Some days hold you with tenderness of a lioness carrying her cubs in her jaws of strength.

There comes a moment of reckoning when you sit with others who dare to put their hands on the door knob of their heart and turn the knob knowing a stranger is on the other side. A moment of reckoning where you find yourself walking around inside their heart’s hearth. By what grace do I dare to tread this sacred ground?

A moment of reckoning when you realize the absolute purity of the Truth that we are all one and in One. No different than the magpie, the doe and fawns, the raven, and buck who visit my window, our hearts know the same pounding of fear, play, life, and death. There may be more complexity and reasoning, but the pounding of the heart is the same. I look into their eyes and see the doe trying to decide if she is safe. I look into the doe’s eyes and see their eyes wondering the same. …. I look into the eyes staring at me in the mirror and see all of nature, all the children, all those gripped in fear and pain. By what grace do I dare to tread this sacred ground?

Some days hold you with the tenderness of a lioness carrying her cubs in her jaws of strength. You feel the strength of the jaws as if you’ve lost yourself in their heart, their fear, and their pain. And yet you look again in the mirror and the reckoning emerges. You have not lost yourself. Perhaps, inside their skin you have actually found yourself much like the Mayan greeting, “In Lak’ech Ala K’in” – you are another me.  The Sufis, like Rumi and Hafiz say to know oneness with the Beloved you must surrender, become a fool for Love, and burn into the nothingness that is all. Jesus and the mystics like Teresa of Ávila all proclaim the same message…surrender totally into the Beloved which is Love’s Oneness. The jaw is scary. I guess that is why war, hate, genocide, and lack of compassion is easier.

By what grace do I dare to tread this sacred ground I asked myself as I closed shop for the day. The iPod gave voice to the whisper. The song wasn’t on the playlist selected this morning. Yes, a romantic love song, but it captured this feeble little scrich’s intent. I sat with sweet tears as I again asked, by what grace do I dare to tread this sacred ground….. tis the absence of fear. “You are no stranger, you are my gravity.”