Effortlessly realizing that nothing good comes for free

Peeling back the silky mandala one gauzy layer at a time

Gazing back out through its crystalline structure from a central void

Then suddenly and necessarily, without any conscious effort

It is that first real time up, riding on that old bicycle

Always in that process of learning something new

not merely chattering to simply hide good silence

Taking pride and pleasure in the basics of life

Feeling the native wisdom of hot sweat and hard breathing

Studying deeply as well as reading widely

getting up before the sun

Knowing how to do things with the use of your own hands

Cooking food yourselves and sharing it at home

Watching the cycles of the moon, the sun and the seasons of the earth

Remaining simply aware of the subtle sounds of nature

Finding use for anger but not living driven blindly by rage

Sharing as much love in any way as often as you can

Traveling far but not forsaking the good home that you have made

Always being sure that you can still read and write

Respecting the old, repairing the broken, knowing the history

relaxing your entire body one part at a time

Understanding that you can’t be any happier than the saddest you have ever been

Making every single day a good day to die

Being honest and avoiding salesmanship

Knowing yourself and listening to others

Not letting their noise and confusion mask the vast emptiness

Seeking out the quiet places and letting them fill you up

Adjusting constantly and unconsciously to the eye of the storm

Effortlessly realizing that nothing good comes for free

Which Way Do You Lean?

Would you rather indulge yourself in the service of a fine hotel

Or camp in a quiet aspen grove

Would you take an adventure in a guided raft

Or go kayaking with some friends

Is it more enjoyable to order up at an expensive restaurant

Or to cook good food in your own home kitchen

Would it be better to have a new car very soon because it feels so good

Or to get the old one fixed up for a couple more years of service

Would you rather have neat, green and well-manicured bluegrass

Or a healthy un-mown assemblage of fairly-wild, native plants

Would you like to try the tender, tied-down, milk-fed veal

Or our free-range, no-antibiotic chicken

Shall we lay on the beach in our new bikinis

Or walk down the coast to that empty cove

Do you want to explore all the shops we saw coming in

Or take the steep hike on up to the waterfall

Are you having the pancakes with sausage and eggs

Or the crusty fresh bread with butter and jam

Would you rather get cleaned up and go out for happy hour

Or hike up to the overlook in time for the sunset

Would you be more likely to paint your toenails

Or to go for a ride on your mountain bike

Do you always buy the latest model snowboard brand new

Or can you be happy with a demo from the season before

Would you prefer to make a new acquaintance here in town

Or go on a trip to somewhere that you’ve never been

Do you like to stay up until 2 in the morning

Or do you usually try and get up before the sun rises

Would you pop in your ear buds

Or listen to the wind in the trees

Do you study the scriptures for structured and concrete answers

Or try to decipher the mysteries of science

Would you rather hop on your snarling dirt bike or ATV

Or ride off on a bicycle to a trailhead leading to the wilderness

Do you picture yourself with a nice tombstone in a peaceful cemetery

Or do you see a tree planted in the woods, fed by your remains

Would you really like a brand new home

Or would you prefer something older with a little character

Do you believe that unfettered capitalism will naturally yield us the brightest future

Or do you feel that planning and foresight is required for tomorrow

Would you like easier access and urban services in our parks and our forests

Or is it vitally important to preserve our wild places intact for the future

Would you like to skim across the water on a powerful jet ski

Or catch every bit of a breeze on a finely-rigged sailboat

Is your path chiseled in stone after prayers for guidance

Or would you change your views based on new information

Would you rather drive really fast with the radar detector on full alert

Or kick back and save gas while enjoying the scenery

Would you like to pop off your lounge chair and into the pool

Or walk down through the trees and jump in the lake

Would you first get your wrinkles treated

Or have your eyes surgically repaired

Would you rather a piece of rich chocolate dessert

Or an extra helping of that delicious main course

Is Europe quaint, but politically old-fashioned, and pretty irrelevant

Or should we bond more tightly with those with whom we share blood

Would you rather have a beer with friends and watch the big game

Or sip a little red wine and maybe take in a foreign movie

Do you like to discuss opportunities to cash in on insider real estate deals

Or castigate those who took artificial home equity to pay off their credit cards

Would you prefer to remain focused on keeping things as affordable as possible

Or changing our habits to attain a sustainable society lifestyle

Are you at peace with your faith regarding your everlasting soul

Or do you ponder briefly the unknowable in the onrushing void

Do you believe in man’s God-given dominion over this earth and all its creatures

Or is that likely only a selfish rationalization for destruction and torture

Would you rather remain a lifelong conservative, holding fast to traditional values

