Hayslip

"I had come home. Yes. But home had changed. And I would always be in between south, north, east, west, peace, war, Viet Nam, America. It is my fate to be in between Heaven and Earth. When we resist our fate we suffer, when we accept it we are happy. We have time in abundance, an eternity to repeat our mistakes. But we need only once to correct our mistakes and at last hear the song of enlightenment with which we can break the chain of vengeance forever. In your heart you can feel it now. It's the song your spirit has been singing since the moment of your birth. If the monks were right and nothing happens without a cause, then the gift of suffering is to bring us closer to God. To teach us to be strong when we are weak. To be brave when we are afraid. To be wise in the midst of confusion. And to let go of that whcih we can no longer hold. Lasting victories are won in the heart, not in this land or that."


April 6, 1998