escape

addiction             habit            compulsion            dependence            craving                        infatuation

identifying with thoughts

defining and putting parts of the world

into organized boxes of concepts

imagining we will be more complete

if we could possess more

avoiding the emptiness

everyone’s mind decides good or bad

no one’s mind does not say I want this and not that

but when we pick a rock from the stream

bring it closer

judge it in more detail

we notice flaws, darkness

we see it is just as bright as the last pebble

and believe another shimmering jewel

farther on in the stream

will be more beautiful

will add to our store of loveliness

and so what we yearned for and finally possessed

is instantly relegated to the past

discarded back into the stream

to the category of known and boring

and the mind searches outward again

engaging its radar for that which resembles the past

still safe but seems different

still triggering a kind of pleasure or pain

that has been experienced before

we keep circling the abyss

with eyes turned outward

not noticing our wings

denying our ability to fly

throwing images onto a tiny screen

grasping and analyzing

each flash each dust mote

faster and faster to keep ourselves distracted

when behind us inside us the void is open

yawning and patient

waiting for when we will turn off the screens

put down the stories

stop the work we don’t enjoy

finish wanting to change others

cease groping outside for love

and finally turn inside to see truth

diving off the edge

trusting the wings we have forgotten

gently dissolving and expanding

into that which has no name