The poem illustrates a melding of two beliefs: there is no place where God is not and Abraham’s idea that you can never get it wrong.  Hence, life or love never fails — you never fail.  God is with you always no matter how exhilarated you feel or how low and unimpassioned you feel.  God is with you in both the simplicity and the complexity of your lives.  God, Spirit, the ineffable, the mysteriously indefinable, is that which courses through you continuously without end.

image locale

I have fallen between the cracks
and landed in the spaces
where love never fails

Beloved, you are my captor
and I am bound by your love

I hear you whisper softly
don’t speak. words fail here, just listen

churning on the seas of your desire
I am the rising and the falling

the beginning and the ending
the fullness and the emptiness

journey to the furthest point of your yearning
I am the anguish and the exaltation

I am the grain of sand awakening the pearl

I am the morsel you are tasting
be it bitter or sweet

quench your deepest thirst here
where you think I’m not

I Am.

©heartsdeesire

Behold this new day.

It’s your opportunity

to leave the stamp

of who you are

right smack dab

on the cheeks of it.

MWAH!!

I begged my husband, please let me read you this poem, it means so much to me (appended below).  He says he doesn’t like poetry unless it’s one of my poems.  Sweet.  He relents, I begin to read him this poem and am not half way through it before I’m crying.  It’s one of those poems where I wondered — did the author go inside my heart and read what was written there?

How did he know I’ve been afraid?  How did he know I thought I’d dump every idea of exploring consciousness and life?  I tried to convince myself, I’m older now, I don’t need to make the grand experiments anymore.  Maybe I don’t even care anymore.  Maybe I’ll never care again.  Maybe this small, safe place is where I belong.

I thought, if I don’t make big, bold footprints in the world, I won’t be noticed.  Big, scary things won’t happen to me then.  You see, if I’m not noticed, I can’t be hurt.  I’ll just go over here and carve out this small, quiet space and I’ll be protected.

I didn’t decide all at once that I can’t live happily like that.  I didn’t exactly turn a corner all at once either.  I tiptoed up to it, peeked around the corner and retreated.  Then I’d do it again and again and again.  Until one day I could say, I invite my true sense of adventure and exploration back in.  I invite Life back in again.

I turned the corner because I am a devotee of expansion more than I am a devotee of fear.  This is the path of my heart and soul.  I choose to follow it now.  Again.

* * *

For A New Beginning

In out-of-the-way places of the heart,
Where your thoughts never think to wander,
This beginning has been quietly forming,
Waiting until you were ready to emerge.

For a long time it has watched your desire,
Feeling the emptiness growing inside you,
Noticing how you willed yourself on,
Still unable to leave what you had outgrown.

It watched you play with the seduction of safety
And the gray promises that sameness whispered,
Heard the waves of turmoil rise and relent,
Wondered would you always live like this.

Then the delight, when your courage kindled,
And out you stepped onto new ground,
Your eyes young again with energy and dream,
A path of plentitude opening before you.

Though your destination is not yet clear
You can trust the promise of this opening;
Unfurl yourself into the grace of beginning
That is at one with your life’s desire.

Awaken your spirit to adventure;
Hold nothing back, learn to find ease in risk;
Soon you will be home in a new rhythm,
For your soul senses the world that awaits you.

~John O’Donohue~
To Bless the Space Between Us
A Book of Blessings

Here’s a question from the weekly powerful question:

“How can I demonstrate my gratitude for a part of my body that I have judged as unattractive?”

Now before you even answer it, read this too:

“You may choose, of course, to work with the Question as you see fit. However, you might want to consider reflecting upon the Question without seeking a specific answer too quickly. If an answer is arrived at too soon, the answer is more likely to be based upon what you already know rather than what you might be able to discover over time.

Often times a Question itself can prepare you for something that is larger than you can now imagine or do. It can draw you more deeply into possibilities and the unknown rather than to an answer, particularly if the question is approached from the perspective of “what if” rather than “how.” You might, for example, ask yourself the Question at times when you are feeling emotions, such as fear, joy or sadness, and simply notice what you feel in your body or in your heart when you ask the Question. Then simply move on without attempting to come to an answer.

