Loneliness' Golden Lining

When you wake up in the morning and 
out of nowhere 
comes the heartache of alienation and loneliness, 

could you use that as a golden opportunity? 

Rather than 
persecuting yourself 
or feeling that something terribly wrong is happening, 

right there in the moment 
of sadness and longing, 

could you relax and touch the 
limitless space of the human heart?

-- Pema Chödrön
(arranged quote, from article on Six Kinds of Loneliness)

The poor folks

"Wonder what the poor folks are doing today?"

He let out a sigh
and settled back on his overturned bucket,
as relaxed and satisfied
as if he were reclining in an easy chair
and putting up his feet.

"Who?" I asked, the first time I heard him say this.

"Those poor folks
who have so much
they don't know what to do with it," he said,

gesturing expansively around the small room.
Here was all he required in life, almost within arm's reach:
food, warmth, tobacco, good company.
What need had he of anything more?

-- T. Louise Freeman-Toole, writing about her friend Dave, an old-timer from Eagle, Alaska