I saw you after a long long time,
Longer even than the times we had together.

I’m not inclined now, to pretend that anything has changed.

Except that in this falling out we had, I am at last learning

The lesson of acceptance of things as they are.

I move more easily now between the groaning pendulum of ‘right’ and ‘wrong’.
I’ve met too many people who are kind and ‘wrong’ and just as many
Mean and ‘right’.

I find my fair company these days with those who care to look deeper.
Who dilute awkward prejudice with a well placed curiosity,
Who make room for the pointy elbows and soft underbellies of our proud and frail humanity.
Can lay their head in the grass of Rumi’s field.

If these hard years have taught me anything it is that
Opinions are ephemeral.
True friendship accepts difference and challenge, makes space for the ‘wrong’ idea.

What endures is the soft and timeless touch between Souls
That continues, sometimes shyly,
To reach out its ever expanding, heroically shimmering embrace.
Towards – not agreement – but
Accord.
.