A gradual unfolding

Think of life and relationships 

 As a gradual unfolding, 

Slowly opening our hearts 

Til we reveal that inner core 

That both withstands and welcomes…

Blest be the ties that bind

We who are humans, 

Broken and scarred, 

Are bound together 

By fate and our faith. 

May the ancient and timeless 

Words of love 

Bind us together 

Both now and for always.

When you walk through a storm

What looks like fire behind those clouds 

Is actually just a sunrise, 

But at first glance, one might fear 

Disaster’s looming — a good reminder 

Not to leap to assumptions, 

And to stay calm in a storm — 

Don’t waste your energy worrying, 

But rather spend it in preparing 

 To care for one another 

 And be grateful for what beauty you may find.

Time to open the door

Perhaps it’s time to take another look: 

To open that door in your heart, 

The one you shut so long ago, 

That protects you from the pain 

Of the hurts and losses you’ve experienced. 

You’re older now, stronger, and wiser, too — 

Quite capable of converting those experiences 

To energize and fuel your creativity.

Underlying unity

For so long I’ve yearned for bolder shapes 

To emerge in my paintings, 

But I’m finally coming to understand 

 That that desire is almost always over ridden 

By the underlying sense of the unity of creation 

Which seems determined to express itself 

In my work.

Hampered by the past

We need only be limited by our past 

If we identify with it and get stuck. 

Why choose to sit, powerless; 

To linger beneath the clouds 

 Of anger, bitterness and regret, 

When we could take up our oars 

 And paddle away in hopes of landing 

On the sunny shores of gratitude?

The beauty of imperfections

It’s easy to become obsessed 

 With our imperfections; 

The many ways we fail to live up to 

Our expectations of ourselves. 

It sometimes takes a friend to point out 

That those very imperfections are 

What make us uniquely human,

 And that it is in wrestling with them 

That we find our path to healing.