Category: hope

The Courage of Autumn

On By MiCoIn autumn, changes, courage, earthh, fear, hope, love, nature, peace, poetry, seasons, summer, thanks, thunder, Zen4 Comments

Swift summer snuck in,

Greening up from the edges, shading the forest floor.

It came complete with lovely summer evenings

Where warm breezes filled the night,

And a blanket of starts twinkled in the

Dark humid haze.
The August thunder filled my soul

With its power and its wildness renewed me.

My garden produced produce from the earth

Feeding my soul as richly as it fed my body.

This summer was a season of energy and rapid growth.

There was no time to waste, “bloom now, don’t be afraid” was its message.

But now, without warning, the days begin to shorten,

The afternoon shadows grow longer.

Late night mists form as the heart of summer

Makes its escape back to the sky from where it came.

The golden sunglow fades from my skin as it

Has from the fields.

A summer season of riotous beginnings looses its energy and

Fades into the arms of autumn.

As the seasons change, so must I.

I need to return to the safety and warmth of my home and

Gather my growings to feed my body as I gather my loves

To sustain my soul through the cold, dark time to come.

Autumn is the time to return to what was, to what came before

Summer’s brief and beautiful interruption.

Fearlessly and with a final burst of thanks in colors of red and gold,

The earth has gently shed its past with its leaves.

If only I could shed mine with such courage and beauty.

Love is Not for The Faint of Heart

On By MiCoIn faith, hope, love, poetryLeave a comment

He taught me to sit in mystical darkness,

And watch the floating pin points of light in my soul.

They were at once familiar and strange, a one sighted following,

A place where songs were sung backwards.

The sitting itself was an empty solitude,

But only on the surface.

Although years have passed, the echoing sadness still seeps in.

Thankfully, time and focus have helped to remove its sting.

But even time cannot erase the unanswered questions that linger,

They are still shouting in my ear to be heard.

My continuing faith in Sri helps to remove my doubts while

His quiet presence replaces my pain.

He has made me realize there is no more time for seeping sadness,

Its time has finally passed and his death has lost its drowning sorrow.

Now my teacher’s essence speaks to me in thoughts not words, but his message is still the same.

He tells me to be open, still, and fearless.

He promises that if I take it all in and have faith, I will receive what I need.

I will be held and loved – sunlit wrinkles and all.

I will never lose the sound of his voice as it is written on my soul and

Held close to my heart.

Sri’s wisdom is as profound now as it was then as

He tells me once again that my love for the other is right and good.

It is a love that was meant to be. There is nothing greater,

Nothing less, nothing more to need.

My teacher asks me to reside within that love, and feel the power

And strength that comes from knowing that it is right and good.

Sri understands that my love for the other is whole and simple, kind and generous,

Is light and darkness together,

He can see into my heart and

Feel how this love fills me with warmth and joy.

His words encourage me to never to give up for as his love has shown me,

It is not always easy to love but to love for love’s sake is in and of itself its own reward.

He taught me that it takes strength to love unconditionally, and

To hold another’s heart in your hands and not be afraid takes courage and commitment.

Love is not for the faint of heart.

September Morning (Sarah’s Birthday)

On By MiCoIn childhood, faith, family, hope, love, poetry4 Comments

In morning’s stillness, the owl sings to me of days gone by.

Soft darkness surrounds my heart and brings me back in time.

Back to a small building, a small town,

36 years in the past to an empty waiting room and dimly lit corridors.

To a quiet hospital’s artificial twilight while the world sleeps on,

Unaware of the new life signaling its time to begin.

It was just us, waiting together, physically connected as one

But for only a few hours more.

Your birth was the beginning of our separate journeys but as

A physical separation only, we remained together in heart and mind.

In that early September morning mist, as a tiny girl, you took your place beside me,

And changed my life with your smile.

You left the temporary shelter of my body,

And joined the permanent shelter of my heart.

Your presence in this world begin on that beautiful morning but

Your soul was already here, waiting for you to come back.

Right from the beginning your wisdom and light shown through your tiny eyes.

Your smile contagious, your grace and love profound.

You are an eternal soul born to bring a spark of goodness and light back to this world,

Your simple presence making the world and my life a better place.

You are now a woman, holding the little hand of the next embodiment of profound sprit and wisdom.

Your light is strong in your daughter and so the cycle continues.

From mother to daughter, sister to sister,

Woman to woman.

Together we are strong, loving, grace filled and eternal and build on each other’s strengths.

The time has come for us to take our rightful place in this universe.

Our life-force will change the world and the heavens and bring them back into balance.

