One Thousand Iwaku*

I can refuse this universal invitation,

As if it were some T.V. ad.  All I have

To do is change the channel.  After all,

It would not be the first time, unless

We believe today can be the first day.

So always, to love or not to love

That is the question.

But, is there a choice, really?

Wouldn’t that be like

Cutting off one’s nose

To spite your face?

There are thousands

Of tomorrows, we think.

On each one we can lay

An excuse, that goes

Out to eternity, and

Eternity hears us.

So when we say no

At the dinner table,

I imagine all the excuses

For that now going on

Laid out like a place card

on a thousand meals unserved

Set by our refusal today,

And perhaps, that is

The original sin in us,

If there is one.

Can you imagine a child

Saying I will not suckle milk

To its mother?  Some do.

And some having fed

Hold back contrite.

I tread carefully when

It comes to love.

A thousand days

Can be a long dry spell.

It can be a drought,

A dark night of soul

When we blame God

For deserting us, but

Where was the point

When we said no

At the dinner table?

Reflection:  Once when I was a young teen, I remember an inner voice telling me not to think something. I don’t remember what it was.  I don’t remember the situation. The words were in the ether about to form.  They were in that one millisecond before manifestation, and in that one millisecond I heard, “Don’t think that.”  I did not listen and let the words form, and there was a long path of words grazing on my consciousness afterwards.  Soul crosses over to the material world, but can make its way back up again.  If we look deeply at all religions, they speak the same language.  They play the same music.  They ignite the same song.

*In Japanese, ‘iwaku’ means a reason, but is used to mean excuse.  Someone gives an excuse and the   other person says “Iwaku.”  It means they are making excuses.