One of the great gifts of the very young, a gift often reclaimed as we age, is the ability to look beyond "looks," to appreciate the spirit of a person and to recognize that the essential life force in each of us has the capacity to blossom no matter what season we might be in or what suffering we may have endured. I have come to love this essential life force, the human flame found in each of us, more than anything. What, or whom, do you love more than anything?

Why do children love to play peek-a-boo and hide and seek? It is the primal dance between the twin desire to hide away, to be the silent witness, and the longing to be found, as if we might be a sought after treasure, or be seen and be beheld in the eyes of delight. It is the key to flirtation and courtship, the whispered secret and well-known fact in the mating call of life. This is my poetic ode to the dance...

New age optimist may paint the world with pan-gloss, but dark nights of the soul are a part of every human journey. They are often the breeding ground for new life and the soil from which the future sprouts. If we can stand on hard times, we may find that they become the bedrock for a grander, greater version of ourselves.

I, like millions of others, enjoy the poetry of Rumi.  His work often yields an "aha" or the sigh of recognition and I feel a kind of awakening in the moment.  What "awakens" you? What quote or poem do you return to, or find solace in, or feel serves you in some way in life?

Complements make each opposite possible. There is no certainty without doubt and no stillness without wavering. Wavering is not a sign of weakness, but a mating call for the stillness at the core of your being.