I live my life in widening circles
that reach out across the world.
I may not complete this last one
but I give myself to it.
I circle around God, around the primordial tower.
I've been circling for thousands of years
and I still don't know: am I a falcon,
a storm, or a great song?
Book of Hours, I 2

Religion

"Then, it appears to me, one gradually formulates one's religion, be it what it may. A person has no religion who has not slowly and painfully gathered one together, adding to it, shaping it; and one's religion is never complete and final, it seems, but must always be undergoing modification."

-D.H. Lawrence

Imagine A Woman

Imagine a woman who believes it is right and good she is a woman.
A woman who honors her experience and tells her stories.
Who refuses to carry the sins of others within her body and life.

Imagine a woman who trusts and respects herself.
A woman who listens to her needs and desires.
Who meets them with tenderness and grace.

Imagine a woman who acknowledges the past's influence on the present.
A woman who has walked through her past.
Who has healed into the present.

Imagine a woman who authors her own life.
A woman who exerts, initiates, and moves on her own behalf.
Who refuses to surrender except to her truest self and wisest voice.

Imagine a woman who names her own gods.
A woman who imagines the divine in her image and likeness.
Who designs a personal spirituality to inform her daily life.

Imagine a woman in love with her own body.
A woman who believes her body is enough, just as it is.
Who celebrates its rhythms and cycles as an exquisite resource.

Imagine a woman who honors the body of the Goddess in her changing body.
A woman who celebrates the accumulation of her years and her wisdom.
Who refuses to use her life-energy disguising the changes in her body and life.

Imagine a woman who values the women in her life.
A woman who sits in circles of women.
Who is reminded of the truth about herself when she forgets.

Imagine yourself as this woman.
- Patricia Lynn Reilly

Our Greatest Fear

"Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us.' We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, and fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There's nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It's not just in some of us; it's in everyone and as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give others permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others".  Marianne Williamson

Why I'm Agnostic

“When I became convinced that the universe is natural; that all the ghosts and gods are myths, there entered into my brain, into my soul, into every drop of my blood, the sense, the feeling, the joy of freedom. The walls of my prison crumbled and fell, the dungeon was flooded with light, and all the bolts, and bars, and manacles became dust. I was no longer a servant, a serf, or a slave. There was for me no master in all the wide world; not even in infinite space. I was free; free to think, to express my thoughts; free to live to my own ideal; free to use all my faculties, all my senses; free to spread imagination's wings; free to investigate, to guess and dream and hope; free to judge and determine for myself; free to reject all ignorant and cruel creeds, all the..."inspired" books that savages have produced, and all the barbarous legends of the past; free from popes and priests; free from all the "called" and "set apart"; free from sanctified mistakes and holy lies; free from the fear of eternal pain; free from the winged monsters of the night; free from devils, ghosts, and gods. For the first time I was free. There were no prohibited places in all the realms of thought; no air, no space, where fancy could not spread her painted wings; no chains for my limbs; no lashes for my back; no fires for my flesh; no master's frown or threat; no following another's steps; no need to bow, or cringe, or crawl, or utter lying words. I was free. I stood erect and fearlessly, joyously, faced all worlds.

And then my heart was filled with gratitude, with thankfulness, and went out in love to all the heroes, the thinkers who gave their lives for the liberty of hand and brain; for the freedom of labour and thought; to those who proudly mounted scaffold's stairs; to those whose flesh was scarred and torn; to those by fire consumed; to all the wise, the good, the brave of every land, whose thoughts and deeds have given freedom to the sons of men. And then I vowed to grasp the torch that they had held, and hold it high, that light might conquer darkness still.” (Robert. G. Ingersoll, "Why I Am Agnostic", 1896)

Trails of Life

"Isn't the trail of our relationships the time it takes for the heart to practice it's part in the movement we call Love?  Isn't the trail of our honest questions the time it takes for the mind to practice it's part in the movement we call Wisdom?  Isn't the trail of our changing beliefs the time it takes for the spirit to practice it's part in the movement called God?  Isn't the trail of our Oneness, those brief moments when everything comes together, isn't this the time it takes for Love and Wisdom and God to bring the common place in us alive?" 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

Troublemakers

"Since no one really knows anything about God,
those who think they do are just
troublemakers."  

