SI MONTHLY NEWS AUGUST 2005 Poem

AUTOBIOGRAPHY IN FIVE CHAPTERS

I walk down the street.

There is a deep hole in the sidewalk.

I fall in.

I am lost.... I am hopeless

It isn't my fault.

It takes forever to find a way out.

I walk down the same street.

There is a deep hole in the sidwalk.

I pretend I don't see it.

I fall in again.

I can't believe I am in the same place.

But it isn't my fault.

It still takes a long time to get out.

I walk down the same street.

There is a deep hole in the sidewalk.

I see it is there.

I still fall in ... it's a habit.

My eyes are open.

I know where I am.

It is my fault.

I get out immediately.

I walk down the same street.

There is a deep hole in the sidewalk.

I walk round it.

I walk down another street.

Poem by Portia Nelson -

quoted in "The Tibetan book of living and dying"

by Sogyal Rinpoche,

Harper, San Francisco, 1993.

?Does this apply to YOU?