– On Tenderness and Forgiveness thru Counseling for Individuals in Green Hills, Nashville

After a long numbness, I wake and suddenly I’m noticing everything,

all of it piercing me with its beautiful, radical trust:

the carpenter bee tonguing the needles of echinacea

believing in their sweetness, the exuberance of an orange day lily

unfolding itself at the edge of the street, and the way the moss knows the stone,

and the stone accepts its trespass, and the way the dog on his leash

turns to see if I’m holding on, certain I know where to go.

And the way the baby rabbit-whose trembling ears are the most delicate cups-trusts me,

because I pried the same dogs’ jaws off his hips, and then allows me to feed him clover

when his back legs no longer work, forcing me to think about forgiveness

and those I need to forgive, and to hope I am forgiven, and that just maybe I can forgive myself.

This unstoppable, excruciating tenderness everywhere inviting us, always inviting.

And then later, the firefly illuminating the lantern of its body, like us, each time we laugh.