I Sometimes Forget
Poem by Hafiz
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~~~
I sometimes forget
that I was created for Joy.
My mind is too busy.
My Heart is too heavy
for me to remember
that I have been
called to dance
the Sacred dance of life.
I was created to smile
To Love
To be lifted up
And to lift others up.
O’ Sacred One
Untangle my feet
from all that ensnares.
Free my soul.
That we might
Dance
and that our dancing
might be contagious.
~Hafiz
~~~
Well.
That pretty much says it,
I do believe.
To be lifted up,
And to
Lift up
Others.
I have been fairly ensnared in the events of the past months.
How about you?
I have been fairly ensnarled in the political, the cultural.
The inequities.
The injustice.
How about you?
And appropriately so, it does seem.
Bearing witness to my suffering,
To the suffering of others—
My Buddhist teachers tell me,
That is the journey.
Yet—how easy to forget—
That the bearing witness to suffering
Is the doorway,
Must be the doorway
To joy.
It is a continuum, I do believe,
This journey of healing
The broken self.
To ignore the suffering
Denies us the blessings
Of joy.
To deny the joy
Denies us
The benefit
Of suffering.
We get it all.
The more we are able,
The more we receive.
The more willing we are,
The more healing that is possible.
My Socially Engaged Buddhist teachers
Tell me that we are the world.
That everywhere we go,
We take the world with us.
We really are one.
~~~
What about joy?
What do we know about joy?
Clearly, we can’t force joy.
Clearly, we can’t make it happen.
Nor do we force suffering.
What is our role, then?
I believe
We create the circumstances
In which joy emerges.
In which connection flourishes.
Hum.
Dear Friends,
What do you do, to create the circumstances for joy?
How do you lean toward joy?
What do I do?
I play with my doggie.
She is the best snuggler on the planet.
I check in—as best I can—inside–
Asking my young self, asking that new/old question—
Honey, does this feel good?
Tell me.
I get outside plenty.
I watch the birds.
I do my best to remember.
And when I forget,
I come back.
Let’s remember—
Let’s create the circumstances in which
Joy can be given to us,
In which
We can see
The grace
That is right there.
~~~
Michael Jackon. Oh, dear Michael.
He said it. And here it is. The truth. The answer.
How can we be socially engaged?
How can we make a difference?
How can we impact change?
They all said it in 1985, all these musicians coming together, to respond to the famine in Africa.
And here we are, 11,000 years later:
~~~
If you are interested in the story, this video of 50 minutes is inspiring and engaging. Talk about socially engaged activism, taking your beliefs and your values into the world!
The Story Behind the Making of We Are the World
~~~
Dear Folks,
Please—
May we dance.
And
May we play.
May we remember
The feel
Of the cool
Lake water
On our bodies.
May we remember
Pleasure
And
Fun
And
Joy.
May
Our
Dancing
Be
Contagious.
May it be so.
Please.
May
It
Be
So.
All blessings,
Aruni
~~~
I woke up this morning to another dark, rainy day. The words to the song were so loud in my head:
We are the world.
We are the children.
And then, the Indian proverb flooded in :
Treat the earth well. It was not given to you by your parents; it was loaned to us by our children. We have not inherited the earth from our Ancestors; we borrow it from our Children.