Brian’s Reflection: Wednesday, May 16, 2007


For the Dead

I dreamed I called you on the telephone

to say: Be kinder to yourself

but you were sick and would not answer

The waste of my love goes on this way

trying to save you from yourself

I have always wondered about the left-over

energy, the way water goes rushing down a hill

long after the rains have stopped

or the fire you want to go to bed from

but cannot leave, burning-down but not burnt-down

the red coals more extreme, more curious

in their flashing and dying

than you wish they were

sitting long after midnight

- Adrienne Rich, poet, born on this day, 1929, in Baltimore;
she refused the National Medal for the Arts in 1997


Good advice. “Be kinder to yourself.” Have you sat before a glowing fire and asked yourself what might save you from yourself? I have. I remember being in a wonderful place on the northeast coast of Brasil, gone there for a respite, run by guys who (a) ran a coconut plantation – it requires waiting, and (b) had all graduated from the Gordon Bleu. For a ridiculously little amount of money they fed me gourmet food, all from the local area. I would lie in a hammock looking out over the sea between South America and Africa and wonder: What do I want to contribute to Life? To the understanding of God?

You have to sit long after midnight. It is then the mind and heart become quiet. You will know no one else can save you from yourself. Only you. You must choose the path. “Be kinder to yourself”. It will lead you to kindness for all of confused humanity. You will call others on the telephone and say, “Be kinder to yourself!” Your heart will overflow with sadness for the human community.

Love of self opens you to all. This will change the World.

Brian+