against the gift of late afternoon sunlight, and attempting to make sense of it all. you have helped me see better here...

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  10. Oh Sherry this is so beautifully expressed. I was drawn to these words in particular "our one teaspoon of joy
    is added to the river of blessings
    overflowing to us," but you know that those words would.

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  11. So beautiful Sherry--it is the little moments that are so very magical--

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  12. Your words have the radiance of positive thinking. Beautiful, like always. :-)
    -HA

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  13. I love your poem! So true how we alter our view~ I hope you are doing well...I am helping my son move! You always show us the wonder and this makes me smile~ Beautiful

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