You can be glad Fire is great, river is strong You know it You know you belong You know a deeper love There you can let all things go Listen to the silence Be there Be there The inner calling Now
In life you fall You make mistakes First you want to hide, later to be seen Yet, you can be glad You know you belong The deeper love, is what you know In the silence So, be there Be Now
Keep walking this road Live each moment Then let it go, as you prepare for more You can be glad Don’t need to believe You know You know The silence tells you, all you need Keep going there Be in it Go
I may say we need to be present, to feel alive in creation Yet, in my blaming of the other, I miss the target unseen It is I who hurry, I too go out of my way, to make everyone’s perfect day
A sudden glimpse reveals the secret, how to just presently be, the model of life I point to so eagerly
I let the image of you disappear, swallow my shadow raw I stretch my ear and lean within to become a silent, available soil
As I sit in silence, roots drinking from this newfound fountain, I see two golden lizards gracefully circling in a coil of bodies
Narrow my window had become I could barely breathe, barely live in this or their temple Then they closed it, window shut I fell, I was lost Trapped in the kingdom, of the desperate and dying What had been a small light, now gone I was nobody’s son
Soon lost at sea Searching wherever Seemed like I’d never find new land Monsters in the deep, dragons in the sky Fire burning, a salamander’s torch So thirsty
That’s when I saw the flicker, from a distant lamp Oil kept it going, until my hand held the light I suddenly saw all its might It created a terrible fright I would have to fight, a wrestling for my life, my own soul
The angel from the deep, entered upon the land Was it also a woman, was it man? I couldn’t know Yet the angel’s sword bruised me in the dark The wound bled red I cried into the Silence, and fell to my knees
It was a new beginning, there on my knees The red, bleeding wound received a silent balm I sensed fresh air, I could breathe I saw a window open, then all windows gone My breathing got deep, and I drank from a rich well Everything opened
Oh day of glory, when I could leave behind, the barren land of agony The principals were taken When I woke up, like from a dream, I was standing on my feet Made new, in the image of One, I had now become
I sensed freedom New adventures awaited I was made for living after all I sensed another call
Celebrate the life we are living Celebrate the light we are seeing Celebrate hope in the land Celebrate every woman, every man Celebrate mankind
Grieve the pain we are receiving Grieve the killing of innocents Grieve the fearful, power-hungry leaders Grieve the hate and violence around Grieve mankind
We need to look reality into its eyes There is celebration, yet also grieving No use in shutting your eyes The pain cuts deep like deepest waters So hope may rise like the morning sun
So, walk with the joyful Stay, with the mourning ones Embrace, the fatherless children Forgive, the men who lost their way
We celebrate again, the gift of life We grieve the terror and tragedy We forgive ourselves for our darkness Love will endure Love is our hope
It’s not a teaching Definitely not, a preaching Really, it’s all, about a living Words, can’t help you, unless they grow, from within
So get on with it, start living, and know, you’ll find, YOUR way Then, you’ll know, your teaching, and forget about, the preaching,
Now you see, like an eye healed, from blindness, a body healed, from paralysis, all it is about: You do your living, and the rest, is a becoming, where you belong
As I walked into the darkness I didn’t know my way I came to this mountain, considered hiding in its side Yet, I was in for a peculiar hike while having this talk with my Self
My feet found a ladder Up or down, I didn’t know But step by step I went After the long, dark hike, and a last, great climb, I found a place above the clouds
In a sudden glimpse, I had this view, of an endless open space There I knew not only more of me, but more of You
Strangely enough, it made me feel, light and free, yes, and very real
A Contemplative Life 