Our Restless Minds

With deep gratitude to Pema Chodron,
for her earthy, cogent, and compassionate teachings

Most of our thoughts
are just the burps and farts
of a restless mind,
stewing in it’s own turmoil.

They are like noxious gases
which foul our inner world,
for as long as we hold on to them.

They will fester and ripen,
like a fart in a space suit,
unless we let them go,
to dissipate in the open air.

And so it is,
that these suits we weave around us
(to protect our inner space
from imagined dangers)
do little more than stifle us,
as we slowly suffocate
in our own emotional waste.

But to smell this stench
can be all impetus we need
to jump outside
of what we thought we were
(this costume, this little mind,
this imaginary person),
into the magnificent freedom
of what we truly are,
and the sweet smell
of reality.