Let’s set it all down, you and me.
The disappointments.
Little and large.
The frustrations.
Let’s open our fists and drop them.
The useless waiting.
The obsession with what we cannot have.
The focus on foolish things.
The pin-wheeling worry which wears us out.
The fretting.
Let’s throw them down.
The comparisons of ourselves with others.
The competition, as if Domination
was the best name we could give to God.
The cynical assumptions.
The unspoken, shelved anger.
Let’s toss them.
The inarticulate suspicions.
The self-doubt.
The pre-emptive self-dumping.
The numbing bouts of self-pity.
Let’s sink them all like stones.
Like stones in the pool of this gift of silence.
Let’s drop them like hot rocks
into the cool silence.
And when they’re gone,
let’s lay back gently, and float,
float on the calm surface of the silence.
Let’s be supported in this still cradle
of the world, new-born, ready for anything.
by Mark Belletini, senior minister, First Unitarian Universalist Church of Columbus, Ohio. From the 2008 meditation manual Sonata for Voice and Silence, published by Skinner House and available from the UUA bookstore (or 800-215-9076) or through the CLF Library (or 617-948-6150).
