*From & To Sathish* - Thread 4 - Page 131

I think, therefore I am

Some stow them away, packed into boxes. Some sweep them away under carpets. Some, burn them until new and hardened tissue seals shut old wounds and memories of them. Hidden, fading but they never die out.

They wait patiently in the attic of our souls and wait for their reckoning and for their day. The day could be today, tomorrow or the day might never come and life and our time might just pass us by, whizzing us past our date, our appointment with memories which are mostly bad, humiliating, painful and tragic.

They are stowaways of our lives and times and they travel without our permission and always out of reach but still manage to creep out on a daily basis and yell out their opinions.

But as you get older, we learn to bring down from the loft of our memories, those coffins of ancient regrets and losses and slowly learn to face it boldly and deal with it with more tolerance and approach it with more wisdom and understanding.

Like bloodthirsty vampires, they slumber in the coffins of our minds, those petty quarrels, betrayal, losses, regrets and wait for their release as darkness and rage takes over our reasoning and wisdom and casts us into shadows.

All the above are Metaphors and all of them have one source, EGO.

I think, therefore I am is okay and acceptable. But, I feel, I need therefore you shall provide to my will and pleasure is not okay.

Every scene that I act in reveals something new to me about others and more importantly about myself and all my shortcomings.

Ego fuels manipulation. It fuels the urge to dominate and bend others will to our will and suit and match our needs and desires.

This rather scary, creepy emotion is sadly applied to almost always to those who depend on us financially or emotionally and the important words here are, Taking things and love for granted.

Love and friendship are granted as gifts to you and even the most enduring ones have a breaking point and once past that... there is no return.

Nice, I should be the one to talk about this taking for granted business.

No, no, I am not saying I am a bad person filled with Ego and yet I look back and realize that EGO has figured largely in many of my Blooper pooper moments when instead of speaking, I pooped my thoughts and burnt away many bridges.

It is too late now in the day to repair some of them but it is never too late to hold on and cherish those who are still around and those who have endured and held on to you, hoping the day will come when you will look, really look into them, their souls and say, I am sorry for all that crap that I have dished out to you.

I see, therefore I am.

I feel, therefore I am.

I feel remorse, therefore I am.

I love, therefore I am.

Who am I?

You, me, he, she and all of us.

I wish you all a beautiful day.

I, Satish, wish, hope and pray that you have a great life.

Enna ezhuthaporamunnu ninachu, konjam kashta patten.

Paravaillai, Andha kashtamum, nashtamum vechu edho kirukitten.

Polambals along with some Kuzhapals

It is now a familiar sight that has become possible by the might of 21st-century technology in the field of communication. It is the sight of a human clutching a mobile phone and bent over it, hunched over it alone or in a bunch. On roads, in shops and malls, at the Airport, Railway station, Bus stops and even on roads while people are walking or scarily while they are driving their cars and bikes. you see the familiar sight of people talking or typing on their touchscreen phones.

A tiktok video clip made in Europe goes viral and instantly appears on Instagram, Facebook, youtube and Twitter accounts. The whole world is connected by a global network.

Airtel, Vodafone, Bsnl, Idea, Jio, Reliance and so much and so many more. Unlimited calls and unlimited data for prices starting from 25rs and above. There is a connection waiting for all and sundry and ready to please.

Music, movies, Big Boss, Tv serials, interviews, Documentaries, speeches, Spiritual discourses are available on a whim and fancy and just a click away and an app away.

So connected and yet so disconnected.

There is one connection, a private, toll-free number which offers unlimited call time and unlimited data downloads and all for Free.

WTF satish, free. All of the above for free.

Yes and that connection is called SoulTell and the service provider is called God and the connection is called Prayer and this connection promises one thing and that is total privacy and a connection which transcends all borders and all religions.

No charges or network problems and the only time a problem arises is when the caller dials the wrong number or worse forgets to call home.

O..a poda. Don't try to be smart and intelligent.

I am not, honestly.

All you have to do is be still and be in peace and it matters not if your alone or in a crowd for it takes just the thought of God and an offer of prayer and an offer of thanks and a whisper of gratitude.

Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough, and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos to order, confusion to clarity. It can turn a meal into a feast, a house into a home, a stranger into a friend. Melody Beattie.

Unlike other humans and unlike other cell phone towers, God has placed a tower in each one of us and all you have to do is connect.

