by Kert Lenseigne

Recorded by author

the only way through the compost of dim sadness
that could in any way bring healing
is to bring it all the way in as if by eating—

the most intimate relationship is to
incorporate.

just as the cells of me grow
from the light that is this bruised strawberry here,
and the pungent onion there,
and that half torn leaf of brown-edged arugula over there 
yet to be picked,
i also only grow in ways i could not know
by welcoming in the darkened sorrow that surrounds me;
when i allow it into my body, into my
heart, to metabolize it with the most powerful 
digestive fluid of all…

love. 

i pray always that my life is consumed
by service to another’s benefit. 
so let me eat of your sacred grief too,
please;
then let’s say grace.

a shared meal is always more comforting 
then when one eats alone.

Kert Lenseigne is a spiritual wanderer and wonderer who lives on the unceded, sacred, Native Snohomish, Indigenous and Ancestral Tribal land of the Coastal Salish Peoples, and in the Tolt river watershed of the great Pacific Northwest in Washington state. “We are in the universe to explore the lovely eternity of our souls and grow real.” (John O’Donohue).