Beyond Tiny Boxes

My thoughts on Independence day...we may be an independent nation, but we will never be a free nation until each and every person has equal access, opportunity, and freedom from the oppression of racism, discrimination, hatred, and economic disparity.  I really believe this...we will never be free people until we can learn to see beyond the differences between us and embrace the ways that we are the same.  We are all trying to survive, thrive, and belong.  We all simply want to love and be loved...

Beyond Tiny Boxes

Words and images

Harsh and relentless

The devastation of so much

Person on Person violence

Searching for some explanation

For the state of everything.

In a world of tiny boxes

We are labeled and sorted

By the color of our skin

The shape of our bodies

The sound of our language

The size of our bank accounts

The person we love

Difference becomes deadly

When we cannot reach

Beyond arbitrary walls

That separate

And when we fail

In our understanding

That every human heart

Beats the same

c.sharshel

6/17/2015

Sunrise Prayer

Sunrise Prayer

Dawn breaks through the mist

Rising above the river

The edges of the sun

Blurry and soft on the horizon

Catching the current

Of the black water slipping by

My heart whispers lingering grief

Into the silence of this arriving day

Tears mingle with the forming dew

On the ground I sit upon

Until there is no difference

Between the two at all

In this empty, aching morning

A grateful prayer with every breath

May darkness serve to awaken

Illuminated presence everywhere

A brighter light that shines in all beings

To guide and carry us home.

c.sharshel

7/01/2015

Because Some Days You Just Can't Take Another Step...

I often feel like this baby elephant - and I am profoundly grateful for my "herd."  They surround, encourage, and help me up when it feels like I just can't take another step - never judging me for just collapsing in the road, but never letting me stay there either.  Sangha...

The Buddha Inside

The Buddha Inside

Today is one of 

Those days

When just moving

Feels like Sisyphus

Pushing the boulder

Up the mountain

And watching it 

Roll down again

Dropping to this cushion

Feels welcoming

And sacred

Nothing to do or be

Breathing in

Touching the grieving

The vast emptiness

The clutching fear

Breathing out

With understanding

Others feel this too

Over and over again

Coming back

Forgetting

Remembering

Resting

Held close

By the buddha inside

Of this breaking

Awakening heart.

c.sharshel 

6/1/2015

Anicca

It is not impermanence that makes us suffer.  What makes us 

suffer is wanting things to be permanent when they are not. 

~Thich Nhat Hanh~

Anicca - the absence of continuity, the absence of permanence...one of the three marks of existence.

Pema Chodron says "Nothing ever goes away until it has taught us what we need to know."  I am in such a season of sorrow and devastation just now.  What is it that I need to know?  What if I never learn what I need to know?  How may this unrelenting grief serve to awaken this already ravaged heart?

Today, it is easy

To sit in this chair

And anchor myself

Into this moment

My only task to notice

The sounds of the space

Arriving and departing

With an open heart, welcoming

With an open heart, letting go

If only it were so simple

After the bell

When the ground

Beneath me crumbles

When you are here

When you are not

Touching impermanence

With an open heart

Welcoming…
With an open heart

...letting go.

c.sharshel 5/28/2015

Dharma is Everywhere

Truth, teachings, the nature of reality.  Every moment is my teacher.  Today I saw a coffee cup with a fundamental truth of how we forget and then need to come back home.  Where I least expected it, the lesson was waiting.

Dharma is everywhere.

When the student is ready, the teacher will appear...

Metta - Morphosis

Metta-Morphosis

Darkness illuminated

Through fresh cracks

In weathered armor

Soaked and softened

By loving intention

Tender flesh opening

Into the vast space

Of loving awareness
Unafraid and undefended
Trusting these fragile wings
As they develop
And unfold exactly

How they are meant to be

Beautifully unique

Spreading into flight

On the winds

Of lovingkindness

Awakening transformation

Metta-morphosis

A wish for 

All beings everywhere...

c.sharshel

12/18/2014