HONESTY
The first word that comes to mind is truth,
but truth is elusive.
Honesty is more trustworthy than truth,
because truth is silent while honesty is specific.
To be specific is to be present with myself.
Truth is a silent response to my honesty.
Being true is different than knowing the truth.
No one knows the truth because truth exists beyond thought.
To be true is to include every thought.
(especially the petty ones)
and feel the truth touching me through them.
I think the truth is always reaching for me,
but my reaching obscures it.
To be in contact with truth is to be beautiful.
I can’t separate truth from beauty, from nature, from self.
(not the idolatry individual self, that modernity worships as a commodity)
Being honest with myself,
is to tend to an open channel, of natural truth and beauty.
FAMILY
My life follows family.
Finding my family frees my empathy.
How can a living heart exist in this world
without hurting for everyone?
Family is a protective container,
a place to put my care.
To be witnessed,
chosen by birth or faith,
or biology or love.
Maybe family means belonging?
First, I belong to myself, and my family sees that.
CREATIVITY
To create is necessary.
To be human is creation,
and in this way, creativity is a spiritual act.
The physical, making contact with its formless source.
Creation is inevitable, always already happening.
Water, like the translucent skin of a boulder,
or a ripple of sunlight,
bouncing across the train car,
or the urgent presence of leaves
breathing my exhale.
To realize myself as creation,
is to fall in love with my life force once again.
Sage Stoneman is an artist who cares deeply about humanity and our planet earth. sagestoneman.com
