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

Waking Up

"The rewards of "birthing" are "birthing" itself -knowing that through divine grace you are becoming more and more of an instrument of divine love and justice, feeling the divine working more and more intimately within you, seeing and knowing the Divine inspiring more and more of your wants, growing wilder and calmer, more and more heartbroken and blissful, watching the Divine manifest more and more richly and playfully in your mind and heart and body and soul and relationships and surroundings.  No external glory or fame or success could ever approximate the ecstacy that such awareness will bring you or awaken in you such depths of gratitude; no external failure can ever take its joy from you."  Andrew Harvey

Your One Life

"Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life."  Mary Oliver

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

Belief

"When you become aware that your thinking has a life of its own, you will never make a prison of your own perception."

"When your thinking is locked in false certainty or negativity it puts so many interesting and vital areas of life out of your reach. You live impoverished in the midst of your own abundance."

"Belief should liberate your life. The reduction of the wild eternity of your life into a harsh divine project is a blasphemy against the call of your soul."

"Expectation is resentment waiting to happen."

"When you look at the different conflicts in your life, you will find that they are placed where the contradictions cross each other, the nail where two intimate, but conflicting realities criss-cross."

Religion

"The great religious traditions advocate ideals.  Increasingly, the custodianship and representation of these traditions have fallen into the hands of frightened functionaries who can only operate through edict and prescription.  Few of them have the sensibility and imagination to address our longing in a way that respects our complexity and wildness of soul.   They are unable to invite our sense of freedom and creativity to awaken.   We need to take back our power and exercise our right to inhabit in a creative and critical way the traditions to which we belong."   John O' Donahue

Guilt and Fear...the Lie

"People were given to believe that they were naturally bad and sinful.   They let this toxic idea into their minds and it gradually poisoned their whole way of seeing themselves.   Sin was in every corner and probable damnation waited at the end of the road.   People were drafted into blasphame against their own nature.  You could not let yourself go.   Any longing to claim your nature or pursue your wildness would lead to ruin.   This corrupted the innocence of people's sensual lives and broke the fluency of their souls.   Rather than walk the path with the encouraging companionship of your protecting angel beside you and the passionate creativity of the Holy Spirit at your deepest core you were trapped between guilt and fear."   John O' Donahue