Burning the Seeds of Karma

It’s a mishmash of feelings for me, this healing business.

The feeling is the core of it, I understand that.

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What the protector parts in me created to keep a

little boy safe from the thickness of an unrelenting tension,

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the constant threat of implied violence, the ozone smell

of static electricity awaiting a spark, just dying to erupt

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into a firestorm of rage and fear and vented pain from

another’s childhood, another’s imposed trauma

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splashing up on me. I’m peeling those layers back,

one by one, on the page and at the meditation table,

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and with every revelation, more to unravel. But that’s

the healing path in this lifetime, right? Stay where your

*

feet are, be in the moment, contemplate the

reality of impermanence. Breathe in. Breathe out.

*

This is how holy men and an old Roman emperor

teach me

to burn the seeds of karma.