Or can you tolerate ambiguity and willingly toss aside wornout beliefs

Do you enjoy driving to the health club to read on the treadmill

Or do you walk around your neighborhood to get a little exercise

Do you know how the market is doing and where interest rates are going today

Or are you spending too much time sorting dirty trash for pointless recycling

Do you spot opportunities for a quick profit as you happen to drive by

Or do you see meaningful images on old tree trunks and incised on mossy boulders

Can you build consensus and share a team vision going forward

Or do you prefer small hardworking groups with unspoken communication

When you go skiing do you want the sun to always be shining

Or are you quite happy when it is snowing like hell

Would you rather take the quiet comfort of faith about all things you do not understand

Or burn out in the unbelievable miracle of every waking moment

Is That Guy On Tacitril Or What!?

It really should go without saying...

It really is an absolute wonder drug that finally turned my life right around, so much for the better

Now I know when to keep to good silence instead of shooting off my stupid mouth once again

No more do I suffer the after-effects of unreasoned outbursts that I could not Even control

I no longer bore and anger my co-workers with my irrelevant ramblings at their Big Meetings

I can serenely sit back as others go way overboard, far off the deep end and never shut up

Tacitril has taught me to say so much more, simply by talking far, far less

I even started hearing a lot of the other randomly excess noise with which we fill the world

Now I realize that silence is no frightening void that I must forever try to fill with verbal spam

A daily dose and I’ve stopped yelling at those hateful, cosmetically-enhanced anchor people

I lost the urge to keep making up lame questions, vainly trying to assure myself that I’m smart

It’s really been helpful to silently let others trail off alone into the weeds of foolish nonsense

Merely remaining quiet has become a great weapon which creates confusion in my superiors

I simply don’t have that fool need to recap, rehash and re-iterate like I used to anymore

I just let the kids and the wife talk themselves off into stammered, evaporating mumbles

Yes, I nod my head, but not in agreement, merely acknowledging that I heard what my boss said

Every meeting reinforces my stillness as I filter their compulsive, but empty, chatter

Talking in circles around the point just to hear my own voice is no longer satisfying for me

It’s easy to forgo pointless sidetracking of important discussions just to show that I am present

I can detect their BS more quickly now since I’m not always only thinking about what I will say next

Sometimes my reticence even provokes a satisfying rise from those who simply cannot be still

Now I find my silence as full of meaning as anything I could ever have hoped to blurt out

I find it as pointless to try and have the last word as to talk over our incessant and vapid noise

I forgot what it’s like to lay awake just wishing that I could have kept my stupid mouth shut

I’m satisfied just hearing the movers and the shakers hanging themselves out to dry, again

I cut out the preambles, the redundant flourishes and repetitive conclusions from my speech

I respond to their frothy clarion calls to corporate boldness with a politely expectant silence

It’s easy to deny them the pleasure of empty, long-winded responses by withholding dumb questions

No longer do I erupt irrationally because my blood pressure is too high and heart rate too fast

Nowadays, I’m far more likely to think “I’m glad I didn’t say that” than “I wish I’d said that”

I lost the sorry need to try and sell other’s scripted soundbites via my own constant repetition

Happily, I no longer bother attempting to talk over those who have interrupted me, once again

No more parroting sports stats, movie lines, advertising slogans or political catchphrases for me

Don’t sarcastically back-sass cops until they finally just decide to write me up real good

Politely ask the telemarketers to wait and leave them on hold, instead of yelling and blustering

Sure, I’m still angry, insecure, confused, scared and nervous, but I don’t have to broadcast it

I have learned that silence really is a very simple, yet very powerful and totally unlimited blessing

In Cannabis Lunaticas

In Reefer there lies Madness, but, yea, In Vino Veritas

I wont ever get caught dead after going off red-faced and loud, just looking for a fight

I can’t Even imagine beating up on the wife, abusing my kids and kicking around our dog

Never curse, moan and stagger around the house in between bouts of bilious vomiting

Don’t wake up sick, weak, foul-smelling and depressed again on an otherwise fine morning

Sat very still in a calm silence, listening to the hum of the great wheel as we all spun round

Gave thanks for the peace I was granted, knowing well it was for just a few brief moments

Started to realize how short my life was and how carefully I should choose far fewer words

Almost got hurt once from laughing so hard and long with my friends that my stomach ached

Will not lose control of my truck and slam into innocent families, to roll over and over again

Would never have picked up a firearm and stumbled off into the night, gunning for something

Couldn’t dream of losing it all and blurting out slurred insults laced with filthy obscenities

Never had to apologize later in the burning shame of blindly and stupidly hurting those I love

