I Bow To All

I keep telling strangers that

to be in the presence of those

with whom you can both share

pain and celebrate just waking

is the answer to loneliness.

 

Such friendship makes the

sharing of pizza in a noisy pub

and the standing in silence

as the old oak creaks

all one could ask for.

 

In truth, this process of being

worn to only what is raw and

essential never ends.

 

It’s as if a great bird lives inside

the stone of our days and since

no sculptor can free it, it has to

wait for the elements to wear us

down until it’s free to fly.

….Mark Nepo

pure, raw, essence of experience in the gritty and raucous heart and soul of living…..super courage and bearing witness……intuiting all as sacred grist…..somehow being at peace with steady roots when all the branches are blown away……

Spirit is thirsty for the expansive heart, for a roaring river of love to flood the dry parched plains of human hubris and the strangling constrictions of fear. I can bear my heart being broken and rebroken in order that it might stretch and encompass the holy waters of compassion. For me, Spirit and Love are one and the same. I live my life listening for Spirit’s Love Directives, which demand a spontaneously shifting mix of gentleness, righteous anger, abiding patience, wild vigilance, disciplined freedom, and utter presence. The veil between the sacred and mundane dissolves when I place my hands on another’s body-soul, nurturing the intimate connection with self, Other, and Spirit. In doing this work, I feel ignited. The fire consumes my uninspired and confining aspects. Standing in the center of the fire, I merge with the Love that permeates the cosmos………Annie Bloom

the body knows

Clarissa Pinkola Estes defines intuition as a “divining instrument and like a crystal through which one can see with uncanny interior vision. It is like a wise old woman who is with you always, who tells you exactly what the matter is, who tells you exactly whether you need to go left or right.” I think the body is a physical manifestation of that intuition. We are all born intuitive. What we lack is not intuition but the courage to act on what we intuit, what we know is true for us. Steven Levine believes, “Healing is what happens when we come to our edge, to the unexplained territory of mind and body, and take a single step beyond into the unknown, the space in which all growth occurs. Healing is discovery.” Welcoming the unexpected is making room for discovery. Artist Agnes Martin, in her 80’s and enjoying an active creative life, advises, “The adventurous state of mind is a high house. To enjoy life, the adventurous state of mind must be grasped and maintained. The essential feature of adventure is that it is a going forward into unknown territory……Rita Justice