Close your eyes and please don't fall asleep.

Close your eyes in peace. Not R.I.P for that will come and there is time for that.

But, in living and while breathing. Shut out all the human signals and listen to your own self and connect to your own network tower.

All this talk of bonding, love, friendship, family are but products of evolution for I feel that we, us, Man has been made, created, designed for a higher purpose and that is to evolve not our bodies but our consciousness.

Adhu sari, mutaal satish, conscience illatha worldla ennada higher consciousness vendi irukku.

I, you and most of us cannot be like Buddha and walk away from our bonds and turn our backs on them altogether. That takes a great deal of courage and calls for greater things from our soul by God and it is a task which we are not ready for and I doubt we will ever be.

But, even in this ordinary human life, we can walk the path, balance our lives with both the networks of man and God and try to exist in peace and in prayer.

Lonely. lost. Instead of worrying about it be happy about it and realize that it is only the fear that arises from our need and dependence on others that makes us feel lost and lonely.

Nee ennatha sonaallum, unnoda manasa kottinaalum, adhu waste. yenna, adhula paathi thaan mattavanga kadhukum, kannukum poyi serum.

I know what you are thinking right now. Yenda, nee yenda daily enga kitta vanthu polambara, uyira edukkare.

Why, because, nee en nanbanda.

Just another ordinary magical day

There is nothing to beat the soft, sinking and plush comfort of beach sand. They give way to your feet and even after you are long gone, they remember you with the footprints that you have left behind on them.

There is nothing to beat the soothing and comforting feeling of the sea as it sprays all over you and many a time I have stood with my arms open wide to take in the sea and its moods and its colours.

For there are days when it is moody and grumpy and thunders and roars ' Not today boy, I am not in the mood for our childish fears and amateur poems' and I warily step back thinking, ' okay today the sea is a father who has come back from work and has to return back to work. So, lets me give him space and let him be.'

But almost on all days of my trysts with the sea, she has been a loving, kind and a gentle mother and is all blue and variations of blue that lift my spirits up even though they are a deep and moody blue and why that is I have no clue. Do you?

I have seen and heard about the Serengeti plains in Tanzania that turn green in days and sometimes in hours after the first rains come down bringing with them life. What was brown and dry transforms magically into a vast ocean of green life that feeds other lives that feed on those lives. A cycle. A transformation and an eternal one. Don't you agree?

Even the small sandy lands that face the Bay of Bengal transform themselves and wear green and yellows to celebrate the seeds and weeds that have been raised from the dead like Lazarus himself when touched by the son of God.

That was the son of God, but the rains themselves are angels and messengers of God and they make up each raindrop as they fall from the heavens above.

Many a time, I have stood and looked up at the pregnant skies and have stood getting drenched as life in form of rain is delivered.

Each day is a new and different experience for it is filled not only with new colours of a new sun but also with new strangers.

Each day shuffles past me strangers who walk with the seasons in their bodies and feet.

Some walk past me burning like the summer sun daring others to stare at them.

Some pass me like the pleasant spring beaming and nodding and springing alive a smile of my own.

Some walk, no shuffle past bent and cowed and they pass, I pass them feeling the winter in their souls. Dark and gloomy and which prompts me to whisper a prayer to the four winds, ' watch over them father and brighten their day, please.'

Some days, I see no two-legged things but only four-legged paws and hooves and claws.

But there are days when I see strange and unsettling sights.

The darkness of the night was receding, showing its cowardly to the morning light of the sun and then the sun burst its banks of clouds and I stood wondering if this is how it must have been then, in the beginning.

And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. And God saw that the light was good, and She separated the light from the darkness. God called the light “day,” and the darkness she called “night.”

In the distance, my eyes caught sight of a tiny form, a baby sitting all alone and my heart stopped beating, skipped beats and taking deep breaths, I ran both as a father and a mother and as X and Y.

Thank God, I thought to myself for it was no abandoned baby that sat immobile among the green but a yellow teddy, sightless for it had been blinded and its eyes plucked out.

I have seen all the parts of Toy story and so, I sat down and looked at the yellow teddy and wondered what kind of life it had enjoyed or endured before finding its way here to the sea and me.

I knew from the drops of water that the yellow fellow had been there from yesterday for Dew had taken hold of his body and filled the craters where once glass eyes had been and seen.

