One Love

One Love

Imposed angst had a hold
on your good and caring heart.
Little by little you’ve
found the time and space
to loosen, reclaim, transmute.
You were used to walking hand in hand.
His grip and yours were
gracefully entwined
and you felt safe, held, happy.
You’ve been reaching,
gingerly trying to take hold,
at the same time
striving to let go
with gentleness and compassion.
You know now that I’m here,
just as you need me to be.
Feel free to take my hand
when you long for support.
My light is yours,
your light mine.

Call me whatever you want.
Let go of descriptors
and just feel the love.
It’s there, even when it’s
a challenge to discern.
My love, his love, her love,
their love, and yours.
It’s all the same.
 Embrace the essence.
    Hold it,
                 believe it,
                           cherish it,
                                           walk with it.
It’s real and true.
One Love.

Sarah Carlson

December 17, 2019

Note to Self

Note to Self

Whenever you feel
 that frosty tightness,
just breathe –
 through it, with it,
around it, within it.
Warm your wonderful waters
 simply by beholding
the beauty of now,
allowing archaic agonies
to soften and drizzle away.
Recognize that
your foundation is strong,
your flow genuine.
Though some shadows remain,
trust that you will attend to them
if need be.
Celebrate the gentle peace
that cascades 

through and all around you.
Relax into your
uniquely radiant truth.
Live –
be fully alive,
 enjoy the joyous rhythms
of omnipresent love.

Sarah Carlson

December 9, 2019

How Big is Your Love?

How Big is Your Love?

So much hate all around us.

We experience it

off and on in our own ways,

our own time.
What is hate?

 Its synonyms are a yucky bunch:

loathing, detestation, abhorrence,

aversion, animosity, revulsion,

disgust, contempt, abomination.

Such power they have

 if allowed, witnessed, received.

Yet, even more powerful is the antonym.

That being, love.

Though hate and all its mates 

do exist,

love can be, should be 

stronger.

How big is my love?

Big enough to counteract the hate

that I now understand 

was never about me

or because of me.

I know I live from

a place of love,
always have.

I interact, teach, speak, write

from my heart. 

The more I recognize that truth,

the more I understand

 how monumental love actually is.
As expansive as the sky overhead,

fair weather clouds 

gently flowing by.

As immense as a sandy beach 

at low tide,

bits of mica sparkling together as one

in the light of a late fall sun.

As vast as the rolling ocean

stretching to places unseen,

reflecting that light from above,

its rhythms a comfort to behold.

As magnanimous as a 

generous soul who,

by nature, 

loves with a whole heart. 

It surely is worth contemplating:

How big is your love?

Can you use it to help counteract 

hate and all its mates?

Sarah Carlson

December 1, 2019