May it be

May it be the best and last semester (*and season spent in Chapel Hill)!

This morning, during coffee in bed with Rachel, I felt comforted and supported by the life I have lived here these past (*almost) four years. I’ve moved into a new place, I have paired down my life to the essentials, and I feel a new wave of energy.

I am ready to put in to practice being fully present. I am also ready to gone and away from here, but for now, I want to enjoy this. And all its simplicity.

“Limitation is the condition of our lives. What matters — what allows us to reach beyond ourselves, as we are, and push at the boundaries of our ability — is that we continue. But then everything depends on how we practice, what we practice.” – Glenn Kurtz

Stars

“I’m awake; I am in the world-

I expect

no further assurance.

No protection, no promise.

Solace of the night sky,

the hardly moving

face of the clock.

I’m alone- all

my riches surround me.

I have a bed, a room.

I have a bed, a vase

of flowers beside it.

And a nightlight, a book.

I’m awake; I am safe.

The darkness like a shield, the dreams

put off, maybe

vanished forever.

And the day-

the unsatisfying morning that says

I am your future,

here is your cargo of sorrow:

Do you reject me? Do you mean

To send me away because I am not

full, in your word,

because you see

the black shape already implicit?

I will never be banished. I am the light,

your personal anguish and humiliation.

Do you dare

send me away as though

you were waiting for something better?

There is no better.

Only (for a short space)

the night sky like

a quarantine that sets you

apart from your task.

Only (softly, fiercely)

the stars shining. Here,

in the room, the bedroom.

Saying I was brave, I resisted,

I set myself on fire.

– Louise Glück, Stars