Teddy, sea or I or the other one that exists as my polar opposite in my bi-polar brain whispered,

Not all the tears that fall down from the eyes

are salty and filled with sadness and longing

For tears sometimes do taste sweet and beautiful

for they well and flow up from the spring of our soul

and fall in happiness, joy and peace

Tears from fears

tears from sorrow

tears of love

tears from gratitude

tears for being, existing

and tears for another's tears

Good morning. I wish you a beautiful day. Lots of love and best wishes.

About the Teddy, it requested me to lay it among leaves and hidden among the green and so I did and it sank to the roots and sank into the ground and even though there was no 21 gun salute to send it on its way, my heart rapped out a 42 beat salute and my lips said R.I.P teddy.

It is a magical world out there. Magic fills all of us and that magic is called life.

Deja vu. Yes, many a time I shiver in excitement and ecstasy when I realize I am alive, well and kicking and have been blessed with all that and more than anything that I have been touched by Magic and that magic is love and life and that fills my existence.

Ma,Amma and much more than that.

' Good morning ma' I wished fellow actor Rajalakshmi and no sooner I had done that, the lady who plays my wife and the lead character of Baakiyalakshmi looked at me and said, ' Satish sir, madam is only a few years older than you.So, why not call her Akka instead of amma.'

The other actors all looked at me with curiosity and waited for my reply and I replied immediately and without any hesitation.

' I call Rajalakshmi madam using " ma" which might lead you to think I am addressing her as if a son is addressing his mother, but you are mistaken.'

The lightmen were moving around us, lighting the area around us and all eyes were on me. My own light moved, flickered and flared and roared and sped out of my mind with the speed of light and then sped out slowly as sound waves.

' Even a old beggar when seeing a young girl child will say use the same respectful words to address her when begging and asking for food and that is Amma, thaayi, picha poduma. He will not use Appa or father if he happens to meet a male at the door step and will instead say, ' Iyaa, saami.'

I looked at them and said, ' so when I say good morning ma, it means I recognise her as not only an actor, a friend, a female but the female and that is Mother Goddess and that is Shakti.'

Needless to say, it had the desired effect for all of them folded their hands and warned each other loudly, ' Aiyo, ivarkitte pesave kudathu. sethom.'

Who or what came first, Adam or Eve?

Which came first, the chicken of the egg?

Simple, Eve came first with Adam in her womb and so did the hen with eggs inside her and with chickens inside her.

Mother earth, mother nature and all that which stands for patience, tolerance, sacrifice is somehow related to her, Mother Goddess.

She bears, bares and then bears us

she carries life in her womb

even if her life is a tomb

and she carries life in her soul

even if her life is a black hole and hell

in her are both x and y

and she is both father and mother

one can be without him

but never without her

for she can what he cannot

and that is love from

and with every beat of her heart

and with every dance of her atoms

that fill her make her body

Today is Durga Ashtami. I hope, pray and wish that all of you are always blessed and protected by her and by that which we call God up in heaven and a woman down here on earth and who walks around in the guise of mother, wife, sister, friend and in the name of love.

Being Adult

Adult-From French adulte, Latin adultus (“grown up”), past participle of adolescere "grow up, come to maturity, ripen.

From womb to infant to toddler to a child to a teenager and into an adult and after that a mature adult.

I was in position for my close up shots and tight shots too. I was in a seated position and the wide, master shots had been done with and now one by one the director was finishing up the scenes close up shots.

The makeup assistant touched my face with powder and removed the oil from my face( vezhakennai vadiyuthu) and the

cameraman looked into the eye-piece and looked at me and then looked around and as I looked at him looking and wondering.

' Sir, the white is showing in your right sideburn. Please touch it up.'

I shrugged, ' I know, boss, and left it there deliberately.'

Muthu swamy shook his head, ' touch pannunga sir.'

' vendaam.Irukattum. I am playing a dad to three grownup kids and one of them is working and is about to get married. So, it is okay and it will add to my character and make me look more mature.'

The cameraman stared at me and with a smile, ' sir, neenga intha serial hero. Azhaga kattanum sir. logic ellam vendaam.'

I glanced at the makeup man who hurriedly applied mascara, yes mascara to my sideburns and white became black.

The cameraman who is in his thirties and much junior to my early fifties sensed my reluctance and frustration and said loudly, ' sir, you are making it up with your acting. The channel wants frame beauty in every shot and so we don't dwell to much on logic.'