If you allow a question to maintain its creative tension, you might be surprised at what you discover!”

I love that on two levels, the powerful question and the asking to suspend a propensity to get in there and do something about it, adopt an easy fix, instead to be open to something beyond that first impulse.

If you watched the film What the Bleep Do We Know?!, you saw the main character write love notes on her body in the pivotal bathroom scene.  She wrote on the parts of her she previously saw as revolting.  Then she lay in the tub to soak these messages in.  I did that, too.  My kids, when they were younger, would exclaim to any body who’d listen: Mommy writes on her body. :)

There are parts of my body I’ve looked at and said yuk.  I’ve joked and said in my next life, I’ll come back with no cellulite.  But you know what — in this life all joking aside, I’m done with looking at myself physically, emotionally or otherwise and naming any part of me as bad, wrong, inadequate or not good enough.

These days, I walk a singular path and that’s the path of the heart.  This path only knows how to say yes.  Yes to life, yes to me, yes to love.  It doesn’t matter what word I write on my body or the sky for that matter, what matters most is a kiss of yes on my lips.  Yes to this precious physical vessel I have the privilege of inhabiting.  Yes to all of me.

A single put-down is a tiny insult to the framework of who we are.  Are you done with insults big and small to yourself?  I sure am.  I’m ready to embrace the many ways I now say yes to myself.

“Desiderata” by Max Ehrmann, was published in 1927, and became very popular in the 1960′s and 1970′s. It was out in the stores on posters in much abundance!  There were several variations of it, and it was even disputed to have been “found in Old Saint Paul’s Church, Baltimore, dated 1692″.

Actually, Max Ehrmann, an Indiana poet, wrote “Desiderata” and several other books, as well. When his poem became so popular again, and it was quoted as ‘anonymous’, his wife who was then a widow, proved that it was indeed written by her husband and copyrighted in 1927 and registered with the Copyright Office of the Library of Congress.

“Go placidly amid the noise and haste,
and remember what peace there may be in silence.

As far as possible without surrender
be on good terms with all persons.

Speak your truth quietly & clearly;
and listen to others,
even to the dull & the ignorant;
they too have their story.

Avoid loud & aggressive persons,
they are vexatious to the spirit.

If you compare yourself with others,
you may become vain or bitter;
for always there will be greater
& lesser persons than yourself.

Enjoy your achievements as well as your plans.

Keep interested in your own career, however humble;
it is a real possession in the changing fortunes of time.

Exercise caution in your business affairs;
for the world is full of trickery.

But let not this blind you to what virtue there is;
many persons strive for high ideals;
and everywhere life is full of heroism.

Be yourself.

Especially, do not feign affection.

Neither be cynical about love;
for in the face of all aridity & disenchantment
it is as perennial as the grass.

Take kindly the counsel of the years,
gracefully surrendering the things of youth.

Nurture strength of spirit to shield you in sudden misfortune.

But do not distress yourself with dark imaginings.

Many fears are born of fatigue & loneliness.

Beyond a wholesome discipline,
be gentle with yourself.

You are a child of the universe, no less than the trees & stars;
you have a right to be here.

And whether or not is is clear to you,
no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should.

Therefore be at peace with God,
whatever you conceive Him to be.

And whatever your labors & aspirations,
in the noisy confusion of life keep peace in your soul.

With all its sham, drudgery & broken dreams,
it is still a beautiful world.

Be cheerful.

Strive to be happy”.

“Desiderata — A Poem for a Way of Life” by Max Ehrmann, published
by Crown Publishers, NY.

Been listening to Abe, the most recent, for just a bit today.  I wondered how long I was going to poke around in the problem/solution before I was done.  Then I thought I better quit poking unless I want said problem/solution bigger.

