Willful Gladness

Image by Darryl Brian

“My role in society, or any artist’s or poet’s role, is to try and express what we all feel. Not to tell people how to feel. Not as a preacher, not as a leader, but as a reflection of us all.”

~ John Lennon

Honesty allows us to live with not knowing. We do not know the full story, we do not know where we are in the story; we do not know who is at fault or who will carry the blame in the end. Honesty is not a weapon to keep loss and heartbreak at bay, honesty is the outer diagnostic of our ability to come to ground in reality, the hardest attainable ground of all, the place where we actually dwell, the living, breathing frontier where there is no realistic choice between gain or loss.”

― David Whyte

I have decided to be happy. So what if I’m poor as a church mouse. So what if I never taste foie gras again or drink a champagne called Louise. I’m smack dab in the middle of a miracle.

I have a heart that beats in a body that eats, sleeps and locomotes. I can make noises with my mouth that other beings understand and I can understand in likewise fashion the noises they make. It’s a bloomin’ miracle to see the moon in the sky, to watch the hummingbirds from our terrace, to sit down and eat with my beloved, to sip tequila as I write this.