Many hours later, I sat by the window, seeing, hearing and feeling the monsoon rains download all the water that had been uploaded from lakes, seas, rivers and oceans as vapour and from all over the world.

Water to vapour. vapour to cloud and from clouds back to water and as rain and it goes on and on.

The windowpane slowly began to fog up and I drew on it without even realizing what I was drawing and saw that it was the universal symbol, language and sign of love in the shape of a heart.

I stood gazing at the heart symbol and my thoughts recollected the cameraman's words about white and black.

I can feel it in my bones. I can see it in the gaps. I can sense it in my soul that black has indeed become white and that I am now an adult and a mature one at that.

But that brown-haired and toffee tanned brown-eyed boy is still running around in the halls of my soul and makes sudden appearances by jumping out of corners and scaring the daylights out of the now old adult me.

I do run even now and do that very often in the mornings and in the evenings if time and if energy permitting but the feet now run to a different tune and they leave deeper footprints in the sands of life and sea.

Where once I flew, skimming the ground, I now leave craters in the sands and deep ones at that.

It is not that I am heavier now with more muscle and fat on my body but I also am heavier now due to the muscle and fat in my soul.

WTF! O..a.! Loosu start pannitaanda.

HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHAA!

Aaama, loosuthaan. Ennatha seiya, panna.

Normal is not the new normal but being konjam loosu, konjam unhinged is the new normal and the order of the day.

Otherwise, I, you, we cannot just make it through even one day of our life in this mad, mad world.

In the gathering darkness of the twilight of the day, I sat by the window watching, seeing, hearing and feeling the rain slowly die down and come down from the crescendo to which it had risen and now the frantic and had slowed down to a pitter-patter of rain babies.

In the gathering darkness of my life, I sat with eyes wide open and the projector began to whirr and run and flash images of what was, what is and what can be.

" Sir, shot ready. Face touch pannikunga sir.'

I looked at the Assistant director and said okay and smiled to myself and resumed waiting.

I wish you all a beautiful day.

Lots of love and best wishes.

By mistake his Phone rang in Church during prayers...

The Priest scolded him ...

After prayers, the congregation admonished him for interrupting the silence.

His wife lectured him on his carelessness until they got home.

One could see the shame, embarrassment n humiliation on his face !!

*He has never stepped into the Church ever again.*

That evening, he went to a bar ...

He was still nervous n unsure.

By mistake he spilled his drink on the table.

The waiter apologized, gave him a napkin to clean himself up.

The janitor mopped the floor.

The female manager offered him a complimentary drink.

The bar girl gave him a hug n said,

"Don't worry man. Who doesn't make mistakes ?"

*_He has never stopped going to that bar since then_*

*Management Lesson"*

*_"You can make a difference by the way you treat people,_*

especially when they make mistakes.

😃😃😃😃😃

Books, more books and now boxes and boxes of books

“You think your pain and your heartbreak are unprecedented in the history of the world, but then you read. It was books that taught me that the things that tormented me most were the very things that connected me with all the people who were alive, who had ever been alive.” – James Baldwin

Not even two years and my landlord who had assured me that I could stay in his flat for five years called me and asked me very kindly, softly if I could move on in a couple of months time. I held the phone closer wanting to make sure that the words that I heard were actually heard right and all I could muster in reply were not words of defiance or irritation but not surprisingly those that could be answered in such a manner that could make sense for the abrupt decision " Why? what happened? Is everything okay?"

Well, the young landlord( he is only the son of the real landlord )replied: " well, personal problems and in a nutshell said maamiyaar and marumagal issues."

Resigned, depressed and feeling a match being struck to a fuse that would, could or just might never explode, my first concern was for all the boxes, dozens of boxes that would have to be brought down from the lofts and trucked and placed once again in a new loft, in a new house.

I slowly walked, paced and paced and understood a long known fact and which was that most of the boxes were filled with books. Most of the books are from the time when I threw money away and actually purchased them brand new and instead of going to the library.

I carried a cane chair and using it reached into the loft and brought down one of the bulky boxes and ripped open the tape and removed the newspaper that I had covered them with to protect them from dust(fat chance), I stood gazing at the books in various colours, and sizes.

I looked at them and whispered " you are not just books. You are not just paper and print that have been bound together, but my friends, my fellow travellers in this journey of my life."

