Just The Rose

When all the leaves of our experience are shed, 
and even the outer petals
—of what we once thought we were--
are released, 
all that remains 
is the heart of the rose, 
the center 
of love.

Here we rest upon a new shore 
where 
there is nothing more that we have to be. 
This place is void of expectation, 
trying, 
adjusting to an outer world 
where we do not belong
—because that world is not real, its reality not true.

We are quite simple the rose, 
the light that has always been. 
We are that truth inside of us, 
pure and untouched by the terrain we have followed 
and the experience we have known.

We have always been this: 
just the rose 
with those delicate inner petals 
nestled close to the heart 
of our truth 
and the Divine.

There we see 
that life and our spiritual journey 
has never been about becoming—trying to be. 
Our life's true meaning and purpose 
has simply been to release what is not true, 
to cast the petals of falsehood to the wind, 
and there, at last, to rest in our heart
—as our heart--
in the hands of the Divine 
as 
just the rose of our truth 
and inner experience.

There is nothing more 
than this.