Live Like This

Photo by camilo jimenez on Unsplash

A couple of years ago (or longer?) I spent a weekend near Boulder at a retreat where we explored the myths and teachings around the goddess Kali. That weekend yielded dreams, visions, and ideas that I continue to unpack. Here is one that wants attention this week.

Eight hours into the retreat,

in a half awake afternoon dream

I saw her.

A black-shrouded nun emerging

from dancing gray mists and nothingness.

As she approached the mists cleared,

showing the high mountain fields behind her.

She stood framed in blue sky and held both hands out to me.

In her hands —

red and throbbing —

her heart.

The only way she had to greet me —

to offer me her heart

open to the whims of any hands that felt the need for bruising.

I stroked it with my fingers

laid my hand over it,

let its pulsing rise to kiss my palm.

"Here," she said as I caressed her beating heart,

"Live like this."