Donna Miesbach Gleanings on the Web

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VIGNETTES FROM OUR TRIP TO INDIA 2006 - PART III

There are so many favorite moments from this trip, each different in its own way, each adding to the richness of the tapestry we spun together during those four amazing weeks. How appropriate, then, for it all to end by the Arabian Sea. I can't tell you why, because I don't know why, but being there, standing on its shore, was a magical, mystical moment for me, and I'll never forget it. In a way, I felt as though I'd come home, but then I almost always feel that way when I'm near the water. Even so, this was different somehow, and as I sat there and allowed myself to be caught up in its ambience, the poems began to flow - gifts, as it were, from the Arabian Sea. I've chosen four to close this reflection on our timeless trip to a timeless land where timeless memories were etched in our souls.

FIRST LIGHT

When the first rays of dawn
Cast their light upon the grass
And the dew, like music, befalls,
The spirit of Nature
Wakes from its sleep
As it answers the day's early call.

So with us, when first light
Breaks forth in the soul
And the eyes at last truly do see,
Joy rises up
Like a great swelling tide
From the depths of infinity.

This, then, is the song
That all Nature doth sing
When the spirit is natural and free
And it sings its song best
In the heart of the soul
That wants nothing more than to be.

THE VAST EXPANSE

Who could count
The grains of sand
Upon this endless shore
Or count the ways
The soul might strive
To be more and more?
Yet striving is
Its own demise
For effort's
All in vain.
In simply being
The soul becomes
Infinity again.
The vast expanse
Was always there.
Indeed, there is no other!
In seeing thus,
All limits melt
As one becomes the other.

THE VOICE OF THE SEA

I can hear the sea as it
Whispers my name
As I walk on the sand toward the shore
And I know that the voice
That beckons to me
Has called many times before.
It calls me at night
In the midst of my dreams
It calls me at break of day,
And ever and always
I open my heart to
What it is trying to say.

Oh listen, my heart,
To the voice of the sea
For it speaks the language of spheres -
'Tis the language of stars
Of moonbeams and Mars
That only the heart can hear.
You are its song
You are its joy
You are the language it speaks,
So go forward with love,
For deep in your heart
Eternal secrets do keep.

EXPLORING THE REACHES

There is no beginning
Nor is there an end.
There is only Is-ness,
A state of Pure Being,
And It folds and unfolds
In countless formations
Transforming Itself
Endlessly.
Like the great rolling surf,
It sings Its song
Ever anew
Yet always the same.

So with me
As I move through the ages,
Unborn and undying
I come and I go,
The Spirit eternal
Exploring the reaches
Of Being
Of Is-ness
Of the myriad ways
To say, "I Am."