i  have  put  away  childish  things

I have put away childish things

And am become a man.

Hear me now, I have put away all the fantasies,

The make-believe, the dreams—I have let them go—

And the imagined destinations

Of adolescence.

The Lone Ranger and Superman

Are no heroes to me now,

And I am hiring no new actors

For the cops-and-robbers melodrama

That may still perchance play out

In a shadowed back alley of my mind.

But as a man walking the front street

Of my own city,

As mayor, priest and professor

Of my own nationhood,

I am responsible for its events,

For the honest business,

The wholesome enterprise and education,

The practical industry and harmonious art

And the living, changing forms of worship

That infinite in purpose

Proceed within my city and my nation.

I hold all this in fealty

To the Ruler of the city that includes my city,

In devotion to the King whose nation is my nation,

And I do all, speak all, see and hear

And am the very all of all I see and do,

In name and spirit of the King.

So is my state kingly and a fitting home,

A palace and a palace garden

For the coming in and the going out

Of Him I love by His own love

And truly serve by His own truth.

I have put by the childish toys

And left the playhouse of infancy

And am become a man.

Ram  Dass

his life gave many blessings and

it is good when such a life as this is now complete

with thanksgiving for the many gifts

and we are born from womb unto womb unto womb in an everlasting cycle of universal service

— db —

https://tricycle.org/trikedaily/ram-dass-dies/

www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/dec/23/baba-ram-dass-dies-age-88-lsd-new-age-spirituality

from

Ancient Forests of the Far West

The Practice of the Wild by Gary Snyder

How curious it would be to die and then remain standing for another century or two. To enjoy “dead verticality.” If humans could do it we would hear news like, “Henry David Thoreau finally toppled over.” The human community when healthy, is like an ancient forest. The little ones are in the shade and shelter of the big ones, even rooted in their lost old bodies. All ages, and all together growing and dying. What some silviculturists call for—“even-age management,” plantations of trees the same size growing up together seems like rationalistic utopian totalitarianism. We wouldn't think of letting our children live in regimented institutions with no parental visits and all their thinking shaped by a corps of professionals who just follow official manuals (written by people who never raised kids). Why should we do it to our forests? “All-age-unmanaged”—that's a natural community, human or other. The industry prizes the younger and middle-aged trees that keep their symmetry, keep there branches even of length and angle.

But let there also be really old trees who can give up all sense of propriety and begin throwing their limbs out in extravagant gestures, dancelike poses, displaying their insouciance in the face of mortality, holding themselves available to whatever the world and the weather might propose. I look up to them: they are like the Chinese Immortals, they are Han-shan and Shi-de sorts of characters—to have lived that long is to have permission to be eccentric, to be the poets and painters among trees, laughing, ragged, and fearless. They make me almost look forward to old age.

https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-features/ram-dass-guru-be-here-now-881801/

Winter Solstice 2019

Anne Blaney

published this piece today on her site

anneblaney.blogspot.com

Friend to Friend

it is perfect and delightful to republish it here

to acknowledge and honour and celebrate this day

and every day under the sun

which seems to be about seven times hotter

than it was last year at this time

db

The  Sun  Stands  Still  Inside  Us  Now

Solstice is a direct reminder of our planetary reality

No control over this fading light, no hand in its return

Of this we can be sure ...
Because we can know

that we inhabit a place in space,

we also know
that we are small

and that we are very large

May the Light shine through you and me
Into this world

Into our home among the stars

A

solstice cycle

the sun stands still inside me now

wonder finds rest inside me now

all creation stands transfigured

by the radiance of an inner light
the light within the light
without
the luminous landscape opening

the mountains and the hills break forth before me into singing

and all the trees of the field now clap their hands

now drawing closer
veil thinning
through the darkness walking
reaching light
at the heart of the world
enchantment
by moonlight and by starlight
prayer and incense
by candlelight now turning
graceful turning
turn toward the sun
toward one another turning

drawing close in whispered knowings
listen

the eternal heartbeat

look

the sun stands still

inside me now

wonder finds rest

we journey long and long together

knowing the space within

the space

without

planetary beings in spiral dance

within

the living body of the sacred sun

david barnes