Daniel My Brother

 I have a friend who met me in the darkness, and whispered words of light that led me on my way and feed me to this day.

I’m not quite sure how old we were when we were young. But we were older than our years, stronger than our fears and guided by the lyrics of the inner songs yet to be sung.

Daniel and I became friends during the passionate and unreasonable and tumultuous poetry of our teenage years.

We held each other. Cast spells on each other. Broke each other, forgave each other and helped heal each other. 

Daniel held an image of me I have yet to live up to. He saw me as wise and beautiful. He saw me as connected and present and kind. He saw me as the parts of me I forever seek and strive to find.

We should all be such merciful mirrors. Reflecting only the deepest truth and highest possibilities of those we see.

My oldest Son bears his name. On the eve of his birth, a constellation rose in the sky that I prayed would guide him.  And Daniel rose inside me, as the constellation of Earth that would walk beside him.

My friend is a Milky Way of reckoning. A celestial body that is unaware of its own brilliant light. He is equal parts Eeyore and Christopher Robin and Gandalf the Grey.

He walks through valleys with deer at his side and birds that trust his hands enough to lift them up before gliding away. The whole time questioning if he’s doing things right, if he’s pure in their sight, if the truth of his heart is okay. And enough. And approaching the Peace that he longs for yet shares every step of the way.

If I could, I would write him the Green of the Shire, the pathways toward homesteads where all we aspire to Be are revealed and set free.

Daniel has ‘taken ill’ these days. He must navigate the pathway of doorways that lead ever on. He must sit in the echoing silence of knowing and not knowing. Trusting and discerning the inner alchemical ways of solace, surrender and the thing without feathers. Leaning into the Voice of  the Spirit that speaks without words,  to the neural pathways of Love in the heart of the Heart. He must ever so tenderly mine the deep caverns of  holding on and letting go and moving onward and trusting the winding and wandering path.

Each instinct within me wants to carry him. To protect him. To shield him.

But heroes can not fall far from the journeys path. Or the quest at hand.

It is their calling and purpose to guide us and show us the way. Doing it their way. Glistening like Milky Way’s. Forging new pathways of Light for all travelers who journey this way.

Oh, Dear Daniel, My Brother, You shine in my Sky. 

If I could I would paint you the Sunrise that shines from your Golden Green Eyes. But instead, with these words I will fervently try

To wrap you in Starlight you offered to me as my own Lucky Star passed you by.




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