when i stopped and became present to the miracle, my eyes burned, adjusting to the light. so much to witness; now in the daytime from an everlasting night.
why did i live before with my hands over my ears?
why am i just now taking them off, and listening?
today i heard for the first time, perhaps.
entranced by a tree, and the birds’ choir. i heard them all as one, i heard each part.
a family, here, a treasure hidden in plain sight.
oh, the pride in boredom. how can you ever be bored? with open eyes and ears, boredom is forever staved. the miracle is never ending. all of these prerequisites to happiness, these conditions that can never be fully met. what more do we need? what more could anyone need than this?
i stopped, and caught a glimpse of just one.
how pretty it was.
a family just like me. a home just like mine. how happy they sounded. a little family. the gratitude they must feel for that tree that let them call it home.
i think i’d like my home to be like that tree. i think i’d like to fill it with my song, too. i think i’d like to fill it with the delighted chirping and singing of me and my loved ones, too.
i feel so grateful for what to some must be nothing but to me right now feels like everything. oh, the blindness. how can we be so blind? the miracle is right under our noses. instead of bending over to smell the roses, we walk on with upturned chins. pretentious humans.
those birds are my brothers and sisters. we need to take our desire for equality steps farther. protect the dignity and divinity of every living thing. i am no different from every miracle of the animal kingdom, i am no different from all of the greenery of this beautiful earth. oneness not just of mankind, but of mankind and earth, of soul, of flora and fauna.
THE CLOSET MYSTIC 