Pink flower with a man walking away from it - Laughing Brook - Before we Part - Poetry
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Before We Part

It’s all about how we look at it

The only thing that is permanent is change. Some of those changes can rough you up quite drastically. Others are so sweet, you wish they would never end. Yet all of them will eventually pass. 

So the real question is, how you deal with changes? In there lies the secret of who You will become. The secret sauce in all of this is choice, which is informed and determined by the perspective you take. So how I position myself when it comes to the wild turns of life makes all the difference.

Chapters:

  • 00:00:00 Intro
  • 00:00:26 Before We Part – Solo
  • 00:02:31 A Matter of the Heart
  • 00:10:53 Before We Part (Remix)
  • 00:15:07 Outro

Here’s a short video from where this poem came to be.

Transcript

Before We Part

Now isn’t that a thing
The things we gained
And then lost
Like coins in a crack
Like tooth on a stone

Come easy
Come hard
Comes the time
We must part

And the dream has been dreamt
The experience had
Leaves us happy
Disturbed
Wiser
Or sad

And isn’t it a thing
That it happened at all
Right hand Samsara
Left hand Nirvana
One ever flowing
One ever still

So cherish the moment
While it still lasts
A room full of memories
At the back of your heart

©️ Laughing Brook/Peter Müller 2026

A Matter of the Heart

We tend to underestimate the power of the heart. I certainly can say that I focused way too much on my mind for way too long in my life. The long path that led me out of this prison of my head began curiously with a loss, a crisis. I lost my job in a power struggle. My marriage was falling apart. I went into burnout and depression. Even my faith was falling apart. I was broke, without a job and without perspective. This was a very very difficult moment in my life, in which everything seemed to go down the drain and for some stretches I wasn’t sure whether I had enough strength to be able and make it. 

Good therapists helped me to chart those difficult years. But for the most part I had to deal with it myself, for I am the one who is closest to my pain, my fear, my desperation and whatever else comes along on the ghost train of life. 

Crisis is life’s challenge for us to learn, to choose and to invariably show our colours. Of course, and thank God for that, it is not the only way to learn and become more expansive as a being. Life sends us joy, love, grace, lucky coincidences, serendipity, intuition, able companions, teachers, graceful situations and many more things to help us along the way. I most certainly had a good helping of all of those along the way, and neither my life as I live it now nor this podcast would exist without them. 

So what’s got all of this to do with the heart?

My heart is the sum of my experiences. You may prefer to use another term for this most inner core of ourselves, perhaps, but this is the term that has been used for thousands of years by humans all over the world. It’s even in the Bible, Old Testament. The heart is the seat in which we sit, it is who we are at the core of our being, it is our true colours. It is also deeply connected with that which has been named karma. 

I was impressed by the definition of karma I found in Christopher D. Wallis’ very commendable book Tantra Illuminated. Rather than framing karma as guilt or destiny – which is how it is frequently understood –, it is better seen as the logical result of who we are – that is, who we are in our heart of hearts. If, for example, I am a greedy person, greed – which is a form of fear – will taint the way I see the world, just like a pair of sunglasses taints what I see. This fear in my heart will skew the way I see the world around me. It will make me act, in certain ways, which will produce certain resonance and reactions of the world around me. My life will be determined by greed as a consequence. This is what is meant by karma – the consequence of what I emanate. If I change this inner condition by what is so aptly called a change of heart, and hence my outlook, and thus in the consequence the way I act, I will cease to pursue paths that lead me away from freedom and happiness. Then karma is done with. Of course there are some footnotes to this, but as a general outlook it is that simple.

One way to look at how the heart is being shaped is to look at experiences. My experiences define who I am, they form the core of what characterizes the I, that which I generally consider to be me. Of course I am much more, but that will only be realized by grace in satori moments. A satori moment is when the divine touches me, or when I have let go of myself enough to be able to see a deeper truth about me and everything. But for this episode, let’s focus on the heart. 

So it’s really all about how I position myself in these events and phases that life brings me. It’s about what is in my heart. Being in a present awareness in life allows me to not simply respond to what comes at me, but to chose how I want to respond. (If you’re interested to hear more about this, listen to the episode called The Pearl.) With this awareness I go back to my heart, in which intuition lives and my connectedness with everything and everyone. As I begin to listen to what is going on inside of me, in my heart that is, this listening will eventually show me even more of myself and the nature of the world. As I observe myself  I may over time discover that I am no longer fully identified with my inner motions. There is something like an inner room that affords me to look at my inner emotions without being swept away by them. This affords me to become more free in my responses, because for example I might choose to not act out my anger, or any other impulse, but rather internally take note of it and maybe, for a change, do something I normally wouldn’t do. Maybe never have been able to do. This change of heart will change my path, and hence it will change my karma. And that is indeed a path to freedom.

Outro:

Well now, before we part, there’s a little treat, if you want to. Normally I don’t speak about how and when a poem has been conceived. But for this one I wanna share with the class. This one though came during a stay on the beautiful island of La Gomera, one of the Canaries. It’s a place I’ve visited many times, and I love it dearly for many reasons – one being the stunningly gorgeous nature there. Near the town of Valle Gran Rey there’s a waterfall which is just as amazing as the winding path that leads to it. And hiking up to that waterfall I was pondering about things in my life I have lost, I was with some of the pain connected to those losses, and suddenly was deeply touched by realizing how life – as in the beauty that was all around me as I walked – just keeps inviting me to go on and open up to what is there, rather than to hang on to what’s gone. When I reached the waterfall, I had one of those moments where I knew it was time to grab my notebook, and that’s when today’s poem came flowing through my pen like the water that was flowing all around me. If you want to get a little glimpse of the beauty, check out this episode’s page on my website, laughingbrook.net, where you’ll find pictures and a little video. Enjoy!

My name is Laughing Brook, I am a poet, dancer, mystic, nature coach and man whisperer. 

As always, please leave a rating, subscribe if you haven’t already, and recommend this podcast to whoever you feel they might like it. Maybe even send a message or a link right now. Thanks a lot.

And t hank you for listening, and – keep on flowing, bumping and jumping with the stream of life.

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