Breakable Beauty

Paradoxically, we achieve true wholeness only by embracing our fragility and sometimes, our brokenness ~Jalaja Bonheim

boats towards the other shore, d chihuly 8 ~d nelson

Dreamed of a way to offer
protection to you, my dear ones.
In this dream I ask,
“what if you were not affected
by a lack of, or excess amounts
of water?”
This prolonged drought
out west could not harm you.
Nor could high waters
from floods or risings seas.
Resulting social & economic distress
would not worry your breakable heart.

d chihuly ~d nelson

Upon awakening I realized
that manifesting most colorful,
earth & fire sculptured
water-independent beings,
devoid of life-giving breath
who would still be quite fragile,
created as much,
if not more, sadness
for us both,
despite such vibrant beauty.

d chihuly 2

Perhaps a rather silly
glassy-eyed dream.
I own it, it’s my dream.
And what dream of yours
offers visions of a happy, resilient
continuation for future generations?

Faced with possible disappearance
of 75 percent of animal species
within just three human lifetimes
during, what’s now called
a sixth mass extinction
presently set in motion,
dreams, even abstract-glassy ones
offer me hopeful energy.

Breathing in
I know you are there
alive,
a miracle
at the same time
I am here
& this makes me
very happy.
Offering nothing less than
my hand-blown
fragile heart of love
that all beings be from harm
now, & long into the future.

d chihuly 3

d chihuly 4

d chihuly 5

d chihuly 6

d chihuly 7

If we allow despair to take over, we have no strength left to do anything at all. That is why we should do anything that can prevent despair, including meditation… Because people know what is happening but allow it to happen and cannot do anything – there are so many of them – because they have despair in them, and they try only to survive. You can help them to sort out [what is] inside, you can help them to have hope, to have peace in themselves, and suddenly they have strength to come back to themselves… and that person will be an instrument for protection of the environment. ~Thich Nhat Hanh