The Four Brahma Viharas

To grow up unwanted and unloved and untouched
Is scarring.  You despise your existence.
You don't know why you had to be born.
You believe that you are a burden on the world.
Your core is hurt hurt hurt on top of devastating pain.

That's hard to get past.
That's hard to take.
That's hard to overcome.
That's hard hard hard.

There are people in the world with compassion
People with such heart, such beauty inside
That they choose, they must, to live their life
In such a way that heals us unwanted.

That's hard to accomplish.
That's a labor of love.
That's a recipe for poverty.
That's so incredible I cry.

I know some of these people.  They teach.
They believe.  They adjust your head, move
It just so so that your asana is closer by a tiny
Bit today than it was yesterday.

That's a practice of Metta, loving kindness.
That's a practice of Karuna, compassion.
That's a practice of Mudita, sympathetic joy.
That's a practice of Upekkha, equanimity.

What they do is important and transforming.
What they teach gives you and me a path.
But the true power that they have comes just
From their existing in the world in integrity.

That's transforming the world.
And me.

Inspired by my yoga teacher Cathi today, but I know a lot of people that choose lives of integrity, truth, love, and compassion, finding their success in transforming the world instead of in wealth.  We are all lucky they exist in the world, and they are inspiring me to be like them.  Maybe they were once like me.