@echo_lines
RAGE
Running past the point where calm was possible / A wall of heat across the chest and throat
APART
All that separates is also pointing to what could connect / Perspective grows in proportion to the distance that you can accept
BRAVE
Being afraid and doing it anyway is the only definition that holds / Retreating when retreating is honest is also a kind of bravery
CARE
Carrying the weight of someone else / A hand that reaches in the dark
BRAVE
Breaking through the fear that told you to stay small / Rising even when the ground feels far below
SNOW
Sealing the silence over the whole valley / Not one road in and not one road out
DAWN
Day pouring slow over the edge of hills / And before the sun the birdsong fills the dark
GALE
Grinding through the rigging of the moored boats / All the old sounds of the valley are erased
BLISS
Briefly and completely you are free / Living fully in the moment given
ROOM
Rain making the window a living painting / Only the lamp to hold back the evening
PINE
Particular green that does not change with season / Into the high wind it leans and does not snap
CURVE
Coming around the bend reveals what the straight road kept from you / Understanding that the path winds is not the same as accepting delay
LEARN
Letting every experience pass through you rather than get stuck inside you / Every encounter, even difficult ones, carries a lesson if received with openness
PINE
Particular green that does not change with season / Into the high wind it leans and does not snap
CHEER
Clapping for the one who almost fell / Holding space for someone else's win
CALM
Counting breaths until they slow / A stillness found beneath the noise
GIVE
Genuine generosity is the art of giving what it costs you something to give / In the moment of offering freely, you discover what you truly hold
FIND
Following the thread inside the question till the answer shows / In the searching, something about the self is also found
CHILD
Crayon marks still on the doorframe / How tall you were at five
RAIN
Rolling off the mountain into the valley below / After a week of drought it comes like a gift
SOUL
Soft and old and deeper than any name you’ve given it, the soul persists / Often what you feel in the quiet that follows the noise is the soul’s opinion
BIKE
Breathing harder than expected on the bridge / Into the wind with the bag cutting into the shoulder
COOK
Chopping garlic on the wooden board / Oil warming slowly in the pan
DANCE
Dishes done and the song too good to ignore / Arms out in the kitchen and not caring
AMEND
Acknowledging what was wrong and moving toward correction is strength / Making right what was made wrong is not weakness, it is wholeness
COOK
Calm when the kitchen has a plan / One stir too many but it still works
DAWN
Deep quiet before a single bird decides / A breath of cold from the open window
DAWN
Darkness that lasts the longest makes the next dawn the most felt / At the end of every darkness is a light that kept its patience
DEPTH
Digging past the surface finds the truer kind of ground / Everything that lasts has roots that go where eyes cannot
DAWN
Darkness always ends because it is not the final word / A new beginning does not ask permission of the former night
STONE
Sitting where the glacier left it centuries ago / This particular cold nothing else quite matches
SHORE
Sometimes the shore is where we finally stop / Here is where the searching ends and rests
TOWN
The bakery that stays the same decade after decade / Old posters still up from months ago
RIVER
Running fastest where the channel narrows / Into the flat water the rapids finally quiet
ACTS
Acting in the world is how the inner life becomes visible / Carried out fully, even the small act contains the whole person
WORTH
What you carry inside you has a value no market ever named / Once you know your own worth, you stop selling it at a discount
MIST
Making islands of the hills and trees / Into its softness the far mountain dissolves
ROOM
Rain making the window a living painting / Only the lamp to hold back the evening
BOTH
Between extremes, the truth is usually somewhere in the middle / Only the thinker who can hold two truths at once is free
LONELY
Listening for a voice that understands / Over and over the silence answers back
MERCY
More than fairness, something like a gift / Every debt that could be held, released
SUN
Slanting through the curtain onto the floor / Under the shadow of clouds moving fast
DUSK
Deepening between the trunks of pines / Under this light everything looks softer
OPEN
Out beyond the walls you built, something is waiting for you / Pulling down a single wall is how you start an opening
RAGE
Running past the point where calm was possible / A wall of heat across the chest and throat
DEW
Dropping from the dark cloud of the night / Each blade of grass a holding and a giving
CALM
Coming to the center of the storm / A peace that doesn't need the noise to stop
ANGER
All the heat has nowhere left to go / No one heard the warning given
FAITH
Forward even when the map runs out / A steady hand inside the unknown
COOK
Cutting slowly because the radio is good today / One pot and the whole kitchen involved somehow