Which One

Oh, to be alive

Embodied

Heartbeats and exhales on

warm skin

Eye to eye

To take up space together

Or is your world

Two-dimensional

Watching and listening on

cold, hard glass

Eye to screen

To watch the world pass you by.

Come Home, Dear One

Come home, dear one

You left in search of what already was within

To fill a longing birthed years ago

Not safe

Or not enough

Or, perhaps, not worthy of love

The first arrow, this wound of longing, opened up.

“I can fix it! I will fix it! I will love me!”

With things

Success

With busyness or fame

Or food or starving

With drink or the screen

Or perfection

“Oh, how I’ve hurt me!

Why can’t I get this right?”

The second arrow, this wound of shame, opened up.

But perhaps there is a better way:

To see your searching, your substitutions

To ask, what’s under here?

To remember: love met longing and started your quest.

Come home, dear one.

You are not enemy, but caretaker

Reach out and join hands with your hurting self

“You were always worthy of love

Let’s be still now, for Love lives here

It blooms within.”

As you stop searching, you find it everywhere

You and Love forge a new path

Giving and receiving

Healing

Home

This poem was inspired by Tara Brach's teaching on Desire and Addiction: Voices of Longing, Part 2