And as it was in the beginning, the hands that rock the cradle will hold the hearts of the world and all will be at peace once more.

The change has begun.

September 3, 2015

MC

Noble Silence

On By MiCoIn Buddhism Meditation space, candles, darkness, faith, heartbreak, hope, love, poetry12 Comments

This silence, a noble silence of

Candles and Buddha.

Three nights, three days

Hours of silence, hours of sitting.

Heaven in bowls of homemade soup and crusty breads.

Food to nourish our bodies as this place nourishes our souls.

The bells welcome morning and

Breakfast nourishes in silence.

A retreat from ordinary life,

No jobs to do, no one to take care of except ourselves.

A beautiful place surrounded by

Beautiful people, soul sisters and brothers.

We are like-minded, but are on our own journeys.

As Shawn so rightly said, “no one can do your path better than you”.

New friends with old ideas,

Each their own but each the same.

And so I sit, just sit and be

I try to keep my mind still.

Sometimes it is,

Sometimes not.

A sinking feeling, sinking into my soul

Into that space behind my eyes that truly sees

I see it in fleeting moments of bliss

Nothing to hold onto, nothing to catch.

Hours pass by in seconds, other times

Seconds are hours.

Bells signal the beginning and ending

Three to start, three to stop.

Sometimes the end comes too quickly,

Sometimes too slowly

A moment can last forever

Or disappear in a heartbeat.

It has left a lasting, life changing impression

Am I brave enough to take these steps?

Do I know which way to go? I think I do and

If I am honest with myself, I will.

I have to take this chance, nothing will change

Until I make the choice.

If I do, in six months I’ll be fine

If I don’t, in six months it will still be the same.

Seems so wrong to have to pay this price again,

So wrong to have already lost before I even started.

So I will sit, alone in my mind, alone in my heart

And ultimately alone in my soul.

I need to return to the place of Noble Silence

And let the stillness dry my tears and harden my heart.

It is the only way to survive,

The only way to be.

Who I Am

On By MiCoIn faith, family, hope, love, poetry, spirit18 Comments

I am a woman,

A real woman.

Finally one with who I am

Not who anyone else wants me to be.

Mother, daughter, grandmother, friend, sister, lover

All aspects of the same me.

I know what I can take and

When to say “Enough!”

When to be still, when to move

When to love, when to protect.

They are my choices to make, mine alone and

My chances to take as well.

I have enough love for the whole world and

Dreams to match.

I am wise in so many new ways,

Ways I never knew existed.

The transition from girl to young woman

To the me of now has been a hard journey.

I no longer need, now I know and feel and treasure what and who is.

This recent shift in perspective has been life changing.

I know what I don’t want and what I

Will not put up with ever again.

I am a mother to everyone and

A servant to none but God.

I am a sister to my friends and will stand by

And with them for all time.

It takes a special man to handle the love of a real woman,

A woman of strength and passion.

I am thankful to have finally met such a man, I am his lover and his alone.

My love for him is not controlling or imposing, it is freeing and glorious, as is he.

“Come my love, come share in my journey, as I will share in yours.

Take my hand and walk with me, I will not let you down, I promise.”

It has taken me 60 years to find this place in myself and now with him.

I can finally shut off the voices in my head that would deny me this joy.

They are self-defeating voices carrying left over pains from the past, a past

Best left behind, not ignored and stifled but learned from and then put to rest.

I can now assert and live my right to be who I am, who I’ve always been,

From the beginning of time and now, thankfully, for all time to come.

My Child-Self

On By MiCoIn family, hope, love6 Comments

Sad little girl,

Come, sit with me.

Let me hold you, dry your tears,

Kiss your sweet little face.

I know you are hurt, I understand, I see her,

I see how she is, how she treats you.

Come and sit close, you can trust me,

I will protect you; there is no hurting here.

I know you are too little to understand, and

Too innocent to see the shame and fear she holds inside.

All you know is the pain of her betrayal.

I know and see how hard you try to please her, yet still she is hateful and mean.

I hear her tell you daily that you are not good enough, are funny looking and how she wishes she had never given birth to you.

I see and feel your pain and frustration, and

It breaks my heart to watch this happen to us.

I have learned and grown while you have waited and now the time has come

For me to come back in time to you, to a time when we were one.

Look for me and don’t be afraid, come close and I will read you a story,

I know she never did.

I will hold you like my baby and sing your sorrows to sleep,

She didn’t know how.

I will show you that you are better than good enough, and

I will prove to you that there is nothing wrong with you, in spite of what she said.

You will never be alone again,

The wait is over.

Trust me my child-self,

I have enough love for both of us, I pinky-promise.