Could you be as gentle, and as firm, with yourself as you would a newborn baby?

Could you hold the same certainty of your own innocence, without expectation or demands that you would a small child or a puppy?

Could you behold every day the experiences of the place you are in your path, at every age, with the same wonder and awe as you would the baby’s tiny toes or first utterances?

Could you care for your Self and your right to be curious, creative, and make mistakes with the same ferocity you would a young child?

Could you give yourself the same structure and support and endless chances to make mistakes that you would the grade schooler?

Could you rely on the knowledge that life will offer care and repair for the hurts and tragedies the way you rely on the sunrise?

Can you rest even for a moment in the certainty of your belonging in the world, of your connection and to all others and all things, because…YOU ARE HERE?

Can you contemplate the mystery of both your All-ness and your No-thing-ness at once?

Can you look at the sky or the ocean or the giant redwood and feel the security of your smallness connected to the great-bigness of it All?

Can you take comfort in the knowledge that NO THING will ever last, whether pain or  joy, with the same equanimity in the depths of the ocean during a storm, knowing from your own depths that what you truly are is the only lasting thing?

Can you feel the way life supports you, breathes you, beats your heart, puts solid earth underfoot…without need of your interest or effort or gratitude or guidance?

Can you feel your fragility, your tenderness, your neediness, your dependence, without judgment or pity, just like you would the newborn baby?