Book Excerpt

From Crossing the Water by Paul Ferrini

Our relationships help us heal childhood wounds, walk through our deepest fears, and cross over the water of our emotional pain. Just as the rocks in the river are "pounded and caressed to rounded stone," the rough edges of our personalities are worn smooth in the context of a committed relationship. If we can keep our hearts open, we can heal together and discover what it means to give and receive love without conditions.

Paul Ferrini's CD Heart and Soul features Paul reading his inspirational love poems from Crossing the Water and other poetry books with gorgeous piano accompaniment by Suzi Kesler.  Click on the links below to listen to Paul Reading Two poems from Crossing the Water.   You can listen to additional readings at the bottom of the page.

Thanksgiving Prayer     Passover Song

Thanksgiving Prayer

II

You come to me now frozen in fear.
Your smile has disappeared behind your eyes.
Everything about you says
you want to love me
but can't.

IV

When the ice on the lake finally freezes,
you cross to the other side, calling me.
When I look into your eyes, you look down.

You do not know why you have come.

I caress your hair and kiss your eyes.
I tell you I will always love you.
Somehow, I don't know why,
Perhaps because your own pain is finally rising,
you believe me.

For hours we look into each other's eyes.
For days it continues.
Even in our dreams, we walk out on the ice
and come face to face.

On the fifth day, the ice breaks
and the sun crawls out of its dark cave
illuminating the snowy field
where the pine tree
weathers the wind
from the four directions.

Mind of the Hawk

The mind that finds fault
with this moment
slips into sadness,

the mind that judges or condemns,
its own experience
or anyone else's experience,
is not at peace
in this moment.

The mind that dwells
on past or future
wanders about distraught,
building fences
where no animals graze.

The mind that seeks outside itself
is always running from its own fear
like a rabbit moving
in the shadow
of some bird of prey.

Yet outside thought,
there is nothing but clear sky.
The hawk sits on the branch,
leaning out
over the abyss.

In this moment,
Reality is fully present.
Nothing is lacking.

In this moment,
there is nothing to judge,
nothing to fix,
nothing in particular to think
or to do

When in the fullness
and precise certainty
of this moment
thought interferes,
the perception of inadequacy begins:

Life is not good enough.
Other people are not good enough.
I am not good enough.
Something is wrong.
Something needs to change
for me to be happy.

These thoughts
lead to negative feeling states
as quickly as a knife
cuts through soft butter.

There is no challenge here.

To be compassionate with self
means to accept these feeling states
without empowering them,
to let the wave pass through
even as you stand your ground,

to stand in the truth,
even as you feel sadness.

Feelings pass. They linger
only when you identify with them
or resist them.

Neither identifying with feelings
nor resisting them,
feelings wash through,
and the thoughts behind them subside,
like waves breaking on the sand.

As you become present,
you rise above all mental
and emotional states,
because who you are is beyond all states,
beyond all definitions.

In the unconditional acceptance
of here and now
the dream world of symbols,
interpretation, meaning,
comes to an end.

There is no more seeking.
no more striving.
No more finding fault.
Nothing apart from
simple attention in the moment

to the situation at hand.