Again from the face of moon lift the mists, Again in this perfumed night I have to burn. Again the waves of anguished breath break, Again from the face of moon lift the mists.

• Gulzar's Aaj phir shaaym ko jalna hoga.

Watching this landscape turning into red is as if it was set on fire to teach me what passion really is, in the way each glittering leaf falls like a small flame into the cold air.

I think we are all like so many leaves living out this transient cycle of days unaware of the very fact of our leafy-ness, our voices mere whispers of leaves in the nightly breeze, and these words are but etched signatures on these translucent selves that now bleed red and all our meetings as probable as leaves on distant branches brushing each other in storms.

I was let go and I let go, now I spread my arms and fall upside down, my eyes fixed on the sky billowing with clouds that move like elephants crossing the Alps, over the city spires: this is to keep my falling in perspective,this to know that no goodbye can erase the sky from our sight.

And as I slowy glide down to the ground after whirling in huge circles like Sufis dancing in exhulatation, in love that is bursting open like ripe fruit, I rest on a bed of leaves, I pick one, crush it between my fingers and breathe in the smell of the rich sap that once flowed in it.

I close my eyes and begin to wait, this meditation is for that one praticular leaf, maybe she would be the last one to fall, maybe she will fall so slowly as if the distance between me and her is infinity. But I will wait for her to discover the effortlessness of letting go, for her to close the doors, to skip down the stairs two at a time, to walk down the street and to jump off the edge and slowly sail into the red,

Down towards where my body lies awaiting hers.

2002:11:12 18:00 Atlanta For SP.

 "Calamities can bring growth and Enlightenment," said the Master.

And he explained it thus:

"Each day a bird would shelter in the withered branches of a tree that stood in the middle of a vast deserted plain. One day a whirlwind uprooted the tree, forcing the poor bird to fly a hundred miles in search of shelter ~ ' til it finally came to a forest of fruit-laden trees."

And he concluded: "If the withered tree had survived, nothing would have induced the bird to give up its security and fly."