I reached and the first book that reached for my touch was Wilbur smith's " Eagle in the sky" and my lips bloomed a smile and i looked out of the window as the characters David and Debra came alive and recounted the story of a super-rich American with killer looks and how he falls in love with an Israeli woman.

I read the book sometime in the early 80s when I was 14 or 15 and well I too wanted to fall in love and feel real love like they did.

I gently placed David and Debra back again into the box and whispered to them " no, I am not letting go of you'. At least not the ones who really mean something to me for you were there during my first kiss, my first love and also all those times when I cried for I felt lost and lonely and had no clue as to why life was so bad and so goddamned hard.

Some of the books have stains, stained with my tears and fear and should be called personal diaries, reliquaries.

Stephen king who taught me to fear the dark. Tom clancy who taught me all about spies, nuclear missiles and submarines. Wilbur Smith who taught me all about Africa, the dark continent and that too much before National geographic and Discovery channel came to us. Ayn rand's fountainhead and Howard Roark.John Connolly who gave me the will to write. Brad Thor, Vince Flynn, Tolkien, Arthur Conan Doyle, Lee Child, Dennis Lehane, Stephen Donaldson, and so many more and my oldies, Sydney Sheldon, Arthur Hailey, Irving Wallace, James Herriot etc.

The shifting began and I, the ghosts and spirits of my books finally shifted to a new place.

So, here I am, once again in a new house and once again all my friends are safely ensconced in their boxes, in the lofts and they slumber like vampires in their coffins and wait for the time when they can wake up once again, to shine their light into my life.

Someday, hopefully, I will find a comfortable chair, a chair I can really lean back, put my feet up and start a new voyage of discovery with my favourite books once more. Just me with the window streaming light onto the pages and when I am ready, ready for one more round, one more adventure of the dreams and magic that their creators spun and weaved for all mankind through them

But until then, my books, sleep soundly in the safety of my loft and sleep well for I will sing, mumble passages from your stories as I pass in and out of the room and I hope my lullaby will do, for now.

“That’s the thing about books. They let you travel without moving your feet.” – Jhumpa Lahiri in The Namesake

Here are some one-liners, two-liners, puns, jokes........

1. My best mates and I played a game of hide and seek. It went on for hours...

Well, good friends are hard to find.

2. You’re not completely useless, you can always serve as a bad example.

3. I broke my finger last week.

On the other hand, I’m okay.

4. Someone stole my Microsoft Office and they’re gonna pay.

You have my Word.

5. eBay is so useless.

I tried to look up lighters and all they had was 13,749 matches.

6. I can't believe I got fired from the calendar factory.

All I did was take a day off.

7. My boss is going to fire the employee with the worst posture.

I have a hunch, it might be me.

8. Don't spell part backwards.

It's a trap.

9. My dad died when we couldn't remember his blood type.

As he died, he kept saying, children "be positive," but life is hard without him.

10. And the Lord said unto John, “Come forth and you will receive eternal life.”

But John came fifth, and he got hell.

11. What is the best thing about living in Switzerland?

Well, the flag is a big plus.

12. Did you hear about the guy who got hit in the head with a can of soda?

He was lucky it was a soft drink.

13. How did I escape Iraq?

Iran.

14. To the mathematicians who thought of the idea of zero.

Thanks for nothing!

15. Son: "Dad, can you tell me what a solar eclipse is?"

Dad: "No sun."

16. My math teacher called me average.

How mean!

17. Clinic Receptionist: “Doctor, there's a patient on line that says he's become invisible".

Doctor: “Well, tell him I can't see him right now."

Faith and devotion

More than anything or anyone in life, God and my faith in that unknown entity of unknown capacity have kept me going on and has kept me at the negotiation table constantly negotiating with life and its counsel. Life never stays quiet and never ever leaves you alone and so at a certain point in life, you begin to negotiate and then learn the art of compromise, a virtue that in many ways has a better and apt name, Sacrifice.

When you have the will, the energy, one is like a dog with a bone, refusing to let go and so it is that I have found myself frothing and fuming in my mind at life's negotiations and it took me a long time to realize that Ego sat next to me as my own counsel and stared hard at life that sat across the table.

Nowadays, I sit down, check that there is just a single chair for me and no one else and then I double-check under the table for my shadowy and sometimes mysterious passenger called Ego and only after making sure that I am alone, I begin my daily transactions and negotiations with life.

