THE THIS AND THAT OF EVERYTHING

We were driving in a car,
the driver extolling the virtues of the place we were in,
and I thought,
he’s right! This is a beautiful place.
Then we drove past a junkyard,
a house burned down,
a tent in the middle of the lot
the charred remains of a car in the driveway,
A liquor store with a guy outside throwing up,
and so on…
And I thought,
Well, no, this place, in many ways, is just like any other place.

And I was sure,
we all knew,
how it was.

Yet there we were,
travelling along,
talking about,
how good things were here.

This is what it’s like,
living in the world,
the up and down of things,
the this and that.
The liking and disliking of
Everything.

We have to live with change like this.

When all we really have
is the quality of our thought,
the kindness we can show,
the effort we can make to care,
and stabilize our breath,
so we are ready,
for whatever happens next.