Devotion

Flowers by the lagoon.  Photos by Patty Levesque.

Waiting to remove our shoes on the porch,
the elder, held on the arm of another,
smiled at me, “Jai Baba,” when she came near.

“Jai Baba,” I returned, 
the tenderness  flowing easily between us. 
“Jai Baba.”
This healing energy, devotion,
all of us gazing at a heart-space,
the lovingly-tended necklace of sand dollars 
upon the pink shirt,
the roses and dried flowers strung
with medallions of Radha and Krishna.
The almost-unbearable sweetness of human devotion,
the kneeling at the velvet-roped chair,
or the beribboned bed,
each pilgrim entering in awe and leaving changed,
holding that precious energy as if this were all there is,
and there are tears, and anger,
and the cleansing of a thousand emotions-
it’s the energy of devotion, precious and human,
a way for us to see in each other the Divine.

Annelinde Metzner
Meher Baba Center
December 29, 2013

     I was recently blessed to make another pilgrimage to the Meher Baba Center, a beautifully preserved nature sanctuary near Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.   Though I'm not a devotee, I have always felt warmly welcomed into this deeply spiritual atmosphere.  The above poem was written at the Meher Abode.  Thank you Patty Levesque for the photos!

Wooded trail

Tree friend and mushroom

My photo of the lagoon at sunset