The Smile

By Steve Taylor

At the moment of brutal disappointment
when you realize that your hopes were illusions
and you’re ashamed of your gallibility
and angry with the world for stringing you along
for letting this foolish game go on so long
and your future seems bleak and stark
without those filters of delusion
and you survey the wreckage of your life
wondering if you were ever who you thought you were –

Maybe you can sense a part of you
that’s not a part of this
that’s standing outside this psychic storm
untouched by this chaos
peering through the rubble and the clouds of dust
looking on and smiling –
knowing that this damage is only superficial,
just to your facade, not to your foundation.
and that when the debris is cleared away
there will be more space inside
for your essence to shine through.

– Steve Taylor
From The Calm Center: Reflections and
Meditations for Spiritual Awakening
New World Library, 2015
p. 39

See also the previous Wild Reed posts:
• Love Will Not Lose
• Until the Light Returns
• What the Wind Says
• Secret Language of the Heart
• Kahlil Gibran on Self-Knowledge
• When Sorrow Comes
• The Empty Beach
• Walking Away
• The Real Question
• My Love, “Return to the Root of the Root of Your Own Soul”
• A Light That Will Always Shine
• Aligning With the Living Light
• A Sacred Pause
• Mystical Participation
• Shining On

Image: Carl Anderson. (Photo: Michael Ochs / Getty Images)