The excerpt of this poem reminds me of my journey from affluence, consumption, and over-indulgence to poverty, scarcity, and deprivation.
On my way back to true wealth and abundance, I took with me only those deeply satisfying things and experiences I could afford in my poverty.
The rest I left far behind, after initially thinking as I lost them that I would die without them. The identity that grasped at worthiness died.
In its place, I found the essence of myself that is all of us – the magnificently flawed humanness and the gifted divinity.
That essence needs only to look within and around this glorious planet and to savor what is already present, most full of love, most nourishing, and must be available to all of us.
TWIGS
And so
it has taken me
all of sixty years
to understand
that water is the finest drink,
and bread the most delicious food,
and that art is worthless
unless it plants
a measure of splendor in people’s hearts.
Taha Muhammad Ali
(translated by Peter Cole, Yahya Hijazi, and Gabriel Levin)
Thank you Joe Riley for poem and image