In my late teens and early twenties, I often had a strong feeling that something important had happened or was about to happen, something of which I should certainly be aware, but it remained unknown. It was a demanding feeling that sometimes put me on edge. I escaped it by concluding that I must have dreamed something that remained unconscious. The feeling still comes on occasion to this day. I have learned to welcome these deep secrets as a sign of something ripening in the nether regions of my soul.

What if identity were nothing more than a shell for a hermit crab? When they outgrow the confines of an old shell, they need to find a new, larger one to accommodate expansion. What new or expanded identity is calling you to leave your old shell behind and find a new one?

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.