-welcome home-

-welcome home-

How long has it been
since you felt at home?

I keep hearing a variation
of the same theme —
repeated visions of souls
adrift in a sea of confusion
casting looks in every direction
looking for a sign
their sails are pointed right.

“Home,” a two-sided coin —
one side of home
a place of dwelling,
where life is lived. The second
face of the word
referring to the end point
of a journey —
a destination.

Confusion crops to the surface
trying to tag two targets
at once.
Confusion compounded
when the seeker
seeks approval
in his seeking from any
eyes other than his own —
how can one approve the ways
in which another seeks?

Our world, the greater dream,
seeks to convince us
of the reality of these illusions
dancing before us, appearing
as solids, but in truth
nothing but vibration.

Advertisements and affirmations
from all corners
echo that we will never
be enough
unless we buy this
or do that,
always relying on our sight
and its tendency to look
around rather than
within.

The only house you will ever need
is not the one
you have to mortgage
or the one you left
when you were young.
It’s the one in which you lived
since the day you were born.
Your breaths built the house
whose foundations are your bones.
Your vessel
in this ocean of confusion
is also
your compass.

The weather vane within
will whisper
the wind’s direction
and point you proper
to your true north.
The ocean you find inside
will be dark
but it will be warm,
not unlike the womb
from which you came —
imbued with
a strange orange glow.

Quiet the noise created by assault
on your senses —
close your eyes and tell yourself,

“Welcome home.”

-january 1 2018, seattle wa-