The Coming

There is a place within each heart
where Spirit dwells
swaddled in a gold cocoon.
Awaiting your arrival
it trembles with expectation, listening
for the sound of the turning key.
To find this place may take a lifetime,
for the road is rough and strewn
with shadows, rocks and crumbling statues,
the old and useless gods that have no voice.
Yet, it is the journey you were born for
the journey to the still small
center of your being.

One day your eyes will see
all that was hidden in twilight
and your ears will hear the words of life.
All things will soften into knowing.
Time and seasons and half-known
reasons will blossom with purpose
and the promise
that bliss will surely find you.

The Coming . . . when dawn reveals
the memories we've locked away for years,
and touches them with kindness and forgiveness.
The Coming . . . it will lure you on
to hear the precious sound of your own name.
Say it, whisper it and place it in your heart.
It sounds so simple, but it's so profound
to say your given name with love,
to truly love yourself and turn the key.

Joanne Cucinello

We Can Only Wonder

When we read about the torture of other human beings, their deprivation and humiliation, and still . . . their continued will to survive, despite the horrors endured, we can only wonder at how immense the human spirit must be. Conversely, it is hard to conceive of what exists in the minds of torturers, what levels of consciousness they dwell in, when one tries to believe they are human beings who walk among us on this earth.

There is a vast expanse of human experience, a wide spectrum of evidence that suggests to me . . . humanity is as mysterious as its Creator. We continue to uncover such darkness and suffering, unbelievable inhuman cruelties that leave us to wonder how and when mankind will ever evolve past these deadly sins. It is only the witness of those beings who, in their simple acts of loving kindness and compassion, raise humanity above its own gravity and allow us glimpses of what we can become.