Going against the flow of life can be confusing and tricky sometimes but it is better that way rather than swim against it and drown any moment.

“Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. Fool me three times, shame on both of us."

But, even when lost and even when drowning, that faith in that power that has made all this possible and which also makes it sometimes impossible to keep the faith is what keeps me going on and on and filled with hope that this moment shall pass and that a better day filled with better moments is around the corner.

Life has been a game of musical chairs. Life has been like a revolving door with me desperately trying to get access to the entrance but always found myself at the exit.

Now, I see that life and its revolving door is time itself and that all I have to do is be patient and wait for my time and for my turn and use it to the best when the chance arises.

Life, in the end, is like a constant audition where you are auditioning for a role that keeps slipping away and you are given minor roles to play by God, the casting director.

Keep at it my beauties and keep at it constantly for the minor will ready you for the majors and when it comes you will do that easily and in your sleep.

Negotiation is not a compromise of anything but a necessary sacrifice for the sanity and sanctity of life of our loved ones and also our own.

Good morning. I wish you a beautiful day. Lots of love and best wishes.

“Do your time, before it does you”

Nothing stays constant and the same. Everything is in line for a due process that is not in our courts but in the court of that which we call life and Nature.

Every moment a new moment is born and the very moment that it is born it dies giving way to another moment, another time and in a blink of an eye, a flick of your fingers, past, present and the future has happened, happening and thankfully will happen.

Over the past few years, I have watched, stared at the Neem tree in our compound as it comes alive, grows, sheds and dies and comes alive in a process of rejuvenation. Many a time, have I stood and gazed sadly at the bare neem tree, wrapped in hard brown bark and without its cheerful clothes.

Please don't judge me badly or think I am mad but I am a great believer of magic and have immense faith in miracles and there have been many a time when the Neem tree has proved me right.

Many months ago, I was just stepping out for my morning walk and I stood frozen to the ground for the sight was not only downright scary but also highly illuminating.

My friend, the neem tree stood bare and brown and towered over me with its multiple limbs and stood in silhouette with the street light behind it. It looked more like a dark witch with her mane flying about than a tree, at least that is what I want to think and scare myself as I start a new and magic-filled day.

The tree shielded me from the direct point of light and stood dark and in shadows, while all around it, light curved, raced, streamed away as arrows shot out of a bow.

Stop, think and wonder about the great moments in your life which changed everything.

That moment when you realize a secret lid has been lifted, a cage has been opened and you feel like you are all new and have only now come alive for the very first time.

Neem, one who towers like mighty Bheem

covered and layered in brown bark

can you see and can you talk

what did you say to your leaves

as they fell to the ground

once green, tender and stuck to your limbs

now they have flown away

blown by the wind

in all four directions

Months passed on and there I was once again with the neem tree that I now call Bheem which was swaying in the wind majestically and I thought I heard it say, ' Do you see my colours? Nice no.'

I smiled approvingly and whispered, ' love the colour green on you for it really suits you.'

Fully green and now fully clothed

the tree swayed with the wind

and danced to its tunes

one moment it bent to this side

and the next moment it bent to that side

and it kept waltzing on and on

Totally immersed in cleaning my car, I felt someone tap me on my right shoulder and wondering who it was, said " Yes" and turned around and seeing no one but the lowest branch of Bheem Neem swaying and dancing close to me, came to the logical conclusion that it must have been the one who grazed me.

I caressed the tender twig of a branch and then froze in fear for something slithered down the twig on to my bare arm and jumped on to the windshield glass and disappeared.

A tiny darkish lizard and here was me, requiring adult diapers. Chee.

I went about cleaning the car and behind me, Bheem neem kept mumbling.

Little man, tiny human

covered in skin, tender and thin

are you today a new man or an old man

what did you say to your cells

as they fell off your body

and down to the ground

and to be one with the elements

once alive, shiny and new

now they drift away

all around and in all directions

I shed my bark and you shed your skin

but did you shed your thoughts

old, dead and useless thoughts

that arose from your ego and anger

Shed it now little man

and as fast as you can

before your mind, your soul

becomes hard like my bark

which is outside but

yours which is inside

make haste little lark

don't waste time with little talk

let your voice and thoughts be

like that of a beautiful lark

and not a scary and angry bark