05 Apr Mourning Rituals

Each morning

I return from sleep-death

and ever so slowly separate

from being one with everything in a timeless place

to a finite and temporal self.

Before forgetting from whence I came,

I recite the Mourning Prayer:

Oh eternal universe

oh ever-changing universe

oh timeless universe

oh endless universe.

Thank God for creating the universe

and granting us consciousness to realize our oneness with everything.

The people I’ve been and the roles I’ve played in days passed,

my prior lives,

are illusions

Now,

I am who I am

and every-thing

is what it is whatever it is.

Regardless of circumstances,

I am grateful for however my life unfolds today,

hopeful to realize divine consciousness,

happy helping others likewise

and laughing at my efforts to realize that which is always here.

Shanti Shanti Shanti

Now awakened,

I reposition from horizontal pose, where all are of equal height, to vertical.

Footsteps away is the throne

for the ritual burial of what nourished me last life.

Then, shower calls my name

for washing and massaging the temporary envelope that holds me together

and, without mirror, mind concentrates on shaving the face.

Once dried and dressed for appearance on stage,

fresh-squeezed blood orange juice

seaweed salad

hardboiled quail eggs toped with anchovies,

followed by a Robusto-size cigar and black coffee.

My new life begins,

for which I already have much to be grateful.

With that in mind, it’s a wonderful day.