Red Sky

  
Sun Rise Tottenville Beach - photo by Jim Quinn

“Life is glorious, but life is also wretched. It is both. Appreciating the gloriousness inspires us, encourages us, cheers us up, gives us a bigger perspective, energizes us. We feel connected. But if that's all that's happening, we get arrogant and start to look down on others, and there is a sense of making ourselves a big deal and being really serious about it, wanting it to be like that forever. The gloriousness becomes tinged by craving and addiction. On the other hand, wretchedness--life's painful aspect--softens us up considerably. Knowing pain is a very important ingredient of being there for another person. When you are feeling a lot of grief, you can look right into somebody's eyes because you feel you haven't got anything to lose--you're just there. The wretchedness humbles us and softens us, but if we were only wretched, we would all just go down the tubes. We'd be so depressed, discouraged, and hopeless that we wouldn't have enough energy to eat an apple. Gloriousness and wretchedness need each other. One inspires us, the other softens us. They go together.”  Pema Chödrön, Start Where You Are: A Guide to Compassionate Living

Today, the sky is blood red.
It takes me down again. 
The known, the unknown
It takes me down again.
See how it glistens, clings to the horizon
aims steadily, forward, onward
But not for me
for me it flickers fast and then its gone
It stings, it smothers
It wallows, it bites
It takes me down again.