For Lindsay

After the evening sharing on “coming alive”
You told me with a tear
You want to be at a monastery
You want to be silent for days

The Sufis say don’t speak unless you can check your words by three simple questions:
Are the words I’m about to speak true?
Are the words I’m about to speak necessary?
Are the words I’m about to speak kind?

If you can’t say “yes” to all three
Then keep the words to yourself
In a similar spirit Gandhi “fasted” from speaking
One out of every seven days

Oh Camarada! Whether we’re in the mountains
Or in the city amidst the din of our egos and America
Let us come alive by our silence and solitude
Let us embody these words of G.K. Chesterton:

“Hope is the power of being cheerful
In circumstances that we know to be desperate.”