Deep gratitude to Spillwords for the publication of my poem and art. https://spillwords.com/moistures-grace/
Tag: loss
It Is Now
Drift into the morning light
that beckons you forward.
Drift into the dew of a reality
that moistens your heart.
Draw into the path of being
that guides you into love.
For what is hope but the desire
for what we are born for.
What is hope but the knowledge
that something is there—
that we are not alone, not forgotten.
Move from hope to is.
It is now.
It is all within you in this moment.
Your future is your present.
Hope is found when we allow.
Live in your now to open the door
to your desire.
You are your hope.
“Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery, today is a gift of God, which is why we call it the present.”
― Bill Keane
“Hope is not the conviction that something will turn out well but the certainty that something makes sense, regardless of how it turns out.”
– Vaclav Havel
“Hold fast to dreams,
For if dreams die
Life is a broken-winged bird,That cannot fly.”
― Langston Hughes
After The Count
After the count and the claim,
I wake to dense morning fog.
Buried in a cloud,
I surmise through memory
what is before me,
as what is now present does
not reflect my vision.
Confusion, wonderment,
and disbelief fill me, while
the soft glow of morning light
cuts through the haze into
the beauty of the trees,
the sky, and the rough shadows
of a day touched with mystery.
I do not need to understand.
I do need to love, laugh,
and live in beauty. One reality
does not abolish the other.
They merely dance out of step,
as I polish my heart to get
a clear view.
“One common mistake is to think that one reality is the reality. You must always be prepared to leave one reality for a greater one.”
-Mother Meera
“You may not be able to alter reality, but you can alter your attitude towards it, and this, paradoxically, alters reality. Try it and see.”
-Margaret Atwood
“Dear friend, your heart is a polished mirror. You must wipe it clean of the veil of dust that has gathered upon it, because it is destined to reflect the light of divine secrets.”
-Al-Ghazali
One Crazy Ride
When we arrive at the door of sorrow,
our hearts grieve what is lost and
awaken to what is before us as we
sit in the narrow wedge we call home.
Let us come alive to all life, all being,
as we navigate rough waters, and
wish to enter morning dawn unharmed.
Let go of safety to be in the stream.
Let go of secure to ride the wave.
The risk is before us with the choice
to sit safe or move into form.
Let go, let life arise.
It is our choice.
Our hearts response.
Our one crazy ride.
Image is mine
“Taking risks doesn’t mean shirking responsibility but embracing possibilities.”
-Vick Hope
“Some of us think holding on makes us strong; but sometimes it is letting go.”
-Hermann Hesse
“Trust yourself. Create the kind of self that you will be happy to live with all your life. Make the most of yourself by fanning the tiny, inner sparks of possibility into flames of achievement.”
-Golda Meir
Morning Peace
Morning peace arrives with first light.
Love and strength shelter me as I sit
in repose and allow spirit to flow.
Thoughts arise that tremble my heart
and crease the folds of love that feel
tender and bruised. I observe; I
move on. Breathe in, breathe out,
and sit in this moment in time,
this place of resonance, that awakens to all.
“Empathy is the faculty to resonate with the feelings of others. When we meet someone who is joyful, we smile. When we witness someone in pain, we suffer in resonance with his or her suffering.”
-Matthieu Ricard
“As our nation has become more divided, there is a resonance for a message to bring people together.”
-Martin Luther King III
“I say that a myth is a story which has particular energy, mythic resonance. I always say that a myth is a tear in the fabric of reality through which all of this spiritual energy pours.”
-Jay Parini
The Colors of Life
See the beauty
in the colors of life
that unfold the truth,
buried within each of us,
waiting to come to light,
waiting to be released
into a world of change.
When the old die off
we enter a new way of being,
seeing, and living. Trust
in the way of evolution.
Trust in the heart of life.
Grieve what is set aside
as space opens for new to enter.
Change unsettles the balance
we thought we had created and
now we release into an unknown
that beckons us forth.
Step into the void. Step into
the mystery—the change
unfolding before us.
Step into and let go.
Breathe into life.
You are re-born.
The colors that seem lost
will arise in vibrant hues.
Search now for your color.
It will guide you.
(Image-my own)
“Under the anger, under the fear, under the despair, under the broken heartedness, there is a radiance that has never been harmed, that has never been lost, that is the truth of who one is.”
-Gangaji
“Change is the law of life. And those who look only to the past or present are certain to miss the future.”
-John F. Kennedy
“A human being is a part of a whole called by us the universe.”
