Tag Archives: Earth Day

We Are Little People

After all the seeming of our trying
In an effort to make ourselves big
and more important, more powerful
more of whatever is more than what we have
or what we are now

We are still little people
who are mortal.

Every effort to compare and judge,
each time we throw ourselves into
competition with another,
whatever we think we've won

We are still little people
who are mortal.

When we objectify others,
when we engage in war on them,
when we rape, torture or kill

We become even smaller,
less significant and
still very mortal.

Want to know 
what makes us bigger?
Basically Compassion and Insight
are the tools that work best

Compassion because it enlarges
our Heart-Mind to include
all other beings

Insight because it grows
our perception and understanding
of how to be in relation with
ourselves, all other beings
and the Earth

And that I believe is
how we may change from
always showing up as little people

And sets us each on the path to
become a Bigger Person
though we still be mortal.

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Filed under Prose and Poetry

Bigger Than My Self

Every time I drive by Jamaica Bay 

I look beyond the houses 

at the water’s edge

I look to see the level of the tide

though I really have no need to know

Yet it always feels important just to look.

I notice when the waves cover the reeds

that form small islands just off shore

I check to see if any ducks or geese or egret are about.

I find myself a witness to the mood of the bay,  

watching how the water lies so still or 

how the wind stirs up the waves.

Wondering how the moon can push or pull

the water beyond its normal reach.

I don’t take notes or photographs

I just have pictures in my mind

And I smile

No matter what I find

I feel some reassurance in knowing

that the bay is still there

Even though I don’t know 

where I expect it to go.

It’s a wonder to see it 

every time 

And of course

there’s some comfort too

in the connection that I have

with this place in nature that is so much

bigger than my self.

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Filed under Prose and Poetry