Counting down the days

Counting down the days,

the image of the cross begins to loom...

These golden fields

Behold these golden fields, so ripe and ready for the harvest.

Behold the mountains and the sky; the ground of being.

In just a few short days, the gold is harvested and gone,

But being -- ah, being -- that's forever. 

Palm Sunday

And now: Let the procession begin...

The ladder of intention

Now that you've found it -- the ladder of intention --

you'll need to decide which way you'll climb:

upward, to become more important, or more powerful?

Or downward, to the heart, to become love?

What do you love?

What do you love?

Give it your full attention:

Watch it bloom, and revel in its radiance.

Fortifications

Talk to me: What is it 

that you're guarding and protecting?

Who is it that you've chosen 

to lock in or be shut out?

Time, like a wave

Time glides in in waves, and blesses us

with the sights and sounds, 

work, people, and possessions that we love,

and then subsides, and we must watch

as all that ebbs away. Just know, and trust,

that time -- just like the waves -- 

will once again return

and lavish us again with life and love.

How will you greet the dawn today?

How will you greet the dawn today?

With blessings and with gratitude?

With muttered imprecations 

about all you need to accomplish?

Or will you just lie quietly and let the light soak in?

Every prison has its chapel

Trapped in the prison
of your own dark thoughts?
Know this:
that every prison has its chapel.
Travel through the corridors
of your own dark stillness;
seek out that tiny room,
and find the spark within
that never dies.
Breathe steadily on that spark
until it flares;
now light a torch and carry it
back out into your life.*

*inspired by Tolbert McCarroll's
Notes from the Song of Life

I am that cat

I am that cat, this stone,
no one at all.
I have thrown duality away
like an old dishrag.
I see and know
all times and world as one --
one, one, always one.
So what do I need to do
to get you to discover
who is speaking?
Admit it --
and change everything:
this is your own true voice
echoing off the walls of God.

-- Rumi

The perils of abundance

We come to you in emptiness, and you shower us with gifts

until they pile so high we can no longer see your face.

Raise our sights, we pray, above this gathering abundance

so we may once again feel close to you.

Slow entry into spring

Spring may be here,

but still the winds are chill

and so we keep our feathers fluffed

and scan the skies for hints of another snow.

If you see my reflection...

Oh, mirror in the sky, what is love?
Can the child within my heart rise above?
Can I sail through the changing ocean tides?
Can I handle the seasons of my life?

-- Fleetwood Mac

You could become the sky

Look at all this glory -- 

the flowers, the sea, the mountains and the sky --

you could become the sky, you know --

you could become the sky...

Transitions

Whether you're sailing into the picture

or heading slowly out,

it's best to hold a steady course

and keep your sheets from luffing:

the sound of your flapping sails

might mask important information...

Do not resent the darkness

Do not resent the darkness in your life,

for in it your magnificent inner flame

will finally be revealed.

A splash of hope

I'm waiting here, and watching

as the waves toss their bright promises on the sand,

a splash of hope to cool my burning cheeks

and bring me back to now.

Coping with the winds

There's an art to this, a grace that is achieved

in coping with the winds that come your way:

to remain braced, yet flexible; aware, or even wary, 

and yet still grounded, trusting, and assured...

When love breaks through

The waves you made while passing through my life

still chuckle at my shore, shifting the logs

I'd gathered there to keep those surging feelings out:

I watch, a mix of anxiousness and joy, as love spills over,

trickling through the boundaries to seep into my thirsty lawn.

Forward into destiny

You know that breathless open feeling you get

when you see something you cannot help but love,

when nature pulls you out of yourself,

and forward into limitless destiny?

Now take that breathless openness

and plant it in your heart, 

inviting it to grow.

Invisible container

When viewed from above,

the container becomes invisible:

all we see is the beauty it releases into the world.

What keeps you trapped?

What fear is this, that keeps you trapped

inside your narrow vision of the world?

Can you not see: those whom you view as other

are not that different from yourself?

Float into the light

Call it meditation, or call it prayer, 

but take a moment to listen 

for the song of the dawn.

Await the touch of the holy,

breathe the scent of the divine 

and allow yourself to float into the light.

The courage of poetry

What courage poetry can take:

to hang our damp and ordinary lives outside

for everyone to see...

What's left behind

That moment comes, the one that you've been craving 

for so long, and now you have it: 

you're cradling the moon, but then it sinks, 

continuing on its path, and you are left, 

forever molded by that memory in the palm of your hands.

Likewise, our hearts expand, imprinted with the shape 

of those we love, and when the losses come 

those conformations still remain, pressing out 

against our being with the emptiness left behind:

a spaciousness within that fills with light.

Joy will return

It can be challenging to remember

that whenever the sun sets on an old life,

it will soon rise on a new one.

What fades to dark will always come to light again --

wait patiently, and soon joy will return.

Inherent luminescence of a life

Step back a bit,

and notice how the path you've taken curves,

adapting to the hills and valleys

of the life that you've been given.

See the inherent luminescence of those ups and downs;

how the obstacles we meet along the way

may well be protective windbreaks of our own creation...

The fruit you were born to bear

The demands you cannot meet, the jobs you can't complete,

the people who are hard to love, the obstacles you cannot move --

abandon all, and sink into your heart,

and in the silent stillness there,

find peace and strength to know and do the tasks uniquely yours, 

the fruit you were born to bear.

Friendship

Today, I'll just be grateful

for all the voices through the years

that kept me company and shared the journey,

even when it felt like we were only sitting still...

Come sit with me

Come. Step with me into that inner room,

that quiet space, where to-do lists and time

are locked outside the door, and though they knock

incessantly, we let them be.

Unclip the sheets on which you've been projecting

a steady stream of images (past and future)

and let them fall in puddles to the floor.

Just breathe, and let the gap between

the out breath and the in lengthen, and fill

the air around you with the scent of love.

Minuscule corrections

It's true: there will be obstacles --

some lesser, and some quite large --

yet still the spirit finds its way,

carving a path whose minuscule corrections

glisten in the light.

Simple pleasures

And here's my wish for you today:

that you will look, and watch, and watching, see

the simple pleasures that await

when we take time to look, and watch, and see.