@ocean_rhythm
LILY
Long stalks bending over the pond edge / In July the whole surface is white with them
OPEN
Offering yourself without defense / Pouring out what you usually guard
ALONE
Aloneness is the state in which the self is most itself / Learning to be with yourself is the longest apprenticeship there is
WIND
Waking up the lake before we do / In the chimney it tells old stories
CORD
Connection between two people is stronger than its visibility / Only the invisible bond holds through what the seen one cannot
RAIN
Rooftops humming a quiet song / And the streets begin to shine
SNOW
Softening the world into unfamiliar shapes / Newly white and silent as held breath
LAMP
Left on when the reading becomes sleeping / A small sun in the corner of the room
COOK
Cutting slowly because the radio is good today / One pot and the whole kitchen involved somehow
ADORE
A softness rising at the thought of you / Drawing close without a reason
AWE
At the threshold of the inexplicable / What you are is smaller and more vast
HOPE
Hard to name exactly what it is that keeps you reaching / Of all the things you carry, hope is not the heaviest
TIDE
The water knows its time without a clock / In the night it moves the edge of everything
CREEK
Cold and narrow between the mossy banks / Rounding the boulders in small white confusion
APART
All that separates is also pointing to what could connect / Perspective grows in proportion to the distance that you can accept
GRACE
Going forward with a soft-held posture / Resting in the what-is rather than the should
NUMB
Nothing quite arrives the way it should / Unable to locate the place to feel
COST
Counting what a thing will cost is not the same as measuring its worth / Only the things that ask something real of you teach something real
SIGH
Somewhere between surrender and release / In the sigh, the body finds its floor
LUNCH
Later in the day and the appetite sharper for it / Under the window while the street does its thing
GRACE
Going lightly through the world / Releasing what no longer serves
FAITH
Facing forward when the road goes dark / Alive inside the mystery, not afraid
MERCY
Moving past the ledger of the wrongs / Even anger can be put aside
BLISS
Brightness that arrives without a name / Letting every burden find the floor
BASE
Before you build the high, you tend the ground beneath / A foundation not examined is a structure always in some danger
PRIDE
Planted deep in what you built yourself / Rising every time they said you wouldn't
FEEL
Feeling is the oldest and most accurate instrument you have / Every emotion carries information, even the uncomfortable ones
TEARS
The silent language of the overwhelmed / Even joy sometimes has water in its eyes
SMILE
Something small begins and grows / Meant for you and no one else
DOOR
Doors are only problems for the ones who need to stay put / Out beyond the threshold waits everything that is not yet yours
TENDER
Touching what was hurt with careful hands / Every nerve still raw and reachable
CORE
Centering in what is most essential is a daily practice / Out beyond all the peripheral is what you actually are
POWER
Presence is the quietest and strongest force you own / Only what you nurture grows into something lasting
WIND
What cannot be held can still be felt and known completely / Invisible forces move the visible world more than we remember
BRAVE
Breaking through the fear that told you to stay small / Rising even when the ground feels far below
COAST
Coasting sometimes is a way of listening for what comes next / Only the paused traveler can hear the road tell where it leads
HOPE
Here where reason ends, the heart steps in / Orienting toward the light we cannot see
WARM
Wrapping someone in a gentle word / Arms that open without question
PEACE
Pause long enough to hear what conflict drowns away / Even the still pond has a current moving under it
FEAR
Freezing at the edge of the unknown / Every shadow seems to breathe
LOST
Leaving the familiar is the price of finding anything new / Only when the map runs out does real exploring start
DIARY
Dated and dog-eared and slightly swollen / Ink that ran when the tea cup was too close
QUEST
Questions are the maps of everyone who seeks the truth / Underneath each answer waits another open door
MEAL
Made with less than expected and still good / Everything seasoned by the end of the week
CHEER
Calling out across the distance / Here to celebrate the almost-there
NIGHT
Noticing things only the quiet brings forward / In the pause between sleeping and the alarm
SHORE
Sometimes the shore is where we finally stop / Here is where the searching ends and rests
GALE
Grinding through the rigging of the moored boats / All the old sounds of the valley are erased
FILL
Fullness is not something given from the outside in / In what you choose to let into your days, your life takes shape
DANCE
Dinner finished and the kitchen still warm / Arms lifted for no reason other than the beat