POEM - Instructions For Morning Sun Salutations

1. Stand quietly and remember to be faithful to the morning, which is nourished by
gratitude and fed on the fresh imprints left by last night’s vivid dreaming.

2. When you reach up, arch backwards; imagine yourself as a bridge that unites
good with evil, faith with unbelief, strength with weakness, love with hatred,
life with death.

3. Grab a whole fistful of air, then bend forward and abandon all control.

4. Pull down as much hope as you can with two hands and one spacious heart.

5. Hang there momentarily in silence and measure all the contradictions within you.

6. Step or jump back and commit yourself to the struggle of all hopeless things.

7. Lower yourself down with the grounded knowledge that the warmer air and flowers
have not deserted you; that the dark eyed juncos are returning from the south and that summer announces its arrival in a whisper.

8. Push up into the belief that light is a shy creature and loves to play games;
that the two of you are cousins.

9. Step or jump into the wisdom that humans are not carbon-based but are forgiveness-based and even the shortest friendship outlasts the longest night.

10. Rise with open arms and be faithful to the morning, which is nourished
by gratitude and fed on the fresh imprints left by last night’s vivid dreaming.