Going forth is no game.
We leave whole lives behind—
not just people and possessions.
All your wants.
All your fears.
All the little rituals
that get you through the day
and tuck you in at night.
Only see that all these pretty wooden pieces
aren’t you—
and don’t belong to you.
they belong to the game.
I know it’s comforting to count up all the squares,
run your fingers along the edge of the board,
and plan out all your moves ahead of time.
The world beyond the table only seems dark—
like empty space.
It’s okay to be afraid.
~ from the first free women, Poems of the Early Buddhist Nuns,
Matty Weingast (Shambhala Publications, 2020)
