Tuesday, March 31, 2015

Counting down the days


Counting down the days,
the image of the cross begins to loom...

Monday, March 30, 2015

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. 


Sunday, March 29, 2015

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?

Saturday, March 28, 2015

What do you love?


What do you love?
Give it your full attention:
Watch it bloom, and revel in its radiance.

Friday, March 27, 2015

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?


Thursday, March 26, 2015

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.

Wednesday, March 25, 2015

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?

Tuesday, March 24, 2015

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

Monday, March 23, 2015

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

Sunday, March 22, 2015

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.

Saturday, March 21, 2015

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.

Friday, March 20, 2015

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

Thursday, March 19, 2015

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...

Wednesday, March 18, 2015

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...

Tuesday, March 17, 2015

Do not resent the darkness


Do not resent the darkness in your life,
for in it your magnificent inner flame
will finally be revealed.

Monday, March 16, 2015

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.

Sunday, March 15, 2015

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...

Saturday, March 14, 2015

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.

Friday, March 13, 2015

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.

Thursday, March 12, 2015

Invisible container


When viewed from above,
the container becomes invisible:
all we see is the beauty it releases into the world.

Wednesday, March 11, 2015

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?

Tuesday, March 10, 2015

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.


Monday, March 9, 2015

The courage of poetry


What courage poetry can take:
to hang our damp and ordinary lives outside
for everyone to see...

Sunday, March 8, 2015

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.

Saturday, March 7, 2015

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.

Friday, March 6, 2015

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...

Thursday, March 5, 2015

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.

Wednesday, March 4, 2015

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...

Tuesday, March 3, 2015

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.

Monday, March 2, 2015

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.

Sunday, March 1, 2015

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.