Tanya Shaffer

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The Breath of Love

*In Off-Leash Writing Workshops, I often use poetry to inspire our writing. This poem of mine was inspired by the poem Gratitude List, by Laura Foley.

Praise be to cold water, sliding down my throat

Praise be to the moments when my younger son smiles at me, no device in hand

Eyes meeting each other across clear thin air

Praise be to the moments when I see my older son fully

in all his sweetness, bravado, and vulnerability, unobscured by his fears or mine

Praise be to the hot tub that holds me so gently in its liquid embrace

Praise be to friendship and the laughter it brings

Praise be to the changing seasons, the buds peeking out

The luxurious greens of summer

The riotous red-gold carnival of fall                                                             

The bare filigree of winter

When the world turns black and white

Praise be to the sky that’s gray all day, then suddenly bursts out blue

Praise be to the dogs who are always up for a romp or a cuddle

Praise be to the heart that loves

Praise be to the ways we keep trying, in the face of all things

Praise be to hope or the absence of hope

To facing whatever is true

And keeping on

With or without hope

To waking and whispering, You got this

To waking and thinking, Let me embody love today

Let me not lose my temper or my will or my way

Let me do the next right thing

And then the next

Let me love this world

Imperfect as it is

Imperfect as I am

Let me love these people

These dogs

This home

This corner of the earth

This life

Not some other, imagined life

but this life, the one I have.

Praise be to those moments

Of embodying love completely

If only for half a breath

Praise be to those moments of peace

Wherever they occur

In a quiet meadow

On a busy corner

In a concert hall

A restaurant

A forest

A home

Praise be to peace

Within a single heart

The heart of all beings

Beating together

 

If only we could awaken to love

If only wars would end

If only the earth could rejuvenate

If only we could quell our greed

Our hatred, our ignorance, our fear

If only

If only

If only

Praise be to the trying

To the waking, the facing, the doing

Praise be to the breath of love

Wherever, whenever, however

It breathes


If you enjoyed this post, you might also enjoy my poem, Doing Yoga with the Buddha

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