November 03, 2023 – A

There has to be an accounting,
a reckoning,
an awakening,
a realization,
a full knowing 
of who we are
and what we have done.

This is basic 12-Step stuff.

Squaring up to our lapses,
failures,
excesses and deficits--
and letting it be because it is,
learning from it,
and living to redeem it,
making amends where amends can be made
without making things worse,
and carrying the awareness 
of what we are capable of
with us all along the way.

We have to put things right--
as right as they can be put--
with ourselves and others,
and endeavor to keep things there
by keeping our eye on what's what,
within and without,
in each situation as it arises
throughout the time left for living.

This is the ground of compassion and kindness,
granting to others the same kind of
generosity that we extend to ourselves
in "letting be what is,"
and going on together
into whatever comes our way
over time--
over long stretches of time
in our mutual commune with ourselves
and all others all the way.

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