Just a little

Reciprocation

Goes a long way.

Earth ground you
Wind lift up your face
Sunlight revive you
Love, thy warm embrace

Rain cleanse you
Water quench your soul
Garden of life nourish you
Love make spirit whole

Ancient magic inspire you
New energy thus create
Wisdom permeate you
Love, thy constant state

Nature envelope you
Peace, your faithful friend
Understanding compel you
Love without an end

Just imagine
How you can help save the world
Merely by:

• Looking someone deep in their eyes
• Telling them with utmost sincerity “I love you”
• And drawing them into a full, warm embrace that lasts longer than three f*cking seconds?

Just minutes of your time
Could save someone’s soul, their sanity, their life.

Friends, family, strangers, enemies…
Love All.
Reflect Love.
Reciprocate Love.

And yes, we pencil & paper pontificators, we coffee shop philosophers, who write and speak and sing about Love:

We need Love too.

Joy is simple to find
If we but slow down a moment
And observe:

The song of the nesting finch.
The hum of the gathering bee.
Sun against a blue sky warming a cool, breezy day.
Intoxicating and transporting scents of eucalyptus and rosemary and sage.
A child’s laugh, free and full.
Change, growth, seasons.
Wisdom, Love.
Deep breaths after hard work.
Sensual delights, enjoyed in the moment.
The rhythms and alchemy of the Earth.

It comes from remembering
How much a part of Nature we are,
No more or less important
Than anything else in existence.

Free Love.
Free.
Love.
From jealous gods
And paper myths.
From the endless pontification
Of insecure ego fiends
And sex-starved priests.

Free Love.
Free.
Love.
Transcend tradition.
Escape expectation.
Purge possessiveness.
Unleash understanding.

“Love is already free,” you say?

Then free yourself to Love.

Why am I afraid of
Looking you in your eyes,
Diving into your soul,
And plumbing its depths?

I know just what I’ll find there:

It is all of me,
For we are truly one.

But I am still not ready,
I’m still lacking in grace
For myself
To face the entirety of who I am.

So I cling to your goodness
In fervent hope
That I’ll be reminded of the
Vastness
Of Love and Beauty
That exist within me too.

The Seeker took Sophia’s hands into his own, and, looking deep into Her eyes, said:

“This Love we share is indescribable. But it needs to be shared with the whole world to foster understanding, healing, and growth. What shall we name it?”

Sophia answered, “Does this Love need to have a label?”

The Seeker replied, “For good or for bad, we humans have a deep desire to label everything we are trying to understand.”

Thus Sophia answered with ageless wisdom:

“We shall call it

P h i l o s o p h y.”

Philo + Sophy(ia)
(Love of Wisdom)

I would rather err
On the side of
Being over-the-top
With showing
LOVE

At the risk of being called
Silly
or
Childish

Than to be too
Stingy
In order to satisfy the
Jealousies
and
Insecurities
Of other people.

Welcome to the world,
Little One.
Why don’t you try on this mask for size?

THIS god, not that one.
Those politics are a little loose, gotta cinch them up a bit.
Always remember, *our* country is the BEST!
(at making money and war)
Pull yourself up by the bootstraps already!
Hurry it up, the shareholders are counting on YOU and the next sixty years of your life.

There are no questions,
There are no doubts.
There is only trust
That what we say is true.

You are most impressionable at this age,
Your brain like a sponge newly wrung.
Don’t mind us as we seek to impart (I mean cement)
Our prejudices and biases and narrow worldview before it’s too late!

What’s this?
You want to know more about this thing called Love?

First of all, remember that WE
(your parents, your politicians, your preachers and priests)
KNOW more than you.
We know better.
We’ve had YEARS of proper training
In the very serious art of
Taking things WAY too seriously.

So only listen to the steely sound of our reproving voice.
Pay no attention to the spark of * d i v i n i t y * held deep within you
From the very beginning.

You see, our Love is Jealous.
It is Insecure.
It hates change and despises growth.
Our Love is Possessive.
To love another is to attach our hooks into them,
So that the only way to separate is by tearing them apart.

To be the object of our Love
Is to be curated
>>>>>and manicured
>>>>>>>>>>and whittled down
Until the only essence you have left
Is that of an idol of our own making.

Isn’t this the same kind of Love
Proscribed by the
>>>primitive god(s)
In those
>>>primitive books
Written by those
>>>primitive people
So long ago?

No, don’t you dare.
No questions.
Doubt is sin.
The gateway to a (fictional) hell.

Get back in line!
Here, listen to the apologists,
People paid to tell us exactly what we want to hear.

No!
No questions!
Stop trying to open your eyes,
There’s nothing out there that you need to see!
Let me help you with your blindfold there.
And while we’re at it, let me take a little reason off the top.
Trim off a few inches of
>>>>>Openness
>>>and
>>>>>Exploration
For your own good, of course.

Wait!
Come back, Little One!
Out there is only heartache and loneliness, destruction and fear!
Because WE are not out there,
WE are in HERE.

United against the unknown, those dangerous paths.
(of thinking freely and openly)

Aren’t you scared of leaving us?
Of pissing off our (imagined) god(s)?

For if you leave,
If you take your reason and go,
You’ll be outcast and shunned,
Less than human,
Apostate,
Unworthy of our

UN
(meaning: no, none)
CONDITIONAL
(meaning: terms, requirements)
LOVE

But hold on a second,
Maybe I’m sounding too harsh.
Here, let me pour you a nice full glass of
>>>Cognitive Dissonance
We’ve got a great stock, a nice old vintage, plenty to go around to keep the people
HAPPY (compliant).

And here’s a box of delicious
>>>Double Standards
To compliment your drink.
Tasty little treats
That you can pull out anytime you feel challenged or doubtful.
Because remember what we taught you, from the start:

WE are right.
THEY are wrong.
THEIR customs and beliefs and texts
>>>can be criticized
>>>and scrutinized
>>>and found to be untrue.
But OUR customs and beliefs and far superior, primitive texts
Cannot come under the same criticism, or scrutiny, or (fair) evaluation.
No sir!

It doesn’t work that way.
Remember the House Rules:

Heads, I win.
Tales, they lose.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Fine.
Leave.
See if we care.
That internal light won’t guide you the right way.
Pay no attention to that
>>>still
>>>>>small
>>>>>>>voice
Connecting you to an ancient * d i v i n i t y * we refuse to understand.

Love isn’t found outside this box (prison).
You’ll come crawling back here, I’m sure.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Gone, gone.
Little One is gone.
I tried my best to restrain them, to retrain them.
Don’t they understand how frightening the wide world is?
Love is best confined to these four rigid walls, isn’t it?

Little One left behind a mirror.
What does it show, I wonder?
One thing is perfectly clear:

I do not like what I see.

Fin.

Sometimes

it takes a steady rain

to remind us

that

the presence of dust

and smoke

blanketing the valley floor

does not mean

that

the mountains have ceased to exist