Merging, Molting, Emerging

Cramming my head into a the 

rotted out stump of a tree

Hoping to tear off the skin still

attached to my bones

Shredding my old skin

stopping midstream

Hanging onto my past instead of 

surrendering to new flesh and blood

What is holding me back?

I have loved the merge

between mother and child

between partners and friends

merging, immersed into

the Oneness of All

Now, I want to separate from

the merge into more freedom

more independence

more autonomy, more being alone

although I don’t know where I am going yet

So my emerging halts

Incomplete as my head

Crashes through the waves

While I try to enter the bliss of oneness

Beating my head, banging it against a wall

Without leaving the merge

Between me and goddess

between Spirit and Self

Emerging hanging onto old me

and entering new me

How uncomfortable, scary and sore

Maybe this new self I am still becoming is

Quieter, Kinder

Less Busy and still

I don’t know her well enough

Who are you, New Self?

Me?
I am the calm between storms

I am the princess of peace

I am a grounded bodhisattva

I am you who sits silently under

the magnolia tree

looking up into her overarching branches

seeing the hope and the light

Me?

I am you, a different part of you 

Who is content to be a just a Part of

No longer needing the spotlight so often

Me?
I am your higher self, the little old woman

Shepherdess who gave you her staff

Who gave you the white, tiny lamb

        Who gave you your child and yourself

I am the one who trusts without anxiety or fear

Not challenging but becoming more aligned

with What Is

I am the old lady who whispers in your ear

Who tells you to breathe, to relax and let go

No need to worry or strain

No need to become consumed, obsessive or bitter

I am you

We are One

We are merging, molting, and emerging

All together, all at once

Complete

At peace

Bliss

Re-entering the World after Pandemic

Seems like I have been underground 

For the past 17 years

Deep in soil, peaceful at last

Rest, relaxation, hibernation, joy

I move back up into the world above

My senses on fire!

Sensations galore!

Making up stories

Making assumptions

Judging and evaluating

Dynamics between people

Feeling their tensions and stress

Or, are those mine?

I have been cocooned for a year

Not gathering in person but

Online, so much zooming

In and out of circles, meetings, groups

Being outdoors

With people, in close proximity

A whole new experience

As if for the first time

Being birthed, blasting out of a woman

Into the bright, screaming lights of a 

Hospital room, rough hands,

Warm skin, thrust into 

An unknown space and time

Belly laughing but also mourning

The womb of before

Irritated and irritable

I want to travel back

Into that warm, safe space

From which I came

How can I re-enter

This world of stress and chaos

Clashing wars and vast violence

Without the protections 

Of my formerly hardened, skillful skin

The one scarred and solid

Old and torn 

What if I travel back down 

Into the underground with 

The cicadas for 17 more years

Then crawl out again

Shedding my flesh, 

Uncovering new, raw Skin

Singing loudly and safely 

Then

Wandering back into the dust

Of the earth as I and my ego expire?

What kind of world do you want to live in?

Black and white, brown and orange

Red and yellow, beige

All the many colors of flowers, birds, beasts, fish

Only problematic with people 

Wearing different types or amounts 

Of melanin or colors or coming from

Cultures with a variety of skin tones

Black and brown people, shot and killed while

Walking or jogging down the street

Sleeping in their beds

Playing with toys in a park

Selling cigarettes or

Breathing

White people insurrect, commit sedition

Maim and kill police officers, those prideful boys

Those white boys and girls stuck in adolescence

So angry at leaders who tell them what they can or cannot do

Scared they are losing power, stabbing and killing 

Without being silenced by law enforcement

When wreaking havoc, committing crimes, causing death

Treated so differently than black and brown people

Supermarket gunmen

Church and synagogue gunmen

School and theater gunmen

All gun Men

What about guns, the right to have them

Carry them openly with or without a permit

Easier to buy and use guns than to drive a car with a license

What kind of world is that?

When white men cannot control their sexual desires and needs

And blame it on a different race or a different gender 

Killing Asian women to stop their own temptations and pain

All in the name of Jesus Christ, using the devil

As one’s defense while breaking the laws of the Bible

All the many colors of flowers, birds, beasts, and fish 

Most do not kill or harm each other for sport, but may

Out of fear and while looking for new spaces, or when

Protecting their young, or feeding their families

Yes, all of Mother Nature gets born, needs to eat and drink

Needs a nest or a place to be, and struggles at times to share

Children who do not fall into our rigid binary categories

Man and woman and nothing in between

When for so many thousands of years some people have not 

Fit into those labels, do not feel the gender they are told they are

So, shut those kids out of sports, Tennesssee, making them suffer

Even more by giving them few rights, putting them at risk

For more destruction and isolation just because they are different

Immigration

Voter Restriction

(No) Gun Regulation

Culture Cancellation

What about Salvation?

What kind of world do we live in?

Do we want public health and public safety?

See all of the many colors and differences

See how we each treat them

What kind of world do you want to live in?

What kind of world do you want to see?