Cairns in the Wilderness of Your Heart

Have you noticed
         how the world is woven
of delicate webs of friendship
         care and empathy and love
vulnerability and risk
and trust     and being self-true too
all while holding an other within
     —within your own body as one?
Talk about tough and tender
     wrapped up in one fleshy package!
What’s a fellow to do
       a gal to feel
if not—
       when you hurt
I hurt too?
And when you feel joy
       I celebrate with you.
Have you noticed too
     how vulnerable these eternal threads become
upon entering the human realm and how
     only placement of attention sustains them?
Now tell me true
    of your own attention
how is that friend you carry inside?
You know
    the one looking back at you
        when you glance in the mirror?
The one that talks mean to you
    like no one else can?
And how is that longing inside you
    for the dreaming into fulfillment
        of a more beautiful world
where the Tree of Life stands rooted
      rising strong and naked and exposed
for all to own—
      beginning with you?
And what would it take my dear friend
    to bring care and love
                          even friendship
    to each of these others, too?
Can your self-meanness and fear-of-the-other…
    what if…
they are each cairns in the wilderness of your heart
    marking your trail home?

Reflections:
A ski accident occurred. You friend needs help so what do you do? In this  case I was graced with the freedom to grab a rental car and drive 4 hours to Durango so to drive her and son and car back home. This blessing of being able to actually do something tangible, useful and meaningful for a friend, well…it is a gift.
And this recent gift got me to thinking about friendship and how we care for  it. And these reflections eventually took me to the intimacy of my inner friend and questions about the care and attention I bring to him. And to her. These dual aspects of another inner oneness.
The anima and animus, in Jungian language. The masculine and feminine aspects within each of us that seek a holy marriage of intimate and sacred friendship. Yet an inner war, between our own ‘others,’ can leave us feeling in conflict with the very one most in need of compassion and care, our own self.
There are so many ways of coming home to this self. Friendships, the inner and outer kind, are but two of the many cairns along this journey through the wilderness of the heart. May you find kindness to yourself and to some other on this very today of your life’s journey.