Lost And Found

"If you want to know kindness
you have to lose things...”

He came in the dark of night
the great Eagle of Awakening
He sank his talons into my shoulders
and with his sharp curved beak
began to tear away the shields,
the pretensions,
flaying my flesh
deep inside my chest
Writhing with excruciating pain
I begged for relief, for mercy.
He turned his cold inscrutable eyes
toward me,
denying all palliative offerings:
My work must yet go deeper
do not resist.

"If you want to know kindness,
you must lose things."

I lost my pride,
my private places,
part of my heart,
relinquishing all choice,
as I lay naked
yielding
to the hands of the surgeon
scraping away
the detritus of the past
transgressions and excesses.

When I awoke
Kindness came to me
in radiant love.
in the eyes of my children,
the gentle touches of the nurses,
a warm blanket sheltering
my weary limbs.

Kindness surrounded me
in the loving support
of my friends,
as I lay in amazement
to find how much I am loved.