― Tsoknyi Rinpoche
The Path of Hurricane Helene
Shock and sadness wash through lives as water rises, washes away dreams, muddies lives, upends structures, and rips apart the trajectory of what feels certain, familiar, steady, and known. Water finds its path, determines lives, then flows to the source. Watery tears are shed for all that is lost and forever changed.
“Death is water’s close companion. The two cannot be separated, and neither can be separated from us, for they are what we are ultimately made of: the versatility of water, and the closeness of death. Water has no beginning and no end, but death has both. Death is both. Sometimes death travels hidden in water, and sometimes water will chase death away, but they go together always, in the world and in us.”
― Emmi Itäranta, Memory of Water
“Water is life’s matter and matrix, mother and medium. There is no life without water.”
– Albert Szent-Gyorgyi.
“We forget that water and life cycles are one.”
-Jacques Cousteau.
It’s Not Going To Happen and, It Is Happening
Today, I sat to write a poem for my weekly post. It is not happening. My brain is tired. I have run out of words to edify, describe, inspire.
For the past two months, I have been preparing for two sermons that I will be offering at Common Ground Community UMC , our local worship community. Tomorrow, Sumday the 18th, at 9:30 Central Time is the first. The two part series is on suffering, transformation, and compassion. The seocnd part is Sunday the 25th.
If you are interested, I will post a link to their archives and you can pick it up later. This post may be arriving too late for the livestream but it is here.
https://commongroundumc.org
“The most authentic thing about us is our capacity to create, to overcome, to endure, to transform, to love and to be greater than our suffering.”
“Life and death are illusions. We are in a constant state of transformation.”
“If you want others to be happy, practice compassion. If you want to be happy, practice compassion.”
Living Bliss
I ask myself, why do I feel so tormented
with deer who do what deer do:
a flower recently planted lies smashed
out of its pot—limp on the ground,
the tops of the magenta beauties
stand stripped and bereft of color.
As I stop and breathe, feel the turmoil of wanting
to welcome and wanting to be left alone,
I witness the paradox of inviting in all of nature
and then wanting to control who arrives.
I ponder life’s abundance; I understand that
all the colors I want, and need, are always before me.
I enjoyed magenta beauty as I walked past
in the day, aware of her within my display,
in the large red pot. A deer enjoyed magenta beauty
as she walked past one evening and became
one with the excitement of her desire.
Now, which of us lives in bliss, I wonder.
“Where ignorance is bliss, ‘tis folly to be wise.”
-Thomas Gray
“Just think of any negativity that comes at you as a raindrop falling into the ocean of your bliss.”
-Maharishi Mahesh Yogi
“Follow your bliss and the universe will open doors where there were only walls.”
-Joseph Campbell
The River of Sadhana
In a night vision, the meandering timeline of my life
floats before me, like the river that flows past my house,
winding its way south, touching here and there, while
always moving in the direction of intent.
Challenges and joys that went before are seen,
as I float on to this moment. I see my learning
and my fears, when, as a child, I do not understand.
I see confusion, tears, aloneness, transitions,
moving in time, trying to find my way from there to here,
with deaths, friends, shame, insecurities, curiosity.
I feel sadness and joy. I am a child, then a teen
in my self-centered world, lacking awareness
and understanding. I see my marriage, my babies,
the delight, the loss, their gifts to me. I see me,
catapulted to awaken to my life, to shed old skin,
as I long to create, find purpose in being, alter perceptions.
I enter deconstruction—spiritual crisis— and am stripped to bones.
In newness, I am embraced. Through friendship, divine manifestation,
love, compassion, forgiveness, and healing, I find I am enough.
All the iterations of me. All one. All love.
Joys. Challenges. Acceptance. Strength. Understanding.
In allowing and accepting, the way opens. Amma, holy one,
names me—Sadhana, spiritual practice. This name guides me,
as I seek to know the meaning. To accept my path. Learn to allow,
to create, to accept light, to accept love.
I enter my day with the message:
open arms, open heart, receive, give, be.
Be gentle. Be patient. Be love.
“Anything can become a spiritual practice once you are willing to approach it that way—once you let it bring you to your knees and show you what is real, including who you really are, who other people are, and how near God can be when you have lost your way.”
Barbara Brown Taylor, An Altar in the World: A Geography of Faith
“The goal of spiritual practice is full recovery, and the only thing you need to recover from is a fractured sense of self.”
Marianne Williamson
“Spiritual practice should not be confused with grim duty. It is the laughter of the Dalai Lama and the wonder born with every child.”
Jack Kornfield