Victims of Education

I've had to sign over a dozen inane forms giving permission for and acknowledging the dangers of cooking and sewing class, gym activities, sensitive topics in life science, specific exercises for specific parts of the the body and on and on.

What a sad and litigious world...such fear...that our educational system has become so untrustworthy of itself that it kicks up a cloud of cover-your-ass minutia. Sad that, I'd never considered loopholes for litigation until I found myself entwined in the ropes of my own signature on many sheets of paper. Sad that my tax dollars go to general counsel rather than toward basic school supplies.

How about we all sign an agreement that my daughter be taught the truth; that her imagination and individuality will be stimulated in order to explore unique methods and paths to this truth; paths that allow the assimilating of unfiltered history and science and mathematics and literature offered through uncensored, 360 degree views of society and the world with which she lives...by educated, enlightened, and sufficiently numbered and enabled teachers. And don't tell me she's not old enough to explore truth - she is...she is if she can flip through the channels to the MTV video awards and gasp at a twerking child acting like a harlot; if she can know before I do the "blanks" that are bleeped out for profanity; and if she blushes during sexually suggestive scenes on network television.

Let's expose them to the truth and prepare them to be makers of history, rather than victims. Give me THAT form to sign!

My Son's 10th Birthday

Born 10 years ago today, OUR son is an inspiration specifically selected to BE. He's not mine as much as he is his own. And that's how he shall be raised, inshallah.

We ask for glimpses of God's plan for us; THAT God plans for others, IS part of our plan.

2013

My Daughters Thirteenth Birthday

Dear Camberlyn (Birthday girl)

So what do you think of this very memorable past year little thing…or perhaps now I’m not able to call you that as you round 13 years. It’s been a wonderful year in ways you can only begin to count with tears, laughter, discovery, and inexplicable joy. You’ll make 13 the luckiest number of them all!

Darling, you experienced some moments that few adults have been able to handle in their lifetimes. And you have taken this in with a gentle burgeoning maturity that seems to come from the deepest places in your heart – where secrets dwell. How gracefully and modestly you handle new friendships, your studies, and insatiable appetite for reading. I know with all assurance that your mother is smiling upon you, happy, and proud of her daughter just as I am.

I am humbled by the loving ways in which you are unfolding into a young little lady. You should know I admire you and that when you smile at me, your reflection in my eyes lasts for a hundred* heart beats after you walk away.

You’ll always have me by your side, I promise, and no one will ever make you a promise the way your dad does. I will always keep you surrounded by love and enlightenment – as you journey from your head to your heart - can you see it now sweetheart?

“..if anyone asks you how the perfect satisfaction of all our desiring will look, lift your face and say… ‘ like this’ .” Rumi 

You are This

You are not ON the blindly unfolding path, you ARE the path. You are as you are as you wander, no matter where you wander. It is your most divine countenance along the way that creates the barely utterable mystical awareness of where you are going - and from whence you came from. You came through no door, you are the door...and the door before you opens to the intent you hold as you reach for the handle. All doors open inward to the one unique secret only you hold in your heart. Ascension "to someplace" is inevitable, but what is more important is that ascension has been the lingering condition of man since creation. The route may be stalled, circuitous at times, or even seem like its descending...but even down goes up.

"...This being human is a guest house.
Every morning a new arrival.
A joy, a depression, a meanness,
some momentary awareness comes as an unexpected visitor.
Welcome and entertain them all!
Even if they're a crowd of sorrows,
who violently sweep your house
empty of it's furniture,
still, treat each guest honorably.
He may be clearing you out
for some new delight.
The dark thought, the shame, the malice,
meet them at the door laughing,
and invite them in.
Be grateful for whoever comes,
because each has been sent as a guide from beyond..."
(Rumi)

Friend or Foe

Below the exalted peaks of a mountain is its root.

Plunging down and down,

below the last stand of the tree line.

Your spirit abrades as it

Rumbles across the scree

Deep into the replenishing pores of bedrock.

Every one you know is an incarnation

Of you.

There are not seven billion people on this earth,

There is just One

Over and over…

and over again.

It’s you who make the company to solitude

So… are you a friend or foe of silence?

Light Too Far

Rose snipped from thorns
Still another grows
… yours dies,
You look too far
For beauty.

Walk over earth,
No place to dig,
You search too far
for gold.

Questions rise 

Past your throat,
Seeking answers
Closer than the vein
In your neck.

Tear at your clothing
For the truth
Naked to the world,
Immodest
Toward yourself.

Against your eyelids
Dreams are played
Fear to wake,
To look too far.

Darkness
Holds as many stars
Lit within your chest,
You look too far
                               ....For light.

Rose Petals Falling in the Garden

Memories fade to susurrus.
Dusk cast shadows
Rise the temple wall.
Amber skin, maternal fields,
Upon soft abdomen,
his ear falls.

Below the peel of empyrean,
fruit of a woman,
brave the man
who clings the rind,
But braver he
let’s go in time.

Saccharine she
Whose taste is closest
to touch the Beloved's face.
Pressed he hears,
Her oceans howl...
hurling hope on waves.

To love a woman thus
is to be born to her
over and over – again.
Upon his brow, lips land
Her winter eyelids close,
falling, falling in the garden.

        go the petals of the rose.