We do not live in time.
Being is more, so much more, than the tickings of a clock
More than worn-out calendars.

Time is not linear:  
No beginning
   No end.
We swim in eternities.

It is now, 
as it was then
  As shall forever be.

Every now and then, we connect with moments, place, and people who remind us of these eternities. For one instant lightning lights up the whole dark night. We stand in pure awe, not in time, but somehow in a place where there is pure eternity.   

We see our own selves as what we are: a fish swimming in the ocean, searching for water.

In those instants, we move beyond time as linear, as something between a past and a future. Instead, we merge into the very eternity where/when we have always been.

I heard it said:

Remember that life is not measured
by the number of breaths we take,
but by the moments
that take our breath away!

Standing before a canyon, seeing a lightning crack, staring into the eyes of a baby, hearing the giggle of a child, or the tender touch of a beloved, we are reminded that we are cosmic stuff. We are beings from the bosom of the cosmos.
So here is a poem for my beloved, on the occasion of our 50th anniversary. May each of us be in human communities who remind us of this eternity, in sacred natural places where the eternal shines through the temporal.

My heart races
every touch
sends a shock
through my body

A young man
In love
With a luminous soul

An angel in love
with a man
who’s become more
than merely human

She is a prayer
An answer to a prayer
To every prayer
I didn’t know how to pray for

Where love and desire come together
She graces it with her presence

I so yearn to let go of two-ness
And become one
With Oneness itself

She,
Ever the wiser
Holds my hand
And gently
Whispers:

“Don’t rush
habibi
We have loved each other
For so many eternities

We have all the time
In the worlds.”

****

a few moons later
the desire flame
has turned into a steady fire

this is the love
of eternities
gracing every breath

I so yearn
to build a world around her
Welcome children into this world
Who have her eyes
Her giggles
And her grace

Not in some distant future
But now
This eternal moment

She knows
Before I have spoken any words
She whispers to me to cherish these years
Not to rush into the future
But to live
Fully
Wholeheartedly
In this eternal now.

“Let us live
My beloved
In the now
Not merely awaiting
Some other eternal now
to come.”

****

My face is now filled
with wrinkles
valleys filled
not with water
but with flame
flames of a love
that burned away
ego.

My body a bit more fragile
Hunched over

I move slower
With purpose
Knowing each breath
Is precious

My hair
      What is left of it
Gray

A savage disease 
ravaged my body
my soul
Still soars

She,
Next to me
Holds my hands
The way she did
when my skin
was smoother

Glancing into my eyes 
She offers
a love glance
That would have brought Jesus 
Back to life

My only regret 
is thinking what if
in some future
there is eternity 
but not 
seeing her love glance
Hearing her giggles

What if 
after 
there is an eternity
But this her
no more

She’s always known
What guest has arrived 
Inside my heart

Tenderly she strokes my hand
And whispers
“My Beloved
We have
All the time
In the worlds.”