Imagine if every touch contained all the sweetness of a Beloved….
Maybe one of the reasons why death is ever-present is to invite us to slow down in our relentless industry of self* and, as each moment spills into the next, gaze into the depths of our precious changing, slide under the stories that we tell ourselves, and settle into the embrace of joy that emerges from the infinite ache of life falling apart.
One regret, dear world,
That I am determined not to have
When I am lying on my deathbed
Is that
I did not kiss you enough.
~ Hafiz ~
**
*relentless industry of self; phrase borrowed from the book Hunger Mountain by David Hinton.
**Hafiz poem: "I Am Determined", from I Heard God Laughing (trans. D. Ladinsky).
photos: me. July 2018.