Welcome

Primitive religion is not believed, it is danced!

Arthur Darby Nock

Earth's crammed with heaven,
And every common bush afire with God;
And only he who sees takes off his shoes;
The rest sit round it and pluck blackberries.

Elizabeth Browning



Thursday, March 31, 2016

An Awake Heart

“An Awake Heart is like a sky that pours light.”
— Hafiz
______________________________________

It is easy
at times
to go shallow

to live skin deep
focusing on things that are not you
to cede power to circumstance
to outer powers
to other people

“My pain (shoulder) is why I feel the way I feel”
“My life is a mess because of what ‘they’ have done”
“if only my favorite politician wins, then life will be transformed”
“I am valuable (or not) because of how I look”
“I am my accomplishments”

but it is when our heart is awakened
it is when we are at the center
and our heart “burns within us”
it is when our soul, awake, leaps for joy
at the present of the Sacred

that our true self bursts open
and
life happens!

the challenge is always to go deep
to that place
where we are
who we are
that Sacred Child

Wednesday, March 30, 2016

little boats of prayer

It is consoling to remember that there are old and feeble nuns in forgotten convents who live out their days by creating little boats of prayer to ferry nourishment to a hungry world.
                                                                                      John O’Donohue, Eternal Echoes, p.212
________________________________________________________________________

prayer is not
manipulation
or coercing God

It is not dishonest
(Ok sometimes it is, but God can sort that – and us - out)

It always comes from the soul
(at least I think it must)

It can be joyful or sad
Angry or thankful
It can anything that we think or feel
anything, can be sent toward the Sacred

It can be how we act
For all of life can become a prayer

Mostly it is connection
Through prayer the God in us
connects with the God who is in every place
every object
every person
every moment

our prayers are the way
we feel God
it is the way God feels what we feel
it is how we receive and send
compassion and love
nourishment
forgiveness
hope

it is God sharing
Sacred presence with us
And us
Sharing that same presence with others

We do not have to have the right words
There is no approved formula
There are no “professional” prayers
In this world

Just people willing to join with the Sacred,
and then share the Sacred
through thought, attitude, action deed

It is in the sharing
It is in the sending of those little boats of love

It is in through the sharing itself
That comes the knowing
The loving
The healing the
Hoping

Here’s to those nuns!
And to all
Who faithfully pray!

Tuesday, March 29, 2016

Emotional Housecleaning

Leave your front door
and your back door open.
Allow your thoughts
 to come and go.
Just don't serve them tea....
                             Shunryu Suzuki
________________________

You would be amazed
at how many high school boys you
could stuff into a VW Beetle (back in the 1960’s)

you might also be amazed
at how many random thoughts
you can stuff into a human brain!

all those worries!
about things done and not done

all those angry thoughts,
and fearful thoughts
all those “lists”
all those regrets

it’s a wonder we can pick our heads up off our pillows
our heads are so full

when it comes to thoughts
we are nothing less than horders

it is not that thoughts are bad
but when we can with us so much junk from the past
and carry so much stuff about the future?

well lets just say I (personally) often must find my way
along narrow paths among the piled up garbage
I invited my thoughts to tea
they stayed for dinner
an are now sleeping on my couch!

how about you?
A little unnecessary company?

Time to let go of a lot of old garbage
Half eaten regrets
And piled up guilt

time to get rid of all those planning calendars
over which we worry and fuss

time to be in this day
in this moment
with the person right in front of us!

with room in our emotional and mental house
to dance to the music (of Sacred)

I hear some where it is now officially spring!
Spring cleaning anyone!?