Self-Compassion

“To the degree that we look clearly and compassionately at ourselves, we feel confident and fearless about looking into someone else’s eyes.”

-Pema Chödrön

We Have Come To Be Danced

We have come to be danced
Not the jiffy booby, shake your booty for him dance
But the wring the sadness from our skin dance
The blow the chip off our shoulder dance.
The slap the apology from our posture dance.

We have come to be danced
Not the monkey see, monkey do dance
One two dance like you
One two three, dance like me dance
but the grave robber, tomb stalker
Tearing scabs and scars open dance
The rub the rhythm raw against our soul dance.

We have come to be danced
Not the nice, invisible, self-conscious shuffle
But the matted hair flying, voodoo mama
Shaman shakin’ ancient bones dance
The strip us from our casings, return our wings
Sharpen our claws and tongues dance
The shed dead cells and slip into
The luminous skin of love dance.

We have come to be danced
Not the hold our breath and wallow in the shallow end of the floor dance
But the meeting of the trinity, the body breath and beat dance
The shout hallelujah from the top of our thighs dance
The mother may I?
Yes you may take 10 giant leaps dance
The olly olly oxen free free free dance
The everyone can come to our heaven dance.

We have come to be danced
Where the kingdom’s collide
In the cathedral of flesh
To burn back into the light
To unravel, to play, to fly, to pray
To root in skin sanctuary
We have come to be danced
We have come.

by Jewel Mathieson

Human Incarnation

" Inevitably, maintaining our authenticity means constantly living within patterns and breaking patterns.  It is not about eliminating our humanness.  Not about eliminating our want to be loved, but curbing the stubborn ways we hurt and disrespect ourselves to get that love.   This involves recognizing the unhealthy patterns we fall into and correcting our course.   It is not helpful to label what doesn't work as bad and then strive to rid ourselves of our human flaws.   The aim is not to make ourselves pure and one-sided in our aliveness, but to inhabit all of who we are, living into the dilatations and constrictions of our strengths and weaknesses.  It is about learning how to live through being human, until the rhythm of being human can be celebrated as the magically imperfect vessel of Spirit that it is."  Mark Nepo

Choice

"Countless times in our days, we find ourselves faced with the almost imperceptible choice to enable trust or distrust, to affirm directness or indirectness, to empower anonymous judgment or the courage to stand in one's truth without judging others."  Mark Nepo

Authenticity

"We will discover the nature of our particular genius when we stop trying to conform to our own or other people's models, learn to be ourselves, and to allow our natural channel to open."  Shakti Gawain

Christian?

“When the imitation of Christ does not mean to live a life like Christ, but to live as authentically as Christ lived, then there are many ways and forms in which a man can be a Christian.”

~Henri J. M. Nouwen from "The Wounded Healer"

Moments

"I've found that the moment with all its meaning often moves on by the time I've reconsidered whether or not to enter it.  I've discovered I know what I need to do but just deny it, and it is this small hesitation, this small resistence to enter what is real that makes life feel neutral or out of reach."  Mark Nepo

Owning our Lives

Like the old saying "Water fills the hole", the ways of others will fill the space we live in if we don't fill that space with our own authentic presence.   Mark Nepo

Authenticity and Listening

"If I don't know the kind of person I am
and I don't know the kind of person you are
a pattern that others made may prevail in the world
and following the wrong god
home, we may miss our star."

William Stafford

Life

"I will not die an unlived life. I will not live in fear of falling or catching fire. I choose to inhabit my days, to allow my living to open me, to make me less afraid, more accessible, to loosen my heart until it becomes a wing, a torch, a promise. I choose to risk my significance to live so that which came to me as seed goes to the next as blossom and that which came to me as blossom goes on as fruit."

Dawna Markova

Retreat

"Retreat is an extraordinary opportunity, where all your attention is turned toward  liberation, freedom, and truth.  It is a rare privilege to be able to withdraw for a period of time, to be in a place of beauty, to be well fed, to have the attention on the truth of who you really are."  Shree Ma

The Warrior's Way

"A self-sacrificing way,
but also a warrior's way, and not
for brittle people, easily broken, glass bottle people.
The soul's tested here by sheer terror,
as a sieve sifts and separates
genuine from fake.
And this road is full of footprints!
Companions have come before.
They are your ladder
Use them!
Without them you won't have the spirit-quickness
you need.  Even a dumb donkey
crossing a desert
becomes nimble-footed
with others of its kind.
Stay with the caravan.  By yourself,
you'll get a hundred times more tired,
and fall behind."  

Rumi

Oneness

"What we reach for may be different, but what makes us reach is the same."  Mark Nepo

Conformity and Authenticity

"Don't worry about what the world wants from you; worry about what makes you come alive. Because what the world really needs are people who are more alive.  Your real job is to increase the color and zest of your life."  Lawrence LeShan

Adventure

"Instead of sacrificing a self I hardly knew or loved, I turned my attention to self-understanding and self-forgiveness.  Instead of accepting a straight-and-narrow route to someone else's concept of God, I set out on my own adventure."  Elizabeth Lesser

Authenticity

"Take your life in your own hands and what happens.  A terrible thing; no one to blame."  Erica Jong

Discovering our Gifts

"We will discover the nature of our particular genius when we stop trying to conform to our own or other people's models, learn to be ourselves, and allow our natural channel to open."  Shakti Gawain

Individuality

"To know what you prefer instead of humbly saying 'amen' to what the world tells you you ought to prefer, is to have kept your soul alive."  Robert Louis Stevenson

Health

"It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society" - J Krishnamurti.

Individuality

"Whether he is wealthy or poor, the Rebel is really an emperor because he has broken the chains of society's repressive conditioning and opinions. He has formed himself by embracing all the colors of the rainbow, emerging from the dark and formless roots of his unconscious past and growing wings to fly into the sky. His very way of bei...ng is rebellious - not because he is fighting against anybody or anything, but because he has discovered his own true nature and is determined to live in accordance with it. The eagle is his spirit animal, a messenger between earth and sky. "    OSHO.