Then of course it occurs to me this “better quit poking” is all about control/fear.  I cop to all of it being about control/fear.  I get up in the middle of the night, open the shades to check outside and make sure there isn’t what? a boogeyman out there.  Some new contrast to come bite me in the ass, when I’m not looking, so if I look it will bite less? :)

This whole idea that I have to glean some message out of what happened, learn the lesson, grok it, understand it, make sure I expand out of it, is also all about control/fear.  As if, if I really get the lesson, I pass go and I won’t be sent back to contrast jail.  Perhaps I’ll visit but I won’t miss my turn.  So there.  :)

I am still poking around, I guess.  When my Mom said don’t touch the stove, it’s hot, I had to check to make sure.  However, this is not the same as putting my hand in the fire.  I am just checking/poking around in temperature levels, got that Universe?  Good.

Bless my little pea-pickin’ fearful self.  What I really want to do is pluck the full ripe blossoms and let the juices spill out over the corners of my mouth.  I want pea-pickin’ fearful girl to fall away and slip off of me like so much of nothing.

As you follow the path of life
every now and then, flirt wildly with it

Begin each day with only
an eager yes on your lips

Leap into the wide open arms of
all things immeasurable

Then, flow like water
spill over the edges of your life

©heartsdeesire

This side of heaven, where do you suppose this side of heaven is?

“It’s not a place you can get to by a boat or a train. It’s far, far away. Behind the moon, beyond the rain.”

So said the rubyslipper-ed one just before she sung that unforgettable song: Over the Rainbow.

Behind the moon, beyond the rain…is it really that far away?  Or is it found within each of us?  Is it found in between the spaces of
judgment about ourselves – that field that Rumi spoke of?
Is it found in opening to our innate creativity?  Is it where our
dreams lie?  Where imagination comes alive?  Is it in the little
forgivenesses we give ourselves and others?

Is it in that moment we took to consciously take a breath?  Is it now, when I end this entry, step outside, look up, look around, point my face to the sun, breathe in the beauty of today and stay there for a good long time?

Unencumbered
Free
Free to just simply
be

I went to see Karate Kid yesterday.  It’s not the usual genre of movies that I am attracted to but I did enjoy it.  Yes, it is a tad bit predictable, even so I cried and cheered as I often do for the “underdog”.  The movie has many themes: strength, stillness, focus, discipline, attitude, and respect yet it was the backdrop of Eastern spiritualism that caught my attention the most.  Here are three ideas from the movie that I wanted to expound on:

1)  You see with your eyes you are easy to fool.  Don’t see it, feel it.

Yes, “feel it” this is the sixth sense, also known as intuition, gut instinct.  It means moving from a deeper sense of who we are, not limited by the five senses but expanded through our knowing that we are connected to something greater, something on the side of goodness and beauty, something both wonderful and mysterious.  Through Spirit, daily we are moved upon.  Only when I forget, when I think I have to tough it out all on my own, do I suffer and separate myself from all that is good, beautiful and working on my behalf every moment of every day.

2)  Kung Fu lives in how we treat people.

I love this and I would add that it’s also in how we treat ourselves.  Are we friendly to ourselves, do we respect ourselves, do we honor ourselves, our truth, our needs?  Is our inner world a friendly one, a peaceful one?  As within, so without.

3)  When life knocks you down, you can choose to get up again.

I might say it a little differently — there is what happens in life and then there is who we are when the stuff of life comes knocking at our door.  Who are we when we answer that door?  Who are we when life throws us a ball out of left field?  Who do we want to be then?

This is who I want to be — one who remembers nos. 1 and 2 of her 30 Day Challenge.  Whatever it is, let me greet it with an open heart, allow me to remember I am right where I am supposed to be.  Let me know from deep inside where it counts, that the Universe has my back always, no matter what.  Grant that I be ever mindful of a Universe that sometimes turns left to go right.  Who knows what is in store for me when I am willing to suspend judgment that something bad is happening.  Allow me to trust in a Universe that is continually expanding and unfolding.  Grant that I remember no fact, no circumstance has the power to compel me to hand over my personal Well Being.

If life should knock me down, grant that I remember I am held and supported by something much greater than mere circumstances.  Let me know, as I walk into what may sometimes feel like the void of the unknown that I never, ever walk alone.

As I

move about

my day

today

allow me

to pause

let me

remember

in every

moment

I am

moved upon

and

sustained

by

God Force