Rabia

When I Die

I know how it will be when I die,
My beauty will be so extraordinary that God will worship me.
He will not worship me from a distance, for our minds will have wed.
Our souls will have flowed into each other.
How to say this: God and I will forever cherish
Myself.

Transformation

"What a place for trials and transformation did my Lover put me, but never once did He look upon me as if I were not pure.  Dear sisters, all we do in this world, whatever happens, is bringing us closer to God."  Rabia

I Got Kin

Plant
So that your own heart
Will grow.
Love
So God will think
"Ahhhh,
I got Kin in that body!
I should start inviting that soul over
for coffee and
Rolls."

Sing
Because that is a food
Our starving world
Needs.
Laugh
Because that is the purest
Sound.

Hafiz

Why Not Be Polite

Everyone
Is God Speaking.
Why not be polite and
Listen.

Hafiz

The Sun In Drag

You are the Sun in drag.
You are God hiding from yourself.
Remove all the "mine" - that is the veil.
Why ever worry about
Anything?
Listen to what your friend Hafiz
Knows for certain:
The appearance of this world
Is a Magi's brilliant trick though it's affairs are
Nothing into nothing.
You are a divine elephant with amnesia
Trying to live in an ant
Holy Sweetheart, O Sweetheart
You are God in
Drag

The Suburbs

Complaint
Is only possible
While living in the suburbs
Of God.

Hafiz

Two Puddles Chatting

It rained during the night
And two puddles formed in the dark
And began chatting.
One said,

"It is so nice to at last be upon the earth
And to met you as well,

But what will happen when
The brilliant Sun comes
And turns us back into spirit again?"

Dear ones,
Enjoy the night as much as you can.

Why ever trouble your heart with flight, when you have just arrived
And your body is so full of warm desires.
And look:

So many meadows of soft hair are
Planted upon you.

Why ever trouble yourself with God
When He is so unjudging
And kind

Hafiz

Today

TODAY

I

Do not

Want to step so quickly

Over a beautiful line on God's palm

As I move through the earth's

Marketplace

Today.

I do not want to touch any object in the world

Without my eyes testifying to the truth

That everything is

My Beloved.

Something has happened

To my understanding of existence

That makes my heart always full of wonder

And kindness.

I do not

Want to step so quickly

Over this sacred place on God's body

That is right beneath your

Own feet.

As I 

Dance with

Precious life

Today.

Hafiz

Taught So Much

I

Learned

So much from God

That I can no longer

Call

Myself

A Christian, a Hindu, a Muslim

A Buddhist, a Jew.

The truth has shared so much of Itself 

With me.

That I can no longer call myself

A man, a woman, an angel

Ore even pure

Soul

Love has

Befriended Hafiz so completely

It has turned to ash

And freed

Me

Of every concept and image

My mind has ever known.

Humility

"Humility is the beginning, the middle and the end of the path.   The more humble you become the greater the divine transforming power can be given you.  The more humbly you are willing to do whatever is asked of you, without asking for certainty or reward, the more can be done through you and by you by God."  Andrew Harvey

It Doesn't Interest Me

"It doesn't interest me if there is one God
Or many gods.
I want to know if you beling - or feel abandoned;
If you know dispair
Or can see it in others.
I want to know
If you are prepared to live in the world
With it's harsh need to change you,
If you can look back with firm eyes
Saying "this is where I stand."
I want to know if you know how to melt
Into that fierce heart of living.
Falling toward the center of your longing.
I want to know if you are willing
To live day by day
With the consequences of love
And the bitter unwanted passion
Of your sure defeat.
If you have been told
In that fierce embrace
Even the God's
Speak of God."

David Whyte

If It Is Not Too Dark

"Go for a walk, if it is not too dark.
Get some fresh air, try to smile.
Say something kind
To a safe-looking stranger, if one happens by.

Always exercise your heart's knowing.

You might as well attempt something real
Along this path:

Take your spouse or lover into your arms
The way you did when you first met.
Let tenderness pour from your eyes
The way the sun gazes warmly on the earth.

Play a game with some children.
Extend yourself to a friend.
Sing a few ribald songs to your pets and plants.
Why not let them get drunk and wild!

Let's toast
Every rung we've climbed on Evolutions ladder.
Whisper, "I love you!"
To the whole mad world.

Let's stop reading about God-
We will never understand Him.

Jump to your feet, wave your fists
Threaten and warn the whole universe.

That your heart can no longer live
Without real love."

Hafiz