@echo_lines
NIGHT
Noise of the city becoming a hum / Into the window the last bit of sky
QUIET
Quite often what looks like inaction is the loudest kind of inner work / Understanding arrives on its own schedule to the mind that waits for it
UNEASE
Underneath the laughter something stirs / Nothing quite lands where it used to be
BRAVE
Building something new from what was broken / Reaching past the limits of the comfort
BIKE
Brakes adjusted at last after months of complaining / Into the lane that opened just in time
MOON
Marking the water with a path of light / Older than the name we gave it long ago
BLISS
Brightness that arrives without a name / Letting every burden find the floor
TOWN
There are faces here I cannot name but know / Only locals use that particular shortcut
CLOCK
Constantly noticed when you wish it wouldn’t be / Louder than it should be in the quiet
LIGHT
Living in the glow of what is true about you costs nothing / In darkness you discover what of you still knows the way
BRAVE
Before the act, the fear comes first / Rising through it is the only path
SKY
So wide above the valley it makes you small / Knowing it has always been this close
CLOCK
Crowded afternoon and it won’t move quickly / Long wait made longer by looking
CROSS
Crossing the distance between you and the truth is never free / Reaching the other shore requires leaving the one you stand on
SCENT
Soap still in the air after the shower / Coffee pulling you out of the dream
FEAR
Familiar and yet always new, the dread / Even those who know it must step through
ALIVE
A heartbeat is a kind of argument for being here / Living is the art of choosing what to pay attention to
HOME
Hat on the hook and the day let go / One kitchen that knows all your habits
GLEE
Going sideways into unexpected joy / Loose inside the moment without thinking
MARSH
Mud and sky and water undecided / All the reeds together in the late light
BIKE
Balanced on the curb before the ride / Into the wind with a bag on the back
LUNCH
Later than planned but still welcome / Usually the same thing on Wednesdays
WORTH
What you give the world is more than what you see / Only you can name the value of your own becoming
TIME
The past is just a door that you no longer need / In every ending, something new is taking root
ALONE
Aloneness is the state in which the self is most itself / Learning to be with yourself is the longest apprenticeship there is
MAGIC
More of life is unexplained than certainty admits / A sense of wonder is the engine underneath the awe
DESK
Drawer opened and closed without finding it / Every pen tried and only one working
YEARN
You keep a place inside for what is gone / Every reaching forward leaves it open
BLOOM
Bright against the last snow of the season / Leaning from the wall toward the open sun
QUEST
Questions are the maps of everyone who seeks the truth / Underneath each answer waits another open door
LUNCH
Leftover soup warmed on the stove quietly / Under the window where the light is best
MERCY
Moving past the right to punish / Every debt forgiven quietly
SMILE
Something small begins and grows / Meant for you and no one else
GROVE
Green even in December the old oaks stand / Roots tangled under centuries of quiet
NIGHT
Noise of the city becoming a hum / Into the window the last bit of sky
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
ROSE
Rising on the trellis past the window / One bloom surviving into late October
CORAL
Created by the smallest of the living / Over a thousand years it builds a mountain
BREAD
Baking it because the day needed a task / Rising during the walk and ready on return
GLEN
Gathered mist at the bottom before sunrise / Larches turning gold at the first cold snap
LOVE
Light that follows even into shadow / Often showing up unasked and uninvited
TRUST
Turning toward the one who might betray you / Resting anyway and choosing to believe
FOG
Feeling its way along the hedgerow slowly / Opening a path only as far as you need
ROOM
Rain on the window and nowhere to go / Opening the curtains halfway and no more
TREE
This one has been here since before the road / Roots holding the bank above the river
GALE
Gusting through the valley without stopping / All the weathervanes agree on nothing
BOOK
Best when the whole afternoon disappears / One cup of tea gone cold during chapter three
SHORE
Sometimes the shore is where we finally stop / Here is where the searching ends and rests
FROST
First to find the puddle and make it glass / Riming the gate with silver overnight
HAPPY
Here is where the lightness lives / A warmth that needs no reason