Garden statues in the dark are
Emotions frozen in time.
They are profiles of love in stone
Whose souls touch in the night while
Shadows hide their truth.
Earth turns the statues away from the night and towards the sun,
Always chasing its light and warmth
In an endless journey from light to dark
And back again while
Heart statues stand, emotions frozen in time as
Profiles of love frozen in faith.
Changes are not always positive
Or swift.
Some drag, leaving behind a trail
Of sorrow.
Some move quickly, leaving no time to dwell
In the past.
Some changes are painful but for the better.
Some are just the way it is, neither good nor bad.
We decide which way to go, to let go
And move on or stay stuck, resisting the change.
I don’t know which is harder to do….
I think it depends in a large part on the nature of the change…
Change happens with or without my permission.
Me and you are not the same people we were just moments ago.
The cosmos has reinvented itself a thousand times in the last ten minutes.
So change is common, a fact of life and existence so why do our
Human situational changes sometimes linger
Beyond what they should and so become more important than they really are?
Even a change brought about by me is hard to handle. It is a step away from what has been and a step into a new future, a good future, a better place within me, yet unsettling nonetheless.
And although change is inevitable, there are consistencies in my life for me to lean on and appreciate in the face of change…
Tomorrow will still come, the sun will rise and shine through my soul and soften the pain that still lingers.
The hoots of the owls in the forest outside my window will strengthen my heart as morning turns to day and the thoughts in my head turn towards the goodness and excitement of the life changes before me.
In spite of uncertainty, these changes are good. The dark past has settled and sunken to the bottom of my soul where it will always remain, never forgotten, but will no longer be able to hold me captive in its cold grip. It’s and his falseness and deceptive nature have been fully exposed and rejected.
So the change that has come is the right one. It is long overdue, and although still painful, it is welcome.
My heart has changed, my livelihood is about to as well after which I will embark on a journey into an unknown future where I will accept whatever may come in this moment.
I will turn my focus inward where things can and will change for the better for me and all those I love…. everyone.
In Aryaloka’s sacred forest space,
The presence of the Stupa and Shrine
Change the energy of the landscape.
Trees and stones become softer and energized,
They feel our reverence and respond in kind.
I see each meeting, one with the other, as a chance to meet God.
I believe the Lords reside within us, each and every one of us,
The good, the bad, the saintly and the liars.
Each person I meet holds the keys to eternity in their inner being, they belong inside the shelter of
The essence of Krishna consciousness, Christ consciousness, and God consciousness that lives within them whether they know it or believe it or not.
When I look for it – in their eyes- I can see that spark of belonging in even the darkest of souls and know
Know that I am meeting the God consciousness within them and
Maybe really seeing them for the first time.
River Blessing, June 20, 2016
The continuance of life
The renewal of its essence.
From sea to sky
From sky to mountain
From mountain to river
And from river back to the sea,
A continuous loop in the process of eternity.
Water is the giver and sustainer of life, it is the softness of gentle drops on sweet summer leaves,
and the raging fury and unstoppable force of a flood.
It represents a manifestation of life, a confluence of the forces of nature; a mystery with its truth below the surface. It flows where the land allows it to and always returns to its source, as do we.
As the bearer of water and life, we honor its place in the circle of truth, and pay tribute to its never ending gifts.
We gather here together to give thanks for its beauty and the peace it brings to our souls and hearts with our gifts of the earth and samples of the bounty its sweet water brings.
(My ladies and I ended our annual blessing ceremony by dropping flowers and herbs into the Saco River. It was a lovey way to spend a summer late afternoon in the company of the setting sun and full solstice moon).
Longest day and shortest time of darkness. Magic in the moon light and peace in the secret of its knowing.
A secret to share with everyone but for now, only known by those among us of like mind, of those awake enough to behold the truth because it is a truth without words, a knowing in the soul, a connection to all there is but with no attachments.
A trust in the cycles of life, the rhythm of nature, the dependability of the cycles that Divine Mother brings. She has laid in waiting, has been patient with our neglect but now it is her time, a time of new awareness, a time of a rebirth of the mother knowledge, a time to rejoice in her beauty and truth.
In this day of less darkness, let us see the meaning in the seasons, let us feel the vibration of Mother’s truth, let us believe in her promise in the light of the moon that she will never leave us in darkness and let us honor her in our hearts and share her love and truth with one another to become for all time sisters/brothers and lovers of the beauty of her truth and of the right of all beings to exist in the bliss of the conscious life.
Let us make a vow, a promise to her this evening of shortened darkness, to be her children and partners in the process of waking the unconscious to an appreciation of Mother and of each other and to make this world the place she has always dreamed of.
Join me in drying her tears with our hearts in honor of all she unselfishly and joyfully gives of herself. The blessing of day light and moon shine, of love, death and rebirth, a never ending cycle, dependable in its truth and continuance, a chain never broken, a perpetual loop of manifestation of the unmanifested through and because of our consciousness.
With Mother to guide us and hold us in her heart of compassion, we cannot fail and can assist her in bringing forth a new earth, one of compassion, truth, beauty and peace for all beings and all time. This is the promises in the moonlight and star shine of this magical evening.
