boundaries

Boundaries

Watching a small flying, stinging creature
trapped inside the window screen
walking the boundaries of his prison,
walking the boundaries of his prison.

I too can fly, I too can sting,
I too am walking the boundaries of my prison.
I can walk and walk
I can fly, I can go anywhere on this earth
and never be free,
always be in this prison
prison of this planet
this life
this existence
of this body
of this mind,
this ego.
There are so many kinds of prisons--
prisons of habit, of memory,
of training,
prisons of proud ancestral traits
handed down from one generation to the next
with the family jewels--
we are this
we are not that
(and ever more shall be so).

Sometimes someone shows us the way out
offers a key
opens the very door in front of us,
and still we cannot walk out
cannot be free.
The mind is
a prison we cannot see
cannot know the boundaries of
because we are in it
and blind to its limitations.
We are, each of us,
standing, not near, not on the edge,
but in the very center of paradise,
a heaven of unlimited
freedom and grace
all within us
and yet
all we can see are the prison walls
the dark dungeon
of a sad and frightened little self
trying to accommodate a limitless magical soul--
an impossible task
only slightly more daunting
than breaking out of the prison.
How? How did we get to be this way?
Why?
No matter what we believe
about the nature of God,
of the Divine, of reality,
if we stop for even a moment and ponder the simple miracle
of our own bodies
mysteriously conceived, born, grown, living--
a complete whole
requiring very little from us
to stay alive,
how can we then not see,
not believe
that we are part of a miracle,
and through that window of belief
see this paradise that surrounds and fills us?
How indeed? How indeed....

How did ones so huge learn to be so small--
ones so free, learn to feel so trapped--
ones made of love, learn hate--
ones formed of wisdom, learn ignorance?
And more important, how can we learn,
nay remember, where we really came from
and become loving once more?

One step at a time,
walking the boundaries of our prisons
walking a little farther each time--
shifting the walls,
expanding the mind,
stretching the ego,
walking,
walking the boundaries of my prison.