Goodness Gracious Me

I had been thinking what is it that impresses me most in people (well intelligence for one), what is it that I find completely missing from me…spending endless days in virtual vipasana…I realized…it is graciousness…

Marked by kindness and courtesy, graceful, marked by tact and delicacy, characterized by charm, good taste, generosity of spirit…

Generosity of spirit…where does that come from…I think it comes from letting go…but how to do that…I haven’t yet met in my life a single person, who has let go of the past that binds them…even if masked and concealed…the bitterness and anger and resultant suspicion lies in everyone…then how to do it…Let Go…

A "Thank You" Note

There is much I owe to those I do not love.

The relief in accepting
they are closer to another.

Joy that I am not
the wolf to their sheep.

My peace be with them
for with them I am free,
and this, love can neither give,
nor know how to take.

I don't wait for them
from window to door.
Almost as patient
as a sun dial,
I understand
what love does not understand.
I forgive
what love would never have forgiven.

Between rendezvous and letter
no eternity passes,
only a few days or weeks.

My trips with them always turn out well.
Concerts are heard.
Cathedrals are toured.
Landscapes are distinct.

And when seven rivers and mountains
come between us,
they are rivers and mountains
well known from any map.

It is thanks to them
that I live in three dimensions,
in a non-lyrical and non-rhetorical space,
with a shifting, thus real, horizon.

They don't even know
how much they carry in their empty hands.

"I don't owe them anything",
love would have said
on this open topic.

--Wislawa Szymborska