Dirty Little Secrets

In the distance a raven
flew over the deep green peaks
down to the shore,
above are the clouds
and the white gulls circling,
at its feet is the racing foam
of the sea with the ever-deep groan
from the heart of the world,
waves pound their cadence
upon the rocks, raising a mist
at the edge of the world…

She wears a white gown and her hair
of red, like burnished copper,
hangs in damp ringlets about her face,
she looks to the sea and listens
to the winds that sing her song,
however sorry, or woeful,
or touched by immortal grief
it may be, little it matters,
for she knows what leads
beyond all perils,
past the storm of tears…
the lost secret of the world–

Love.

She,
whom princes used to dream of,
bestowed her Love in a Dream,
understanding grace, streaming poetry,
she turned aside,
all alone on her journey,
to preserve Love’s truth, unhidden.
Here it remains, untarnished.
If there are any wishing
to utter falsehoods of it,
it is glimmering, undiminished,
in passive silence.

Living people are soft and tender.
Corpses are hard and stiff.
The ten thousand things,
the living grass, the trees,
are soft, pliant.
Dead, they’re dry and brittle.

So hardness and stiffness
go with death;
tenderness, softness,
go with life.

And the hard sword fails,
the stiff tree’s felled.
The hard and great go under.
The soft and weak stay up.

- Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching, English version by Ursula K. LeGuin

I am reminded in this age, that tanks and tombstones are not very adequate role models… to be alive… to be woman… to care… is to be vulnerable. Being in love, being unafraid to speak your mind, living your life with nothing to hide… is to be vulnerable. People see vulnerability as some sort of weakness… but really, it is strength and freedom. It doesn’t take much courage to go along with social conventions, to be politically correct… to go along with the culture of “professionalism” in business (”Ewww, she’s not being professional!”), even though it makes human beings feel like slaves and valued by how much Stuff they own… but it takes a lot of courage to reject those ways, and to voice our true feelings… to open up to vulnerability, to face the possibility of rejection by friends and family, or to lose a job because you chose to speak your mind rather than hold your tongue. Choosing to be vulnerable is not a coward’s choice.
Read on…

you saw the stars dancing overhead
and heard the song of my spirit,
wounded, touched with pain,
moving through the darkness,
weary of earth

you found me lying there
in the deep silence of grief,
the black folds of my cloak
encasing broken shards
of my life,

you stood watch over me,
bringing gentle light,
pity so tender and mild,
whispering familiar dreams
in my ear

you brought your cupped hands
to my lips and let me drink,
filling my heart with awe,
and the joy of home and hearth
returned to me

you know and share my longing
for the stars or the beloved
gentleness that stays the blow,
what it means to be immortal and lonely,
but not alone