*

*
*

Wednesday, March 31, 2021

SEEMINGLY BACKWARDS

"Surrender to win."
~ Popular Saying ~

We grab for the things we think we want fearfully, aggressively,
As if that's the only way to assure that we get them,
And the irony is, that until we stop grabbing,
The things that we want can't come.

I let go and receive.


Tuesday, March 30, 2021

LOVE AND SEASONS

"Perhaps you cannot make anyone's thankless task less difficult, but you can always make it less thankless."
~ Robert Brault ~

I am grateful for spring flowers,
For warm sun on a cool day,
And for Klondike bars.
I am grateful for the energy of people,
And their hearts.
I am grateful for the things I've learned,
The things I'm learning,
And the lessons to come. 
I am grateful for full moons and fog and rainbows.
Life is magnificent, and blessings abound. 

I notice the gifts of the earth.

Monday, March 29, 2021

NEVER STALE

"However we sail on the ocean of life our course is determined by Nature's trade-winds and Divinity's undertow."
~ James Lendall Basford ~

When we have a fulfilling experience
It seems to come naturally to want to repeat it,
And then,
When we try,
Generally there is a sense of letdown.
Having something be now what it was then is an impossible task.

The dynamic nature of life changes everything all the time.


Sunday, March 28, 2021

PROMPTINGS

"Intuition, my trustworthy friend."
~ Terri Guillemets ~

Our internal prompts are not always clear-
And some of them may be nothing more than a random thought we snag onto...
But it does seem that sometimes, we are being asked to do something...
Called, maybe,
To do something.
But we can't know until we follow through,
And then see what happens.
That is the land of mystery
And grace. 

I am open to the suggestions of the still small voice within. 

Thursday, March 25, 2021

LEAD IN OUR SOULS

"up with joy!"
~ ee cummings ~ 

We become so accustomed to the weight of our lives
That we don't even feel the heaviness after a time
And just go about our business
With lead in our souls...
Until someone, or something, or God
Relieves us, 
And we feel giddy
from the 
Sudden lightness
and
Joy!

I am relieved. 

Wednesday, March 24, 2021

A CURIOSITY

"I celebrate myself. 
And what I assume you shall assume. 
For every atom belonging to me as good belongs to you."
~ Walt Whitman ~

If we didn't know who we are,
Who would we be?
Take away our conditioning,
Our past,
The voices that have influenced and sometimes shaped us,
The hurts, the rewards,
The successes and failures,
Our friends-
What's left?
Is that all we are- a bundle of all that stuff?
Or is there something deeper, immutable, 
Timeless...
Something utterly unaffected one way or another
By the 
list above. 

What I've been through is something, but it's not everything. 


Tuesday, March 23, 2021

THE DREAM

 "Are you really sure that a floor can't also be a ceiling?"
~ M.C. Escher ~

Years ago, I worked as a Personal Trainer Monday through Friday.
I had lots of clients, I knew everyone, and
I felt like Queen of the gym.
It was a magical place, rich in relationships,
And dynamic with love.
And then I came to work on a Saturday
For my first book signing,
And I watched people coming and going
As I sat at my little table-
And I realized that it was 
Just a gym. 

I create the reality I experience. 


Monday, March 22, 2021

PUTTING THE BAG ON THE COUNTER

"If you surrender to the wind, you can ride it."
~ Toni Morrison ~

We have the power to drop our attachments,
Just like putting down a bag on the counter.
We think they own us,
That we are at their mercy,
That they have the power.
But they don't.
We do. 

I am attached to my attachments because I hold on to them. 



Sunday, March 21, 2021

ALL TANGLED UP

"All emotion is involuntary when genuine."
~ Mark Twain ~

 A complied Facebook video shows the responses of children
To the surprise of being given a puppy,
And frequently,
The response is choking sobs.
Tears and happiness are all tangled up together.
Whether glad or sad, when emotion is deep, it touches our hearts
And rattles us like a thunderstorm with lightning and
Blustery wind. 

The gift is to be able to feel at all. 

Thursday, March 18, 2021

OPEN SPACE

"What we're waiting for now is male rain. Big, booming, wait-till-your-father-gets-home cloudbursts that bully up from Mexico and threaten to rip the sky."
~ Barbara Kingsolver ~

Waiting for an answer is open space-
It could be a yes, or it could be a no,
And as long as we're waiting both possibilities remain...
Which creates tension-
What if imaginings... 
Fear...
Excitement...
And then all of that bubbling energy
Stops 
as soon as the answer 
Comes.
It shifts to the new energy
of 
Next step excitement 
or
Acceptance
that it's
Done.

I suffer from attachment to outcomes that may or may not play out.

Wednesday, March 17, 2021

THE SHAPE

"I will wear my heart upon my sleeve."
~ William Shakespeare ~

Feelings shape our experience.
When we feel guilty, we are shrunken.
When we feel anxious, we are strangled and voiceless.
When we feel afraid, we are 
Stopped.
When we feel light hearted, we are playful.
When we feel joyful, and happy, we laugh.
And when we feel safe, 
Safe,
Safe... 
It is then,
Finally, that
We are 
At ease.

I take the ride.


Tuesday, March 16, 2021

THE TWIST

 "Through a looking glass darkly..."
~ Swedish Film Title ~

Sometimes we think we see more clearly than we actually 
Do see.
Something seems apparent to us,
Obvious,
And then, 
In some twist of circumstance,
We realize
That we have been wrong all along,
Mistaken,
Perceived something amiss.
It happens frequently-
More frequently, perhaps,
Than we want to admit.