Popped in ear buds and enjoyed the music as loud as I wanted, without spreading any noise

Could even see just how lucky I was, and always had been, and just sit giving off a little thanks

Calmed my heartbeat, lowered my blood pressure, slowed my breathing rate… And it was OK

Why, I even thought about ways I might try to make things a bit better, in some small way

Do not have to lurch around blind and crippled, breaking stuff and accumulating guilt

Hadn’t the need for pain relievers and sunglasses simply to be able to get out of bed

Did not awake to find I had spent a whole lot of money but without any idea on what

Wasn’t nastily surprised to find new dents in my cars and gross stains on my good clothes

Often spent unproductive hours quietly reading, fueled by an herb-enhanced imagination

Rejected their warlike drumbeats and staccato metal electric guitar strikes for simple acousticals

Was often overcome by a miraculous sense of the fleeting nature of my tiny, dumb-luck life

Took time to peer down into the finer details and see some more of their fractal connections

Never have to sleep it off in my car until I’m finally sobered up enough to weave on home

Don’t awaken hoarse and hungover from drunkenly screaming over some phony sports event

Can’t see dulling my senses, slowing my reflexes, losing my reason and calling it unwinding

Don’t want to destroy my brain, poison my liver and ruin my sleep patterns for no real reason

Sharpened my appetite, sparked my imagination and, yes, even thought outside the box

Listened to my body, calmed my thoughts, relaxed and took time to regroup and re-consider

Strove to slow things down just for a moment and put them in their places before moving on

Quietly relaxed and fell into a good sleep to awaken calmly and clearly on another lucky day

Wont be really starting to want more right when I should know I’ve already had too much

Don’t have to try and dull the pain and smother the memories only to make them both worse

Ain’t gonna suffer thru the guilt of blackouts, outbursts and useless losses of time and money

Will never again have that first thought be a promise to myself that This was the last time

Club Them With Gentle Parody And Unearned Mercy

Tyrannize them with your merest example, torture them with a vast but unassuming modesty

Beat them down with an unbroken stillness, dilute their poison in an infinite sea of tenderness

Let their twisting tongues fall harmlessly only upon their own self-deafened ears

Punish them without the slightest trace of malice using just a bit of your priceless grace

Hurt them deeply with but a wordless mercy, strike them down with gentle voices

Club them like those baby seals but with simple stillness, then smash them with patient smiles

Shut their mouths with children’s laughter, attack them savagely with fresh flowers

Muffle them with silently repeated mantras, let merciful raindrops sully their agendas

Cuff them about with cosmic quiet, put them down with ragged grins from the homeless

Rinse out their greed-blinded eyes with your own salty tears, hack at them with happiness

Silence them with endless earbud recordings of their own foolish and empty braying

Tamp down their angrily-shouted sound bites with your own long and reflective pauses

Cripple their overwhelmingly selfish greed by exemplifying what shall be held important

Smother their toxically smoldering, useless malice beneath many layers of honest goodwill

Betray their selfish hatred by bonding together with the common people of their enemies

Topple their top-heavy propaganda with polite and quietly reasoned conversations

Sterilize their fundamental beliefs with that soft light from within and just lay down their arms

Batter their egos by merely turning away, punish them for life with simple acts of kindness

Dwarf them beneath a vaster cosmic consciousness, deflate them with gentle parody

Starve their overwhelming need for attention, help them to wash off all that garish makeup

Puncture their inflated egos with divine inattention, parry angry shouts with friendly nods

Waterboard them with laughter, bury them in cosmic blessings, make light of their big lies

Waste them with wisdom, quarantine them behind universal love, rob them of bitterness

Drain their greed into the onrushing void, empty their pride into the anonymous eternity

Injure them severely with a vast disinterest, paralyze them merely by ignoring their antics

Dwarf them with visions of the infinite everlasting cosmos, smite them with unbounded pity

Lacerate them with simple honesty, leave them alone to suffer themselves in solitary

Bury them under the burdens they left for the future, defile them with that perfect bliss

Starve them on a diet of their own empty words, remove their blindfolds just at the abyss

Confound them into madness with inexplicable charity, empty them by forsaking greed

Crush them by gathering in non-violent protest, bewilder them with lighthearted pardons

Impale them on their own sharp and poisoned catchphrases, disable them with soft laughter

Confuse them with the certainty of eternal emptiness, blind them with that radiant light

Humble them with a good-natured concern over their shortsighted goals and childish needs

Slash their greedy creed with the sharp truth from ancient wisdom they so scoffingly ignored

Debase them quietly, but brutally, with constant reminder of the effects of their actions