Night Shadows

Sheets of white surround me in

A blanket of feathered softness as dreams of him linger

 on the edge of sleep, my being cloaked in night’s darkness.

Through my darkness, I watch the night shadows drift past the windows,

They have lives of their own, the darkness becomes them.

The textured blackness of night can be comforting in its sameness.

A sameness that frees me from the eyes of judgment.

And as I lie back and watch his image leave the edge of sleep

I feel him join with me in whispered prayers the essence of which lingers on when sleep has fled.

But they are short lived prayers and are consumed by the night shadows to hide in the sameness of the textured blackness

Unanswered, dissolving and alone

Forever.

The love and stillness of forever.

 

Our destiny is love,

In its form of being and nonbeing.

It flows from the source,

From the beginnings of timelessness.

From the place of no time or deception as time is limiting and

Deception is the extinguisher of love.

Loves lies around the edges of our worldly existence,

Waiting for its chance, for an opening to flow in.

It is patient and forgiving but is not to

Be taken for a fool.

Love cries with agony watching our abuse of and unkindness towards each other

But it will never walk away or give up on us.

It sees and is the stillness in me and

Recognizes itself in you and all beings and nonbeings.

There is a lack of labeling in love, no separateness of one from the other.

It does not merely exist in some abstract form as it has no form and is alive in the stillness of all things.

Love seeps into existence in fragrant vapors of stillness and

Frames the portal to eternity.

Isness and non-duality are the very essence of love, the connection of being and nonbeing,

The beginning and the end, the beginingless and endless formlessness of all form.

Love is the essential formlessness of me and you and

The non-separate nature of us all.

So  forget my name but remember when you and I were the formless within each other.

And when you again feel that deep stillness  and

Have found your remembered place in me,

Come and hold  me and once again we will share 

The love and stillness of forever.

From The Inside Out

 

When I take the time to look inside, instead of outside,

I find miraculous things.  Things I never have seen before,

Feelings I never have noticed and rules I never have followed.

Oftentimes they are the feelings and rules I have imposed on others but never followed myself.

Others whom I say I know well and in my arrogance convince myself that I know how they think,

And feel but in reality, my assumptions are baseless and I realize

That it is only me who I can ever know…

But only from the inside out.

Because of Him

 

Gratitude for the smallest 

Becomes gratitude for the eternal,

Because the eternal exists in even the smallest of things,

Like a baby’s smile, a milkweed bloom, and crystal blue winter skies.

An autumn leaf, falling softly and quietly,

Releases its life full of gratitude willingly in a celebration of color,  it knows.

It is the smallest of things in my life that cover me in warmth and

Feed the fire of my gratitude with love.

I am thankful for sunrises and sunsets,

The defining moments of each day’s beginning and end.

I am grateful for my children and grandchildren and friends –

All manifestations of God.

Even the light in the eyes of the the wild ones of my forest home

Shines with the spirit of the heavens and the intimate knowledge of Krishna’s grace.

And when I am in danger of forgetting these things, these perfect and beautiful things,

something as simple as seeing my clear glass canning jars, standing in a sparkling row,

Can bring me back to myself, to my home,

The home I hold deep within, the one that holds the essence of me.

It is my gratefulness that fuels my passions for the loves in my life, from acorns to hummingbirds

Grasshoppers to lightning storms,

Soft kisses at midnight,

And sweet love in the morning.

I am grateful to exist in a flood of grace and love.

Grace that is endless and effortless, and love that is freeing and all encompassing.

My heart is full and my smiles are because of him.

Hari Om

In Shared Seclusion

 

 

A field of brown grass,

A drop of chilly dew,

A morning kissed ripe apple, and

A bursting milkweed pod…

Signs of the change of seasons and an

Elevation of my consciousness.

Summer has ended.

It has shed its past and faded into isness

But it’s an isness that is charged with the now.

At the change of seasons, there is a new definition of me.

One that shifts with the sun angles and holds my spirit in kindness.

It is a newness in me that ebbs and flows with the tides and moon cycles.

That builds on the new life essence that captures my attention

That fills my heart and soul.

An essence of change, of new life, of new beginnings from old endings.

It is a change that envelopes my being and carries me along with it.

A flood of truth and trust, a deluge of emotions and warmth.

My heart misses the summer season but my soul is alive with the contentment of the coming winter.

A sheltered silence in seasonal separateness

But all together just the same…

In shared seclusion.

All Are One In Him

 

He exists in the space between

The particles of my being.

The internal space in my heart that holds his love

Is infinite.

