Wake at dawn with a winged heart and give thanks for another day of loving.
– Kahlil Gibran –

May I Be a Guard

May I be a guard for those who need protection
A guide for those on the path
A boat, a raft, a bridge for those who wish to cross the flood
May I be a lamp in the darkness
A resting place for the weary
A healing medicine for all who are sick
A vase of plenty, a tree of miracles
And for the boundless multitudes of living beings
May I bring sustenance and awakening
Enduring like the earth and the sky
Until all beings are free from sorrow
And all are awakened.

Prayed every morning by His Holiness Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th Dalai Lama of Tibet

 these words quoted above inspire today’s contemplation of how to hold space for the benefit of all that is…

When despair grows in me
and I wake in the night at the least sound
in fear of what my life and my children’s lives may be,
I go and lie down where the wood drake
rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds.
I come into the peace of wild things
who do not tax their lives with forethought
of grief. I come into the presence of still water.
And I feel above me the day-blind stars
waiting for their light. For a time
I rest in the grace of the world, and am free.
~ Wendell Berry ~

may we all rest in grace and in the presence of still water and in the peace of wild things…