Mantra
Om Maṇi Padme Hūṃ
Six syllables of Chenrezig, who refused enlightenment until every being could be liberated. The mantra of the one who keeps showing up.
Abandonment echo — gives out what she never received.
Sacred witness — holds other people's grief without flinching.
The Grandmother-field — the room she is in becomes the room the child in the room is looking for.
The Hall of Ancestors — her grandmother holds the scroll she was taught to forget.
Her egg waits while she walks alone in the pines on a four-day fast; the dragon wakes when eight figures step out and she counts only eight.
Linked to Layla — Naomi was the Sufi master in 13th-c. Konya killed in the Mongol raid.
Children — especially Indigenous children under state care — and the Earth herself.