Temple Bells

And so you breathe,
Slowly.
Deliberately,
Calling back to the temple within,
blocking out the cursing and screams
of the neighbors and news,
creating your own wall of calm
from air.

In.
Out.
Again.
Simple.
Incredibly powerful.
Too powerful it seems,
to believe.

And yet here you are, breathing.
Slowly.
Deliberately.
Somewhere a bell rings
in this holy space
that is you.

About this poem

I meditate. I learned how when my world was falling apart a decade and a half ago, and I still do it. It’s a vital part of how I reconnect to the sacred and reground myself Despite common pooh-poohing of the idea, the science agrees. It makes a difference. It’s worth the learning.

The picture was taken at the Isabella Stuart Gardner Museum in Boston. A recreation of a temple space.

Tom