Return To Essence
We are powerless in the presence of newborn babies.
Overcome by their radiating love.
It wells up from their glimmering eyes.
Bubbles from their gurgling mouths.
An unmistakable sheen upon their delicate skin.
Soft as petals, warm as sunlight,
playful as a stream in full flow,
they lie nestled in our hands,
a trembling constellation of life,
smiling at the miracle of their own becoming.
We hold a fragment of the divine,
a spark of life itself
They are love, made visible.
We are left swooning in that thick, delicious current,
drenched to our core.
And yet - we forget.
We, too, were born as love.
Have we forgotten who and what we are?
Love.
Is it still there, beneath the armour?
Buried under layers of pain and trauma.
Held in harsh memories and repressed emotions.
Are we still, at our core, the very thing we feel?
That overwhelming awe,
that effervescent playfulness.
That beaming smile. That giddy laugh.
We sense it stir when we hold a newborn to our chest,
a fleeting glimpse of our original light.
Is it still within you? Within me?
When we gaze into those star-bright eyes,
let them not only remind us,
but call us back
to the fragile hope,
the innocence,
and the untarnished love we thought we had lost.
We turn to face ourselves
with sorrow and shame,
believing we have wandered too far from that light.
We call ourselves broken,
tainted and without redemption,
as if love could be unmade by time.
But these are only stories,
tales we were taught to tell ourselves,
and poison we swallowed from the world,
laced with blame, comparison, and judgement.
Beneath it all, unchanged,
waits the same shining essence
Not broken, but waiting for the patient hands
that gather all our scattered pieces.
Not lost,
only hidden.
Surely my task - my purpose, if I have one -
is to make my way back to that.
To shed the layers I’ve built over this exquisite jewel.
To still the mind and hush the external noise.
To listen for the delicate rustle of my own heart
If I have a travel destination, it is to this place within.
To arrive back at the brimming fountain of love I once was.
To return to my essence.
Love.
So I may fall asleep each night,
in its tender embrace.
And wake each morning,
basking in the glow of my own heart.
And perhaps, as I move through my day,
I might catch a glimpse,
of the me
I'd once forgotten
but now reclaimed.