A piece of glass,

fragile and transparent.

People bump into it,

not realising it is there.

They think to walk through it,

smudge it with their fingerprints,

or handle it clumsily,

shattering.

Using it as a filter for their own perception,

or a mirror for their own reflection.

Glass is endlessly mutable and open to manipulation by others.

How to remain transparent and bright but not fragile, breakable, untarnished?

Become a diamond instead ?

clear,

bright,

tough?

And yet by their very nature diamonds are trouble to themselves.

Diamonds are precious and open to theft.

Greed.

Exploitation.

It’s a conundrum – how to be honest and not misunderstood, how to be generous, yet not exploited, how to be clear and not mishandled, how to be vulnerable and not manipulated.

How to be open but also protected without being defensive?

How to be?

Who to be?

One,

and not many.

Endlessly shifting hats,

changing shoes,

and switching identities.

The crux of the problem is human,

but the solution is entirely spiritual,

sane.

Be a rock, as the Tao Te Ching says.

Warmed by the sun

Impervious to the rain

Defined

humble

eternal.

Immutable to change by way of any outside circumstance

and yet on the inside

endlessly evolving.

Header photo, mine. It’s an iPhone shot taken on a road trip with a detour into Kalbari National Park Western Australia last year. This rock formation is called Natures Window which is rather apt and affordable a gorgeous slice of the gorge and Murchison River below.