[Thespiritexpress] Poem La Joie de Vivre

[Riantee Rand]

Read at Mastery

> 
> 
> La Joie de Vivre – To Charissa on her 70th birthday
>  
> We are entering an age when
> lugging a heavy backpack up steep mountain roads
> to get the undisturbed peace we crave for
> is no longer so appealing,
> but
> we are old enough to appreciate
> what comes to us
> as we surrender to idleness,
> during those precious moments
> when the light falls through foliage,
> etching laceworks
> on our wrinkled hands;
> old enough
> to have learned the subtleties involved
> in the art of reclining
> and listening,
> listening,
> to the lover bird,
> to the inner voice,
> to the perfection of self,
> to the song of creation.
>  
> We may be too stiff to hike over passes
> on narrow ledges overlooking abysses,
> or to crawl through cracks and crevasses
> in order to find
> the hidden waterfall,
> the unexplored paradise,
> the infrequent flower,
> but old enough to have created
> an articulate garden that talks in a language
> we understand,
> and appreciate the modest beauty
> within our reach.
>  
> We are coming to a place
> where the imperfections of a body
> we used to inspect for flaws every morning
> have become irrelevant in view of the bigger picture:
> does it work?
> And if it does work,
> what gratefulness, what joy.
> And if it fails in some areas,
> the adjustments we make
> are so many opportunities
> for lessons of wisdom.
>  
> We are arriving at a stage
> when visiting faraway places to see the world’s wonders,
> on a very low budget,
> no longer tickles our sense of adventure,
> but we have tasted the supreme pleasure of going into
> the vegetal paradise
> through a side portal
> and reach
> the fleshy iridescence of petal,
> sepal,
> pistil
> and stamen
> as they become magnified,
> reducing us
> to the size
> of a magnificent bug,
> a butterfly inebriated
> with the nectar of the gods.
> Lured,
> like the flying creatures,
> into the timeless liquefaction of the senses,
> our self melts into the ecstasy
> of being.
>  
> We can experience this
> every moment,
> it’s always there,
> at the tip of our fingers,
> fostering an appreciation
> of the inconspicuous,
> the overlooked aspects of nature.
>  
> It’s always there,
> in the beauty of things imperfect,
> impermanent and incomplete
> things modest and humble,
> things unconventional.
>  
> We are coming to a time
> when the great accomplishments
> and activities
> that justified our being
> are no longer so significant,
> we look upon them with tenderness
> as charming children with many-a-great-dreams
> and gently
>             push them aside
> to make room
> for the only thing
> that validates us:
> la joie de vivre.

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