Dear Young Man | Sabrina Santa Clara

Thank you for the compliments on my beauty and
hour-glass figure,
But perhaps hitting on me
at the 24-hour spiritual chanting event
wasn’t the very best of choices.

Dear beautiful young man with the 4% body fat cut physique:

You are indeed a pleasure to look upon.
But,
Your face is like a porcelain doll’s
Too pretty and too cool for someone with the heat of me to love.

I prefer faces like Kintsugi,
made more beautiful for the cracks and
what was used to fill it.
I prefer a face that has placed at least one beloved in the grave,
and also, one that has had to climb itself back up to happiness.
I prefer a body that has that slight soft edge of vulnerable.
One that might Feel
better than it looks.

Dear loquacious 26-year-old:

I am not offended that you attempted to educate me —
a 49-year-old Woman with a 25-year practice —
on what is required to be an advanced yogi
and the 8-limbed path.
I know that your words were your peacock feathers.
I am sorry if I did not hide my amusement well.
But this is the way of nature.

There will come a time when you will grow weary of your own words.
Only then you will learn the gift of silence.
and find the wisdom in the in-between spaces all along.

Later — probably much later —
that silence will open onto the emptiness inside you
and devastate you.

Later still, you will discover
the emptiness was the fullness.
There is no way to tell you this
that will do you any good right now.

Dear puppy:

There will come a time
when you will be able to resist the temptation to jump on laps
and slobber on faces.
When you will understand that, as cute as you are,
seasoned Women don’t like awkward jumps and slobbery tongues.
We prefer seasoned Men
who understand the value of silence,
pacing,
and timing.

Dear young man:

thank you
but no thank you.