To The Rainbow Racers

When you search for the rainbow

throughout your life;

when you gain it and find

there's no rainbow, after all,

well,

you actually have a far better chance

of finding the rainbow where and when you least expect it.

A logical rainbow racer

who has survived

to adulthood and beyond,

who has tested every boundary,

strode every stair,

only to find

there was nothing special up there

is most likely to finally discover

that the end of the rainbow has been here along,

here

on this soil in this paradise of a planet,

my friend --

it's here.  Paradise is here.

mauiarts

We could live in paradise

if we could recognize that we live in it

already.

We are the most regal

                 of the beasts

                               that inhabit paradise;

                                                all of us -

                              we all share paradise

already.

(photo by Makropoulos)

Oh, dear friends:

we create hell by living in paradise and despoiling it.

We are nothing but the noblest animal:

 the beast                            

who was given the job to tend the other bests.

                        Nothing more; nothing less.

By taking that assignment of caretaker

too seriously, we made the mistake of thinking

we were gods as well.

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Oh, so wrong, 

you hairless beast

You are only a beast,

and the only similarity

you really have with God

                 is that, if he were 

            to appear to you at this 

moment, God would be hairless, too.

(You see, because in order for God to appear

at this moment, she would

have to find a way that would somewhat reflect

the material world that we live in.

Because God, after all, is not material;

so s/he would appear as a mirror,

because that's the only way s/he could be made manifest

in the physical realm.)

God would appear, and has appeared

as a mirror, and whomever

has confronted or confronts God directly

would only see

themselves.

So humans who encounter God assign whatever

characteristics they personally hold to God,
when in fact they're really just looking at
themselves; thus:

God appears as a black man to a black man; 

she appears as an Asian woman to an Asian woman;

he appears as a crippled boy to a crippled boy;

or he appears as a puppy

to a puppy.

God has appeared differently to all

who have taken the time to view him, and yet

it is all the same God.

So, we must stop fighting dear friends,

we must begin

loving and living in peace;

and then you can just guess

when Paradise would arrive:

At that instant when we stop our fighting and start loving

first: the man or woman in the mirror,

then: the man who doesn't look a thing like you.

For we are all  the noblest animal, 

the beast 

who were given the job to tend after

the other beasts.

                                     Nothing more; nothing less.