If I Was This Rock

Last weekend, Ellen and I took a mushroom-induced trip by Boulder Creek. Things went very well as we drank tea by a small waterfall, stared in awe at the sun as long as our eyes could stand it, practiced yoga, and rejoiced at how beautiful Boulder was and how much we were enjoying our lives.

I decided to take a swim and changed into my classy one-piece. I wandered toward the top of the waterfall and sat down on the edge. Feeling the water rushing around and by was a fantastic sensation and I called to Ellen with a laugh, "If I was this rock, I don't think I'd be moving either!" Her giggles filled my ears and my smile turned to the rocks around me.

It was then that I thought I saw - on a submerged rock - a human face. I smiled at him and was reminded of a lyric from Disney's Pocahontas:

"But I know every rock and tree and creature has a life, has a spirit, has a name."

I realized I was witnessing an actual manifestation of this particular rock spirit, and was grateful it had revealed itself to me. So, I named it - Jeff.

An idea struck me, and I started naming all the rocks around me. Not making them up myself, but asking the spirits for their titles and listening to my heart for the answer. Then, a revelation struck like fire:
If we started giving all living (animate and inanimate) things around us human names, it would create a more personal bond with such things, and just maybe we would respect them more and see them as the divine energy they (or, we) all contain within. We would no longer see them as simply mundane objects of the everyday, and would therefore be less likely to take advatage of them.

So, whoever you are reading this, I urge you to go out and look for the spirit in all. I guarantee that with an open heart and mind, that spirit is hard to miss.

a song played as she entered the earth
and i wept.
it was more than six years ago,
but i think i can still hear it
and i know i remember the words:

"she was a gorgeous little girl
only 14 years with her mother's eyes
and her father's smile

and she was taken way too soon
life so full of promise full of light
but yet to be realized

and i raise my hands in anger
and wonder why you take the tender hearts
and leave the rest of us behind

but ours is not to question why
ours is just to live and try to settle for the answers
whatever they might be
until we see you face to face
in another time and place
where the river of your love runs free"

happy birthday Celeste

if the mermaid still thrived

21 would she be

the unexpected beauty -

swept by storms -

now the name of my daughter

comes a start with the sun

and the dark cannot stay

just a spotlight of love

keeps the demons away

war is about as necessary
as children dying

for z

If I was an ember
Baby
I'd be burning

Bound by fire
Ticking with ardor
Smol
der
ing
Inside

I'm just hot to inform you
Cause Baby
I'd warm you