may the new year bring you peace, companionship and adventure…may all beings be happy!

when I came here, I believed

it was the mountains that called,

and so they do – Dogen told us this

hundreds of years ago.

these mountains walk.

these blue mountains always

walk. How slowly we must see

to see this. the morning sky

speaks softly running west to east,

reaching to embrace the mountains –

fog and rain,

the blue white brilliance of snow.

everything is a sign

to those who would see. Winter

is here. the grasses of summer

are brittle and brown

beneath my feet. Up ahead,

a dozen mountain bluebirds

break cover as one, each

a singular sliver of blue, each

a slice of heaven, rising,

spiraling up into this limitless sky,

reaching

for the embrace of the mountains,

yearning

for the blue-white brilliance

of snow

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