The bud
stands for all things,
even for those things that don’t flower,
for everything flowers, from within, of self-blessing;
though sometimes it is necessary
to reteach a thing its loveliness….

Galway Kinnell

Many years ago, during one of those harrowing times life can throw your way, I read these words from Galway Kinnell’s “Saint Francis and the Sow” in the original (1995) edition of Sharon Salzberg’s Lovingkindness : the revolutionary art of happiness.

Now, over 20 years later, I can still feel the wave of relief and hope that washed through me. More than that, this poem has become a pole star for me during predicaments that make me “jackal inward” (using the language of Nonviolent Communication).

Because of this, I’ve made an image of a bud — a Buddhist lotus bud perhaps — the icon for this site. And I hope these words might help others as they have me.