It is strange to be here. The mystery never leaves you. John O’Donohue, Irish poet
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their skirts worn long

Sometimes this mystery is the white bright light that invades when I exit an airplane

ramp into a wide unknown land

foreign, vibrant and alive with the simple new and explosive presence

that surround in the keyed-up senses.

Sometimes this mystery is in the small

vital presence of

something else, someone else, close and answering

when you didn’t realize you were asking.

Sometimes this mystery is in the brief moments when what you are,

really are, reaches

out far enough

safely enough

to connect to another

place, or time or person

in a way that feels like what must be

sacred.

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their skirts worn long – Version 2

And sometimes this mystery is the only thing you can hold onto-

and even yet, it can not be held-

when your hands can grip nothing else.

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Everyone has a small center where we hold our unblemished created

self to which we were born.

Where life becomes just right

for just a moment

and for just enough time-

it makes enough sense

to keep on believing.

their skirts worn long – Version 3

in love.

trish