{"id":691,"date":"2015-03-23T06:23:48","date_gmt":"2015-03-23T10:23:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thewonderchildblog.com\/?p=691"},"modified":"2015-03-23T06:25:20","modified_gmt":"2015-03-23T10:25:20","slug":"691","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/thewonderchildblog.com\/?p=691","title":{"rendered":"How Shall I Compare Thee?"},"content":{"rendered":"<form action=\"https:\/\/www.paypal.com\/cgi-bin\/webscr\" method=\"post\" target=\"_top\"><input name=\"cmd\" type=\"hidden\" value=\"_s-xclick\" \/>How Shall I Compare Thee?<br \/>\nBy<br \/>\nJoseph Anthony Petro<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<br \/>\nSome compare life to the layers of an onion,<br \/>\nAnd how fitting\u2014how easily, once cut especially,<br \/>\nThe layers fall away, and yes, there are the tears.<br \/>\nThere are those.<\/p>\n<p>Some compare life to a rose\u2014<br \/>\nThorns, fragrant, exquisitely beautiful,<br \/>\nAnd when you struggle to find the center<br \/>\nIt all unravels and is no longer a rose.<\/p>\n<p>Some compare life to the sea\u2014<br \/>\nDeep (obviously), ebbing and flowing,<br \/>\nFull of dark mysteries and storms,<br \/>\nLeviathans, and beings made of light,<br \/>\nSeemingly endless in its distance,<br \/>\nMoon kissed, full of tears, and sun-drenched<br \/>\nWaves of desire.<\/p>\n<p>Use anything&#8211;the mirror even,<br \/>\nJust begin, go on, try. Try to compare life<br \/>\nTo anything on earth or in the heavens.<br \/>\nThis is not a challenge or a call to fail.<br \/>\nThis is a plea to encourage you to look,<br \/>\nTo search. Find places, beings, other people,<br \/>\nFeelings, images, objects that resonant<br \/>\nWith your heart, your body, your experience<br \/>\nOf breath and of grief, of joy, and of divinity,<br \/>\nOf growing and becoming, of withering,<br \/>\nAnd blossoming.<\/p>\n<p>Why? Why do this?<br \/>\nIsn\u2019t it effectively separating yourself from yourself<br \/>\nAnd others? Not for me. This exercise, this discipline,<br \/>\nThis holy, unquenchable fire<br \/>\nHelps me sort it all out, helps me discover myself<br \/>\nIn the world and the world in myself, it helps me to see you<br \/>\nAnd allow myself to be seen by you, or else I am alone,<br \/>\nSomehow outside the circle of God, as silly<br \/>\nAs that sounds. And of course, it\u2019s just a suggestion,<br \/>\nLike everything else in life that is truly alive.<\/p>\n<p>We get hints while moving towards<br \/>\nA fullness that culminates in a blessed emptying&#8211;<br \/>\nFountain into fountain, river into sea, image<br \/>\nInto image, love into love.<br \/>\nSo take the suggestion<br \/>\nAs it is given\u2014a passing brush stroke across the canvas<br \/>\nOf your life.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><form method=\"post\" action=\"\"><input type=\"hidden\" name=\"ip\" value=\"216.73.216.163\" \/><p><label for=\"s2email\">Your email:<\/label><br \/><input type=\"text\" name=\"email\" id=\"s2email\" value=\"Enter email address...\" size=\"20\" onfocus=\"if (this.value == 'Enter email address...') {this.value = '';}\" onblur=\"if (this.value == '') {this.value = 'Enter email address...';}\" \/><\/p><p><input type=\"submit\" name=\"subscribe\" value=\"Subscribe\" \/>&nbsp;<input type=\"submit\" name=\"unsubscribe\" value=\"Unsubscribe\" \/><\/p><\/form>\r\n<br \/>\n<input name=\"hosted_button_id\" type=\"hidden\" value=\"F4CK35BRFLT4Y\" \/><br \/>\n<input alt=\"PayPal - The safer, easier way to pay online!\" name=\"submit\" src=\"https:\/\/www.paypalobjects.com\/en_US\/i\/btn\/btn_donateCC_LG.gif\" type=\"image\" \/><br \/>\n<img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.paypalobjects.com\/en_US\/i\/scr\/pixel.gif\" alt=\"\" width=\"1\" height=\"1\" border=\"0\" \/><\/p>\n<\/form>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>How Shall I Compare Thee? By Joseph Anthony Petro &nbsp; Some compare life to the layers of an onion, And how fitting\u2014how easily, once cut especially, The layers fall away, and yes, there are the tears. There are those. Some compare life to a rose\u2014 Thorns, fragrant, exquisitely beautiful, And when you struggle to find [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[12],"tags":[92,331,338,339,341,335,109,332,337,76,334,69,333,336,340,342],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/thewonderchildblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/691"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/thewonderchildblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/thewonderchildblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thewonderchildblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thewonderchildblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=691"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/thewonderchildblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/691\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":694,"href":"http:\/\/thewonderchildblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/691\/revisions\/694"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/thewonderchildblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=691"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thewonderchildblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=691"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thewonderchildblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=691"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}