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When Sadness Comes

Mar 29, 2006

The wings of sadness will lift you off the ground without warning
What of it? Don't pay for your ticket and you will be returned to the ground safely.

When sadness comes?

Dragging its dark cloak about its feet
And whispering its unhappiness through
The long corridors of your heart-

What will you do?

Invite it to tell its story
But don't encourage it to repeat it
More than once.

And when you have listened
All the way through with perfect
Attention-

Then let your awareness move
To other things.

It will not do to ignore all the other guests
Crowed at your doorstep.

Green buds pointing hopefully to heaven
On the slender branches of trees that have
Waited out the winter without complaint.

A purple flower twined around a wooden post
On somebody's front lawn a royal announcement
That you ought to acknowledge.

The round perfection of an orange
The moment before it is cut and the
Fragrant stinging mist finds your fingers.

The laugh lines that crease the corners
Of the eyes of someone you love dearly
Who is wondering why you are so suddenly quiet

All these things visit you simultaneously
They depend on your hospitality.

It does not suit you to play favorites.

Invite them all in and do not worry
Inordinately about your
Sadness.

If you let it-

It will find its natural place.

And when the dark cloak falls away
And the whispering in the corridors
Ceases ? perhaps-

Wisdom will walk in its wake.

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