Freedom

 Free Will

Craving freedom

from painful emotions,

but suffering exists.

All Buddhists know this,

at home, across oceans.

Feeling helpless,

alone,

doing nothing.

Would it help if

I alone

did just one thing?

So I write,

stay mindful,

light one candle,

pursue a personal freedom

as I give my friends

the love they deserve.

I fall short, of course,

but this is my path,

so I continue on.

Feeling Free

That day long ago when

for a little while, I died,

thought I was going home,

no sadness, no more fear,

no clinging to what’s here.

That year I’d gone to war,

all thrumming energy,

rising above the cacophony,

struggling beneath the fear,

wishing mightily to be invisible,

knowing I had put myself there,

all the elements of ego

so visible to God, 

if not to me.

Today, I have declared freedom 

from fear and darkness. 

Life is always present.

Grief has had its time,

in all its untidy dress,

complicated and deep,

feeling a lot like regret.

Now, there is 

less force, more flow,

less stress, more ease,

less fear, more Grace.