Please Join me in silent meditation and feel the message of the bells and gong as we offer our gifts of the sweetness of life to our sister the river and our mother the earth, a taste of the fruits river’s gift of water brings us and a tribute and thanks to our Divine Mother for the beauty and flavor she adds to our lives.
The heat of a summer day softens and slips silently
Into evening twilight.
The shifting shadows and cooling breezes of evening chill my being and
Bring an acute awareness of sorrow and emptiness to my state of mind.
This subtle, soft twilight is lonely and empty now
But was beautiful at other times and under other circumstances in my life.
Twilight holds tenderness and acceptance of love in times of loving but
When love is missing or withheld, twilight is punishing in its loneliness.
A solitary stroll through the garden is a waste;
There is no joy in relaxing in the rocking hammock alone.
Light sadly leaves the landscape and drains the world of color
Just as this lost love drains my soul and heart of color.
The trees along the edge of the clearing blend into a fortress wall,
Locking me out in my loneliness.
Fireflies blink on and off but evade my eyes behind the fortress of trees
and the stark cold moon light accentuates my solitude by throwing only one shadow behind me.
In better times, when I was not alone, the deepiening twilight was a magical time,
Full of love and acceptance.
We walked the garden paths together, basking in the glow of the moon
And soaking in the softness of star-shine.
Our shadows moved willingly behind us, hand in hand,
And fireflies lit our way home.
I want to go back to that time, back to being a valuable part of two,
Back to the times of softened days that faded into loving nights of passion and acceptance.
I need you take me back there, please…
The sound of rain takes me to a place of inner peace as the
Rain falls in sheets and slides down the roof over its edge in a curtain of water.
Tree leaves dance with the weight of the rain and
Flowers wash their faces in its freshness.
The sky is lower on rainy days and
Holds us close and grounded.
Sounds are muted and muffled and
Light is defused in grayness.
But it is not a sad and depressing grayness,
But a soothing and peaceful shade
Full of the necessity of sorrow.
A rainy day is soft and dark. It begs us to stop, rest and be mindful of our surrounds and loves.
It reminds us to take the time to be lulled by the patter of rain on the windows
Into a place of inner stillness,
And there remain, content to just be and accept what is.
Strings in knots, like garden twine
Link us all together, one to the Other.
The Other what? The Other how?
All are linked, the strings of knots binding us all together,
There is no Other.
The 12-Step, codependent no more approach and the psychological analyzing and labeling are not for me. While fostered by caring individuals with only the best of intentions, both approaches are run by the mind with way too much thinking involved, too many judgments, stereotyping, etc. I am aware that both processes are based on research and the due diligence of learned people, but the basis for dealing with everything in this life came with us from birth and it is precisely all this “mind’ activity that blocks our natural coping processes from being available for our use making our collective ego think the learned professionals are the only way to go. I disagree.
These approaches no longer work for me. So why do I keep drifting from the one that does? Maybe it seems too simple, this recovery has to be more complicate than Eckhart’s simplicity, but his ideas are simplicity; profound in their power.
A power to make the name calling, the judgments, the classifications of another drop away as too much mind and leave behind only what is the observer in me behind my ego, looking beyond the ego of him to the observer within him. This observation does not nullify or cancel the effects of his or my negative behavior but instead creates an internal understanding of the difference between my ego and my being, his ego and his being, and an understanding of the workings of the “pain-body” and the power of this moment within us both.
From reading Eckhart Tolle’s “A New Earth” and Mooji’s “Before I Am” I have experienced a deep and restful peace, a peace which has nothing to do with what he might say or what I might think. All of those things have no bearing on my inner peace. This is a state I have tried to achieve for years but it wasn’t until last night when I read the following quote from Mooji’s book that true peace became a recognized aspect of me. I know it has always been there as the I am behind the me and my ego but my striving and grasping for it has kept it at bay. “Truth is not some bundle of concepts that you have to believe in. Truth is not a concept, it is where all concepts end” says Mooji.
This peace, I hate to call it a realization because that implies that my “mind” recognized it, came over me unbidden, un-thought of, and at first, unnoticed. It crept in as I read Mooji’s words and sat in my bed with tea cup in hand. My body recognized it first and reacted in spite of my busy mind. I became suddenly aware of the physical symptoms of peace, slower deeper breath, normal regular heart beat and lack of thoughts. Not a blank mind but a mind full of just being with no room for thought.
A knowing came upon me and the thoughts that were weighing me down lost their power. It no longer mattered how it would turn out because I became aware that this being of I am, behind my ego, and this sense of peace that it provided would not be and could not be changed.
Knowing this fact and not just believing it have given me a freedom I never felt before. This morning the sky is bluer, the little birds coming and going from my bird-feeders seem to pause and look at me with an internal knowing. The contrast of the still leafless trees against the cloudless sky is defined like the 3D effects in the movies. Birdsong drifts to me from every angle of the woods and wind-chimes give a voice to the invisible wind.
The prayer flags gracing the front of my house flutter their prayers to the heavens with my every breath and the world stands once again as witness to another being’s awakening and says “welcome home”.
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