Let us celebrate
The Sacred Journey,
As we discover
Wisdom through forgiveness,
Bravery through perseverance,
Fortitude through discipline,
And generosity through compassion.
Let us celebrate
The Sacred Journey,
As we walk our words with
Integrity, accountability,
Respect, and gratitude.
Let us celebrate
The Sacred Journey,
For we are focused
On our heart’s true path of service.
Our Sacred Journey
Is honored with
Joy and humility
As we live the legacy,
Knowing our choices affect
The next seven generations
And ALL Our Relations.

I want to give myself
utterly
as this maple
that burned and burned
for three days without stinting
and then in two more
dropped off every leaf;
as this lake that,
no matter what comes
to its green-blue depths,
both takes and returns it.
In the still heart,
that refuses nothing,
the world is twice-born--
two earths wheeling,
two heavens,
two egrets reaching
down into subtraction;
even the fish
for an instant doubled,
before it is gone.
I want the fish.
I want the losing it all
when it rains and I want
the returning transparence.
I want the place
by the edge-flowers where
the shallow sand is deceptive,
where whatever
steps in must plunge,
and I want that plunging.
I want the ones
who come in secret to drink
only in early darkness,
and I want the ones
who are swallowed.
I want the way
the water sees without eyes,
hears without ears,
shivers without will or fear
at the gentlest touch.
I want the way it
accepts the cold moonlight
and lets it pass,
the way it lets
all of it pass
without judgment or comment.
There is a lake,
Lalla Ded sand, no larger
than on seed of mustard,
that all things return to.
O heart, if you
will not, cannot, give me the lake
then give me the song.

I will not die an unlived life.

I will not live in fear

of falling or catching fire.

I choose to inhabit my days,

to allow my living to open me,

to make me less afraid,

more accessible;

to loosen my heart

until it becomes a wing,

a torch, a promise.

I choose to risk my significance,

to love so that which came to me as seed

goes to the next as blossom,

and that which came to me as blossom,

goes on as fruit.