Patterns

"We need to examine the nature of patterns and how healthy ones (meaningful practices) can calcify into unhealthy ones (habitual routines).   We need to consider the art of softening habitual routines back into meaningful practices.  We need to discern when the rigid ones just need to be broken so our hearts can once again breathe."

Dark Times

"Quiet friend who has come so far,
feel how your breathing makes more space around you.
Let this darkness be a bell tower
and you the bell. As you ring,
what batters you becomes your strength.
Move back and forth into the change.
What is it like, such intensity of pain?
If the drink is bitter, turn yourself to wine.
In this uncontainable night,
be the mystery at the crossroads of your senses,
the meaning discovered there.
And if the world has ceased to hear you,
say to the silent earth: I flow.
To the rushing water, speak: I am."
Sonnets to Orpheus II, 29

Rilke

Seeds of Love

We all need a personal inner space of peace and safety, like birds seeking refuge, returning to a familiar place time and again. With mindfulness as our practice, our first place of refuge is to return to the present. "I have arrived, I am home in the here and in the now, I am solid, I am free." Each breath can be an opportunity to gather our energy and return to our real "home," which is within.   Thich Nhat Hahn

Holy Fallout

We are often in battle.
So often defending every side of the fort,
It may seem, all alone.

Sit down, my dear,
Take a few deep breaths,
Think about a loyal friend.
Where is your music,
Your pet,
a brush?

Surely one who has lasted as long as you
Knows some avenue or place inside
That can give a sweet respite.

If you cannot slay your panic,
Them say within
As convincingly as you can,
"It is all God's will!"

Now pick up your life again.
Let whatever is out there
Come charging in,
Laugh and spit into the air,
There could be a holy fallout.

Throw those ladders like tiny match sticks
With "just" phantoms upon them
Who might be trying to scale your heart.

Your love has an eloquent tone.
The sky and I want to hear it!
If you still feel helpless
Give our battle cry again

Hafiz
Has shouted it a myriad times,

"It is all, It is all the Beloved's will!"

What is that luminous rain I see
All around you in the future
Sweeping in from the east plain?

It looks like, O it looks like
Holy Fallout
Filling your mouth and plams
With Joy!

Hafiz.

Hanneli's Wish

"May the integrity of Peace and Truth be celebrated.  May love and courage shine in your heart stronger than ever, and may you find within you the light of a thousand suns to blaze through whatever challenges you face in times ahead.

May you meet the suffering of the world with compassion, both for yourself and for others.

May you shatter your self-imposed limitations with fierce honesty and persistent love.

May you invite the demons to show their faces with the confidence of your inner strength, knowing there is no darkness you cannot face with love in your heart.   May you find yourself in many unexpected fields of wild flowers and circles of compassionate friends.  May you share laughter and tears with openness and freedom. 

May we recognize the heart of ourselves in the eyes of each we meet. 

May you follow your aspirations, your heart and your dreams more fully than ever before.   When you feel awkward, know you are walking your own edge and growth and healing are also present.  Deep breath....

STOP!

"Just for this moment, stop. Stop everything. Stop and look around. Stop and breathe. Stop and take in what you already have. Name the beauty around you. Each and every thing, sight, color. Just for a moment--or five moments. Notice all the things that feed you that aren't food. And then notice what happens."  Geneen Roth

New Story

"The new story we want to help birth is hidden under the louder story of our own self-doubts and the story of history.   If you want to hear a new voice you have to listen very carefully.  Another world is not only possible she is on her way. On a quiet day I can hear her breathing."  Elizabeth Lesser 

Spirit and Matter

"The split between Spirit and matter is in our thinking, our way of speaking of it.   I touch God when I caress the face of a lover, hold the hand of the Beloved when my son's hand is in mine, breathe in Spirit when I catch the scent of the sun on the breeze."  Oriah

Growth

"True growth involves the capacity to feel into, as, and through your emotions, exactly as they are, without trying to make them go away or pretend they don't exist.   When hurt, you grow in love by keeping your wounded heart open.  When threatened by intense pain or impending pressure, you grow in freedom by breathing the sensation fully rather than clamping down and holding your breath."