a lovely, blue hazy day...soft in awakening...

The hand of God sometimes takes me by the scruff of my neck & the seat of my pants & speaks, ‘Not that way, this way.’ And my rebel has learned the shrivelling of attempting to deny my Destiny; it has also learned the power of surrendering to it. Sacrifice releases transformation. When I am awakened, I shout Goethe’s lines to the noble maple in my garden:

I praise what is truly alive

What longs to be burned to death…

And so long as you haven’t experienced

This to die & so to grow

You are only a troubled guest

On the dark earth.

….Marion Woodman

it’s an unexpectedly sunny day….as it seeps deeper into the moment…when I actually notice & am grateful for it….there’s a shift….we go for a walk….with each step, there’s  an unfolding….so small I might not even notice it…..but the silence around me lulls & each step finds my hearbeat & my boots are in walking meditation before I am….they lead me….they ask quietly….come along? let go of your day? be in this day? the one you can see if you would only sigh & release….

A hal is a sudden mind-bending glimpse of hidden things. A maquam, by contrast, is a sustained inner capacity to integrate experience at a specific level of elevated realization. A hal is a gift, whereas a maquam must be earned…..Pir Zia Inayat Khan

they begin so softly…..revelations, disappointments, insights…in an instant they can be a sweetness….or a deep knife edge… sudden & quick…they are one & the same many times….bringing us to our knees…renewing us once again…reminding us that each direction is one & the same…

Waking & sleeping, living & dreaming, getting along in the world & making art, working & sitting, enlightenment & profound ignorance….the way of opposites is the only way. We are all again & again falling asleep & waking up. Again & again. Waking. Sleeping. Waking. Sleeping….Thomas Moore

I would add…..walking…..waking, sleeping, getting lost, walking….waking, sleeping, getting lost….

cycles & circles & missed directions & moon phases….