There is a rock lying in the bottom of my belly.
        It is anger.
        It is fear.
        It is an inconsolable sorrow.

        I do not understand why pain and beauty must sit at the same table,
        Why anguish and ecstasy walk side by side.
        I know that each is a mirror to the other and that truth holds them both.
        I know that life's juxtapositions are the weft of our human fabric,
        But at what cost?

        I have fallen in love with the shimmering radiance at twilight,
        And the silver tufts of the cottonwood
        Floating upon the currents of spring.

        Yet as I stand in this holy place -- filled up and delighted,
        A bitter taste lingers on my tongue.

        The sound of weeping brushes against the wind-swept lake.

        My senses are weary of holding the shroud that has befallen us.
        It feels as real and as empty as the hollows of the trees.

        We stand at the edge between night and day --
        Between our desires, our fears, and that which truly sustains us.

        The only choice that I have now, in this moment, is to simply
                Breathe into life.
        To fill up all the empty, wretched places with the power of my intent,
        And my trust in this journey shared.

                For breath is life flowing back into itself.

        It is our first and final gift to this earthly landscape.
        It is a door into the sacred void where anything is possible.

        If I can claim only one thing, let it be my breath,
                That silent rush of air skirting across the new green leaves.

        May I learn the dance of holding on and letting go.
        May every intake be a prayer and every out breath an offering
        To all the faces and edges of life.

                -- Karen Konrad

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Last updated: May 22, 2004