The heart -- all along believing its nature to be made of fear: hurt, damaged, defended -- discovers itself-before-the-self, a heart made of love.

"...neither strong nor weak, neither wet nor dry, neither moving nor still, neither cold nor hot, neither being nor nonbeing, neither delusion nor enlightenment." -- Dogen Zenji

Five ways of mapping the world, from This American Life

wild rivers: Questa, New Mexico

finnegan begin again

You do not have to be good.
You do not have to walk on your knees
for a hundred miles through the desert repenting.
You only have to let the soft animal of your body
love what it loves.
Tell me about despair, yours, and I will tell you mine.
Meanwhile the world goes on.
Meanwhile the sun and the clear pebbles of the rain
are moving across the landscapes,
over the prairies and the deep trees,
the mountains and the rivers.
Meanwhile the wild geese, high in the clean blue air,
are heading home again.
Whoever you are, no matter how lonely,
the world offers itself to your imagination,
calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting —
over and over announcing your place
in the family of things.

"Wild Geese" from Dream Work by Mary Oliver
published by Atlantic Monthly Press
© Mary Oliver