I hear him in the silence and

Stillness of the Now.

I feel him in the pause between

My in and out breath.

His smile lights my dreams

As his hands take mine and lead me to a place of love and peace.

His life force powers every cell in my body. I know it is so as

I feel it traveling in waves through me with each breath I take.

He speaks to me and holds my heart in the stillness of the night

And brings hope for the new day with each morning’s light.

He has absorbed my fears, anger and sorrow into

His very being and holds them dear for me and from me.

I no longer have to dwell in the past or

Speculate about the future as all are one in Him.

My gratitude is all encompassing

And my love for him limitless.

He is my Lord.

Hari Krishna

My Heart Has Been Reborn

 

My heart now knows and feels that

Which my mind can only dream of.

This change in attitude has produced

A change in my reality.

Losing that burning anger has

Opened the doors to peace and

My emotions have taken on a new life with

A fresh perspective.

What once was clouded and dark

Now is clear and shines with an inner light all its own.

My old thoughts are powerless against me,

Their negativity replaced with the beautiful truth I see in his silent smiles.

In truth is found respect.

My perception of what was has shifted and

True compassion has filled the once painful void in my soul.

That which I saw in anger

Now is tempered by a flood of loving kindness.

So, the sting of the cruel mother’s words, the hurtful ex-husband, the heartless lovers of the past

Has faded and softened into acceptance,

An acceptance of the frailties and humanness of being human.

The unintentional infliction of pain and betrayal has lost its power to hurt and linger now that

My eyes see with a new light.

It is the light of amber afternoon love, of kindness, beauty and strength.  A deep, deep love without conditions —  as God meant love to be.

So now I can relax and just let it be.

Let it all unfold as it should and must, and be what it may.

I finally understand that my wanting and needing are just more obstacles in the way of just letting what is meant to be… be.

Please be patient with me love, my heart has recently been reborn.

A New Day

This is a day to walk away from what was

And begin anew.

A new life, a new hope,

A new light and home,

A new season, a new feeling,

And sometimes a new beginning from the old.

 A time to rebuild, renew and remold –

Myself.

In these beginnings there exist endings.

Some welcome, some not.

What I thought was, wasn’t and

What I thought was done, was not.

But now there is a mellowness, a warm light,

A subtle joy in these changes as

I sense a grace in my thoughts, a softening of my soul,

A warming of my heart,

A fullness of my being and

A richness in my life.

This new now brings me peace, gratitude and

Strength, along with an acceptance of what is,

The ability to let go of what was as it is gone,

And to think not of what may be as that is yet unknown.

And so with faith I will rest in the arms of the now and hold dear against my chest,

Like the tiny body of a baby, my heart and watch its pain and sorrow melt away and

Drift with the tide out to sea,

Comforted by the light and love of the full moon.

At last I can rejoice in the here and now

And hold close the loves in my life without fear.

I will fill my soul with gratitude for this new peace and

Begin each day with love for the miracle it is and

The joy that these new beginnings bring.

Hari Om

The Water’s Fine

 

Don’t wait, take the plunge.

Hold your nose and jump in.

How else will you ever know if it is too soon or too late?

If you will sink or swim?

Where will the answers come from and when, if not now?

I have waited before,

Have stepped back from the edge

Just in case I was wrong.

But now, at this time in my life, there is no wrong, there is only what will work now,

 Or more accurately, what I will make work now, for in this present moment, anything is possible.

And if I should get tired of swimming and start to sink, I can just put my feet down and ground them in the earth. 

It is never too late because it is always now.

So stay with me in this present moment where there is no room for fear,

Trust me, take my hand and take the plung,

The water’s fine!

Sweet, Sweet September

September’s muted sunshine and billowing clouds

 Speak of a change to come, a change already begun.

In soft subtle shifts of afternoon shadows and heavy morning dew laden grass,

Autumn makes its arrival known.

Summer slides sleepily away, the heat having worn her out

As the freshness of fall takes her place.

Meadow grasses turn brown

And Goldenrod losses its shine.

Milkweed pods bust open, trusting their future generations to the wind and

 Flocks of geese gather together to finalize their flight plan.

In the subtle softness of September the world is poised for transition.

There is no harshness to September…

The cold biting winds and freezing temperatures

Are saved for November and the first dusting of frost for October.

September exists to give us a gentle push towards winter,

While reminding us from week to week and sometimes day to day of what we will miss

 Until spring arrives again and the earth warms, the geese return and

 The faith of the milkweeds is fulfilled.