Still and Steady

Is it possible to remain present when attacked? 

To keep one's energy contained and protected? To shield oneself and hold all counterattacks back? To allow rage and grief to tear through oneself? To observe the pain and live momentarily in that suffering and then move and move until it is out of the mind and out of the limbs? To allow others to be stuck in a state of egoic patterns (while observing one's own desire to arm with word weapons, to spit lists of the other's culpabilities) but then say little or nothing? To allow others to be stuck in a state of egoic patterns (while observing one's own desire to flee, to hide behind window curtains and bedcovers) but then be out in the world and free? To allow others to be stuck in a state of egoic patterns, (while observing one's own desire to fix, to weep anxious apologies) but then allow silence to speak? 

Is it possible? I believe it is. 

And I will allow this hope to root, burst, and bloom within me.  

For this is the way toward peace.