…you might live. You might be touched
by greatness
or depravity
or illness
or kindness.
You might be penetrated fully by life, by the contradictions just in your own soul, in your own home, in your own town, penetrated all the way down to the bone and in and beyond to those places primal and timeless. You might find your skin again, after the fall, past the pound or in the heat of the slightest caress. You might notice that you’re not the be-all-to-end-all wonder you thought you were but you fit. You fit right there right now for now and it’s plenty because it’s alive, it’s real, and you feel. You feel every ounce of beingness your one life is and can be. And that moment is the pinnacle. And yet it’s over right now and beginning again right now. And that. That is eternity. And it’s now. It’s the life you might live if you let go of fear (right after you turn, face it and give it a great big bear hug evaporating every ounce of resistance to life itself).
Be careful. You might rest in the woods under trees while the sun shines down on your recovery from years of alternately charging at life and then retreating, snarling and then wimpering, then re-visioning, then singing.
You might rest there and realize you don’t want to charge at anything anymore unless it’s going to result in complete integration, unity. Absorption. Connection. Love. Be careful, life might make you feel, weep, wail, howl or even growl. Life might have a gift waiting around that bend you’d never dare venture. But only, only if you open the arms wide and accept the shadows with the light…
J. Ruth Kelly 
Thank you. It’s like I keep getting little reminders from so many people…life is awesome. Living it, though, is the true gift.
hey stranger…lovely to hear you here…and amen…living it is the gift. no matter what’s goin’ down…
Wow
and just when i’m wondering how you are. here you are. i hope all is well in your world paul…
I’m always dropping by to check that you’re still in action. I don’t comment often because…well…what you say it just a little too intellectual for me to form an opinon on. And would you believe it – I’m writing a non-hamster book. A sequel to Captive Echo. It takes up a lot of my free time – of which there’s precious little. You know how it is…
i’m surprised it’s a lil too intellectual ’cause i don’t see me that way…but i’m glad you drop in…i’ll have to put [HI TOOTY!] in brackets to get your attention when i write some long dissertation on the pitfalls of education. ation ation ation… :0)
so glad to hear you’re writing. keep on…but i do like your hamster tales…
What a beautiful photo to pair with what you have written, here, Jruth; the idea of being in the woods with all that glorious light shining in and around just waiting to be had.
I have not read anything, so beautifully written, that adresses our ability to live in the moment and be conscious of those fears that guide us and those that are just lies that serve no purpose in our lives. A gem. Thank-you.
it’s good to hear you receive this as a gem…the dark nights give us treasures, don’t they? great stuff…and better for your presence leslie.
Ruth–
that took my breath.
blessings
jane
life is taking my breath away jane…thanks for being such a feeling witness…