About the Author

Locke Rush has over 25 years of experience as a psychotherapist and marriage counselor. A graduate of Princeton University and a former officer in the United States Marine Corps, he also was co-author and co-producer of Rooftops of New York, an Academy Award nominated short subject film.

He lived in Japan for four years, studying and practicing the disciplines of Zen Buddhism, and spent a year as a lay monk in the Ryutaku-ji Zen Monastery.

He received a PhD in Counseling Psychology in 1974 and went on to found the first intensive outpatient addiction treatment program in Maryland. From 1975 through 1986 he studied under the great Sufi Master M.R. Bawa Muhaiyaddeen.

He lives happily in the Pennsylvania countryside with his wife, Jackie, and continues his counseling practice at his home.

For latest news, updates and thoughts from the author, please visit his blog.

The Snow Goose

When I lived abroad
I had a favorite poem
I would recite
for anyone.

‘The Snow Goose need not
bathe to make itself white;
neither need you do
aught but be yourself.’

“How wonderful,” I thought,
“and how easy.”
I lived this way
for years.

One morning, as I thought
of the snow goose,
I had a revelation:
The Snow Goose
is really busy all the time
cleaning itself.

Oh dear, what have I
been doing all these years?
I’ve been bathing each day
but I’m still dirty.

Time to start cleaning
and stop reciting poetry,
said the wise one within.
There’s still time.

—Locke Rush