On Presence

Circa 1917 

Sail Away.

Do not look back at those footsteps that led up to this point -

the unsteady impressions, the bolder imprints that hold stories of much fatigue and intrigue.

Resist.

Derive from the Past, don’t dwell in it.

Neither let your restless mind wonder, to wander across to the end of the horizon.

Set Sail. Trust your Vessel.

And be all there when you are adrift in the vastness, 

feeling the heaves and ripples in your bodily being, 

resist tensing up as the waves leap higher above your vision, erasing the horizon.

Listen in.

Feel, sense, smell, taste the salt in your arid mouth;

let your body sway with its expert weaving through the waves. 

At times winning, sometimes pliable.

And then hear the sea whisper into your ears,

“Are you present to your own Presence?”

Feel the words trickle in, settle into their sound

until the syllables reach into spaces deep inside you, that you never fully inhabited.

Do you sense those untouched contours swell, yet snug and warm despite the wildly heaving, gladly tossing waves? 

You feel safe now, secure, alert and somehow complete?

This was inevitable. 

This is the Present. It's here in you. Just like your breath. 

The retreat that was always there to return to.

Sail. Go Away. Travel. 

Meet with your Presence.

In going away you return to yourself
and meet with your soul.
Travel heals the soul.

##May 30, 2019