Being certain about something doesn't make me right. 


Monday, March 15, 2021

BEING SEEN

"All are but parts of one stupendous whole whose body Nature is and God the soul."
~ Alexander Pope ~

There may be things more powerful than connecting with other sentient beings
But I don't know what they are.
In community,
We are lifted,
Validated,
Awakened,
Seen.

I am not alone. 



Sunday, March 14, 2021

THE HALLWAY

"When one door closes, another one opens, but it's hell in the hallway."
~ American Saying ~ 

I'm in the hallway-
Can't go back-
Don't want to go back-
But not clear where the new door is,
Disoriented,
Waiting for the light. 

It's ok to be still and to not know. 

Thursday, March 11, 2021

ALL IN

"You can't be just a little bit pregnant."
~ American Idiom ~

In new territory, old fixes
Are questionably effective.
We can't be half-in and half-out,
Wanting to keep what we like from what has been
And open to only some of what's in front of us and 
unfamiliar.
It's not all or nothing with everything,
But it is here.
If we want a new life
We have to be ALL IN.

I let go and surrender. 



 

Wednesday, March 10, 2021

SOUL SHRINKER

"I am my own affirmative that transcends all negatives and denials,
The day renounces me- and I sink my roots deeper into the centuries."
~ Muriel Strode ~

In a deck of Oracle cards I used to use frequently, 
There is a card called "Soul Shrinker,"
And choosing it represents unhelpful, malicious, gossipy talk or thoughts
About ourselves or others.
I have been noticing recently how much that energy wants to play
In my life- around myself more than others- and my choices, 
And everything about who I am in the world.
As the card suggests, it shrinks my soul, and takes me down.
Worth being aware of?
Absolutely!
Worth bothering with beyond that? 
Worth believing?
Worth attaching to?
Absolutely not!

I don't have to believe everything I think.


Tuesday, March 9, 2021

THE FAMILIAR

"Knowledge is fuel, not fire."
~ Walter Moxon ~

What's familiar has a strong pull.
It feels safer than what's new somehow,
Even if it isn't necessarily safer...
And so often, it seems we would rather endure than explore,
And know what to expect, even if we don't particularly like it,
Than have no expectations at all.

I am open to the mystery. 

Monday, March 8, 2021

NEVER BEEN THERE, NEVER DONE THAT

"Suppose, however thickly evils crowd upon you, that your unconquerable subjectivity proves to be their match, and that you find a more wonderful joy than any passive pleasure can bring in trusting ever in the larger whole."
~ William James ~

In familiar places, we slip into old habits like sliding our foot
into a comfortable slipper.
The fit feels natural.
But much as we believe in things being "the same"
There is a constantly shifting inner landscape at play,
And an external world that reflects that inner movement.
We expect the same, and it feels different, so
We find ourselves at a loss.
Perhaps, the habit to cultivate is one of
Ever new seeing-
Committing to fresh sight,
To actively looking for the UNfamiliar
And actively feeling it.
That way, life never gets stale,
And we remain amazed 
at the variety
Of experience out there.

I never think I know it all. 

Sunday, March 7, 2021

PERMISSION

"It's ok. It's ok. It's ok."
~ Debi Roemer ~

It's ok to feel sad.
It's ok to feel angry.
It's ok to be afraid,
Worried,
Frustrated,
Overwhelmed.
It's ok to have high hopes
And nightmares both.
It's ok to live big, and
It's ok to live small.
It's ok to like the cold.
It's ok to like the heat.
And it's ok to like them both, or
Not like them both.
It's ok to be busy or 
Still.
It's ok to want things.
It's ok not to want for things.
It's ok to be colorful, neutral, spicy, or
Bland.
It's all part of the living experience, and
If we're not dead, then
We're living.
We're ALIVE!

It's ok. It's ok. It's ok. 

Thursday, March 4, 2021

CHAOS

"Beauty is something wonderful and strange that the artist fashions out of the chaos of the world."
~ Somerset Maugham ~

Chaos is not very grounding,
but it's necessary.
It breaks things up-
Shatters them apart-
Creates space and
Fresh ground
For new growth
Like sprouts in the forest after a wildfire:
Green and lush. 

I accept the messiness that comes with the living experience. 


Wednesday, March 3, 2021

INTO BLISS

"Ad astra per aspera (To the stars through difficulty)."
~ Latin Saying ~

Before we come out in the light
It's as if we need to pass through a kind of birth canal.
We have to give birth to our self.
Labor pains, tears, doubt, fear-
All of these need to be melted somehow-
Dissolved,
As we pass and strain into
No strain,
Into peace,
Into stillness,
Into 
Bliss.

I journey through the passages of my perceptions and conditioning. 

Tuesday, March 2, 2021

WHAT'S NEEDED

"We must not tamper with the organic motion of the soul."
~ RW Emerson ~

There are times to rally community support,
To include others in our intentions
And hopes,
And dreams.
And then,
There are some things 
We just have to do
Alone. 

The soul's journey is at times a private one. It lets us know. 



Monday, March 1, 2021

NO HELPING IT

"I'm sorry to say so
but, sadly, it's true
that Bang-ups
and Hang-ups
can happen to you."
~ Dr Seuss ~

Sometimes life is just emotionally messy.
There's no helping it.
The good, the bad, the ugly, the beautiful, the exciting, the overwhelm,
The serenity, the despair...
It's all mixed up and sloshes through the body
Like water on the bottom of a rowboat
Lurching back and forth
In the wake of big waves.

Sometimes, that's just the way it is.