****

(tree being photo, compliments of Danny)

Love is not condescension, never that,

nor books, nor any making on paper,

nor what people say of each other.

Love is a tree with branches

reaching into eternity and it's roots

set deep in eternity,

and no trunk!

Have you seen it?

The mind cannot. Your desiring cannot.

The longing you feel for this love comes from inside you.

When you become the Friend, your

longing will be as a man in the ocean

who holds to a piece of wood.

Eventually, wood, man and ocean become

one swaying being, Shams Tabriz, the secret of God.

~Rumi