The Trackless Path

“I choose not to believe that.”

It’s something that I say to thoughts

That arise with accompanying anxiety, ingratitude, or distrust,

No matter the familiarity, plausibility, or apparent wisdom they seek to convey.

And then I turn my mind toward the loving peaceful void of not knowing what is good,

And wait for new and better thoughts to arise, 

Revelations out of the unseen place.

For how else will we be led out

Of damaging paradigms

Without renunciation

Of all that comes not bearing light.

There was a man with a tat-tat-tat-t-te-tat in his heart,

That made him weak and frailer 

Than the next bloke.

And he was plagued by a grief that was stuck in his lungs

That now and then made him cough.

But he traveled on,

Traveled on,

Believing that to spite all that, he’d carry on.

And he did carry on, carry on, carry on,

While the host of men gave up the…

Well, I hate to say it out loud,

But you know how it ends 

For most.

But not this bloke.

Eventually, of course,

He carried on to the great beyond

But it was different for him.

I won’t relate the strange particulars,

But I will say that he was around far longer than other blokes, 

Because, somewhere along the way, 

He chose to carry on.

Disclaimer: If the anxiety that you experience is not your own,

This is for you. In other words, 

If it visits but does not reside.

In other words,

If you don’t believe 

That there is a reason to be anxious

And find that it presses in but does not arise

Or generate from deeply held beliefs 

That you nurture inside your mind.

So, if it’s not your own, here’s some advice,

Or rather, something that I’ve tried

And found effective now and then.

When anxiety comes for a visit,

I don’t just welcome it in,

I wrap it up in my embrace. 

I pull it in, pull it in, pull it in.

Not the worry but the feeling of discomfort

As I would a laughing child who tries 

To wiggle its way out 

Of my embrace. 

And upon encountering such love, desire, and acceptance,

It seems to flee. I don’t know 

If that’s what really happens,

But that’s how it seems.

Take what time it takes.

This is the work of the soul.

Trust that what you have is what you need

And that the needs of tomorrow 

Will come tomorrow.

When the journey ahead requires faith,

And when you are afraid of what’s next,

Don’t spend much time thinking about it.

Simply take a step, and then another step.

Step into the thing you fear

Imagining all the while

The deliverance

That you know is coming.

And if you are led by providence

Comfort will come in the movement.

But don’t imagine worst-case scenarios.

Picture best-case scenarios as you step, step, step

Into the thing that requires faith.

I know that shelter is needed,

And every want must be supplied.

But my life is an experiment

To see the unseen hand provide.

I can see a new life on the horizon.

And all I own fits on my back,

A little backpack at that,

All on my back.

What a relief!

Somewhere, always, hell has raged.

And when anyone has found a piece of heaven

It is because they chose to ignore the hell that raged

And that choice, the choice of love and peace

To spite the hell that rages, I think, perhaps,

Is the stuff of which heaven's made.

I'm digging down to the center of the earth,

And on my way, I pick up diamonds 

And bring ‘em back up

To the surface.

But nobody wants ‘em

Except the occasional crazy loon.

But I'm not crazy. I dig for diamonds

On my way to the center of the earth.