As you fill with wisdom,
and your heart with love,
there ’s no more thirst.
There ’s only an unselfed patience
waiting on the doorsill, a silence
which doesn’t listen to advice
from people passing on the street.
Sanai
Translated by Coleman Barks
Road Closed. I was bewildered when I read the sign posted on a barrier that stretched across a quiet back street. My confusion was in part because the closure seemed to have appeared without prior notice. Admittedly, I had been so immersed in the beauty of the wild hillsides while walking with a friend that I easily could have missed seeing warnings about a road closure ahead. I still would not have imagined complete closure of a roadway and would likely have confidently relied on a couple decades of past experience where so-called closures accommodated the passage of pedestrians and bicyclists. Hence, my sense of bewilderment had also been prompted by the absence of a thoroughfare.
This barrier was only a small blip in the scheme of life. It was a microcosmic reminder of the many ways pathways are continually blocked or altered. Fortunately, my friend and I had an easy alternative – turn, and patiently retrace our steps along the stream, up the slope and then back down the other side of the hill. Rather than anger or self-pity, our return movement was infused with a sense of compassionate lovingness toward all those have been, or are being, blocked with no or few alternative – e.g., other humans, rivers, animals, fish and countless other living beings. With that, there was also remembrance of the renewal that comes with unblocking, such as after the removal of a dam on the Klamath River, bears and salmon are returning.
Our quiet reflections welcomed us into a keener awareness of the softness in the air and mid-afternoon light. Recent rainfall had transformed the trees, grasses and mosses into a lively array of lush greens. And, as if we had not been enfolded in enough transcendent beauty, a flash of pure white revealed a surprising presence – an egret. Surprising, because I had only seen egrets in the wetlands and shorelines. Somehow, there in the shallow stream waters of the canyon, the egret seemed even more ethereal than in the open waterways.
Perhaps it was because we could pause and join her in her attentive stillness while she stood motionless, and then with a purity of action, swiftly moved and caught a fish. Or, perhaps, it was simply her graceful comfort with just being. There was a loving quality in her greedless-ness, not taking or using more energy than she needed, yet still fully present. (She and her are my choice of pronouns for the egret instead of “it” and “its.”) In any case – regardless of reason – I felt the egret offered an invitation to continue the return movement, an inner return movement to the heart of eternal awareness where all beings lovingly belong. I hope you will join me.
Practice
This short practice can be done anywhere, anytime. It brings awareness of the loving support in the world around us.
Prepare –
- Begin by silencing your digital devices and finding a comfortable seated position.
- When you feel ready, interlace your fingers, stretch your fingers out in front of you, and reverse your palms. Invite a one or two full breaths into your lungs.
- Then, allow your hands to release into your lap or onto your thighs. As much as is comfortable, invite your facial, neck and shoulder muscles to release. Invite a soft gaze in your eyes.
Practice –
- With your hands resting in any way that feels comfortable, invite a recollection of a place in nature where you felt a sense of being lovingly supported. For example, walking barefoot on a beach, resting your back against a tree, or sitting where you are now. Perhaps notice any of the subtler feelings associated with this memory, such as ease, calm, peacefulness, trust, sweetness, and/or joy.
- If you have difficulty doing this, quietly look around at your surroundings and find something from the natural world that you find beautiful – a flower, a plant, a wooden floor, a cotton fabric – and for the rest of this practice, simply observe the quiet presence of this beautiful gift from nature.
- If you are continuing with the practice, slowly invite this loving memory – and any supportive feelings – to seep more deeply into your awareness. Imagine this memory has a safe home deep within your heart center.
- Then, rest one or both hands over the center of your chest as a gesture of appreciation and receptivity.
- With your hands here, you may wish to imagine on your inhalations that this memory is like the gentle warmth of the sun radiating outward from your heart center into every cell of your body. And, with each exhale, each cell drinks in and savors the sweetness of loving belonging. Stay here as long as you wish.
- Allow your hands to once again rest wherever they feel comfortable. Imagine this sense of loving supportiveness is now a sphere surrounding you – above, below, behind, in front and to the sides of you.
- Then, if you feel comfortable, reach out with your fingertips and imagine you are able to touch the inner edges of this sphere. Imagine your hands, arms, shoulders and upper torso are fluidly moving from your heart center, and almost like a dance are joyfully spreading the remembrance of loving support into the sphere around you.
- Invite your hands to again rest. Imagine awakening into this feeling of loving supportiveness each morning. Imagine moving through your day with this feeling. Imagine eating your meals with this feeling. Imagine talking and interacting with others with this feeling. Imagine falling asleep and dreaming of this feeling.
- If you wish, invite this feeling to settle into the tips of each of your fingers. Then, lightly touch your sensory organs – nose, mouth, eyes, skin (touch the cheeks), and ears as though sealing in the awareness of the reciprocity of lovingness that lies within your sensory communications and engagements with the world.
- Know that this is you. Wherever you are, you are the beautiful gift of loving supportiveness. You belong.
Transition back into your day –
- Pause
- When you are ready, return to your day.
This poem appears in Mala of Love: 108 Luminous Poems, page 83, edited by Ravi Nathwani and Kate Vogt and published by New World Library. Photo by Pen Ash. The practice is a modification from an earlier post “Love.” H E A R T H is posted each new and full moon. KateVogt©2025.
Africans be
