NEPHART.COM

Sometimes all we have to do is show love.

But anger occupies the mind

as though it owns the place,

as though it signed a lease

long ago.

Vacating it

demands a special reason.

We fail to show compassion

for things

that only feed our ego,

making us

more fragile.

We mistake it

for revenge,

for determination.

What do we do?

We keep wrestling

with the same person.

Some people

will cross our path again.

We can neither smile

nor shake their hand.

Their past deeds haunt us

so deeply

that we no longer wish

to remember their face.

This is where forgiveness

steps in.

It nudges us

toward reunion.

But the mind is adamant,

stubborn,

like a dark stain

on a white shirt,

visible

from a distance.

It refuses to compromise.

So we become entangled

in these feelings,

never moving beyond them.

We become zombies

inside our own minds,

feeding on ourselves,

paralyzing our emotions.

An unsteady mind,

arriving nowhere,

going nowhere.

The mind performs

its endless experiments,

and we remain

the guinea pigs,

enclosed

within ourselves.

If the Earth

had never cooled

after breaking away

from the Sun,

we would not

be here today.

Perhaps mind

is no different.

Some things

must cool

before they can

give life.