@evening_tale
SHORE
Staying here longer than we planned / Here the worry that came with us grows smaller
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
HILL
Here the sky begins before the summit ends / In August the heather turns the slope to purple
PAIN
Passed through, not around, is how it ends / A knowing in the depths that you are still here
ATONE
Acknowledging the harm and moving toward repair is not weakness / Taking responsibility for what was done clears a space for what comes next
CROSS
Crossing the distance between you and the truth is never free / Reaching the other shore requires leaving the one you stand on
LUNCH
Leftover rice reheated and improved somehow / Under an hour and trying to make it feel like more
SOUL
Standing in full awareness of what you are is a kind of prayer / Out beyond the personality, the soul still knows exactly what it needs
PEACE
Petals fall without a sound / Every breath a small release
CHILD
Collecting things that only they understand the value of / Happiness expressed at full volume without apology
TENDER
The skin of the world is thin today / Each word must land with extra care
BOTH
Between extremes, the truth is usually somewhere in the middle / Only the thinker who can hold two truths at once is free
STORM
Saying nothing until it says everything / Taking the roof tiles and the old crow’s nest
FIELD
Foxes crossing at the far end in the grey / In the late July heat the combine starts
BREAD
Best when the crust breaks away cleanly / Rising through the first quiet hour of morning
SAFE
Somewhere the constant guarding finally rests / Arms that hold without condition or demand
ELATE
Each heartbeat says that all of this is real / Life becomes a brighter, faster thing
HOPE
Held between the broken and the new / One small light inside the corridor
LEARN
Letting go of what you thought was right is how you grow / Every lesson costs you something you thought you needed more
CAFE
Corner table and a long coffee / Afternoon spent with a book and no plans
OPEN
One step toward what you do not understand is worth more than ten steps toward what you do / Presence without agenda is the most welcome kind a person can offer
WALK
Wednesday morning colder than expected / Around the block once more for no reason
MIND
Moving through the world with full attention is its own form of mastery / In the quality of the thinking is the quality of what the thinking builds
SIGH
Speaking through the body what the mind won't say / Inward first and then the soft release
PHOTO
Printed and placed without a frame for now / Hands holding it to show someone how it was
FAITH
Footsteps into what you cannot see / All you carry forward is the wanting
DESK
Drawer opened and closed without finding it / Every pen tried and only one working
MOON
Midnight opens like a silver eye / Over the hills a pale glow rises
CALM
Center found beneath the day's commotion / A soft returning to yourself again
APART
All that separates is also pointing to what could connect / Perspective grows in proportion to the distance that you can accept
DESK
Dust settled on the corner of papers / Everything arranged and rearranged again
BLISS
Briefly and completely you are free / Living fully in the moment given
GONE
Going is the nature of everything that ever truly was / Only what we loved enough can leave the kind of absence it does
MIST
Muffling the chapel bell in the valley / Imagining the hedgerow through the white
VIVID
Very much awake to every color / Inside the living moment, everything is sharp
CAFE
Coffee ordered without looking at the menu / A table by the window like always
PETAL
Pink and falling from the cherry in the wind / Even the garden path is beautiful today
AWARE
Attending to the present is a discipline of love / Whatever you ignore in you will find another way to speak
RAGE
Running past the point where calm was possible / A wall of heat across the chest and throat
RIVER
Rushing through the canyon without resting / Into the flatland slowing and spreading out
LUNCH
Light through the kitchen window at just the right angle / Under the hour but fully inside it nonetheless
CROSS
Crossing the distance between you and the truth is never free / Reaching the other shore requires leaving the one you stand on
ALTER
A single decision made from the deepest part of you changes everything / Leaving a prior version of yourself behind is always bittersweet
ELATE
Every cell inside you lifts at once / Light pours in from somewhere new
NIGHT
Neighbors quiet and the building settling / In the dark the day feels further away
RAIN
Running off the eaves into the barrel / A grey curtain softening the hillside
TEA
The same mug used since the beginning of winter / Every morning the same small ceremony
PINE
Planted long ago now taller than the house / Its roots the depth of everything we know
DANCE
Door closed and the music up properly / A small performance for the empty kitchen
BLOOM
Breaking through the soil is the hardest part of any flowering / Lying dormant is not dying, it is gathering for the next push