A little drop of the sky, a little drop of the land, a little drop of the sea, on your forehead, beloved one. To protect, to shield and to surround you. The little drop of the Three, to fill you with the graces.
– Traditional Celtic Prayer
Individually, we are one drop. Together, we are an ocean.
– Ryunosuke Satoro
photos by Fisherman Dan @ Branford, CT
My Dearest, I love you deeply.
I’m not worried to impress you,
or to keep you from getting mad at me;
nor do I need to figure you out,
or to tell you how I want you to be.
I just love you, weak in the knees.
My Love, when I think of you I forget myself;
I fill with joy and warmth at the thought of you.
When I think of other things, you are still on my mind.
I’m obsessed with you.
Beautiful Lover, I like you the way you are.
I enjoy your presence. I like being with you.
My world is made better because of you,
and I am grateful for you.
Beloved, my love is for your sake, not mine.
Yes, I want to hold you, enjoy you,
take you into myself.
But I don’t want to possess you; I want to bless you.
I care about you, and want the best for you.
My deepest soul honors you. My heart is yours.
I entrust myself completely to you.
My heart goes out to you, and belongs to you.
I will do anything for you, for your sake.
My whole life is my promise to you.
I give you myself, all of my living, for all of my life.
O Love, I am yours.
With joy, with gratitude, with utter trust,
with all of my being, forever,
I love you.
Amen.
__________________
Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
http://www.unfoldinglight.net
Worthiness
Accepting Our Calling
by Madisyn Taylor
Our worth of being on the planet at this time cannot be judged as we are all worthy and essential to being here now.
The issue of worthiness may come up in many areas of our lives, as we ask, often unconsciously, whether we are worthy of success, love, happiness, and countless other things, from supportive relationships to a beautiful home. In the end, though, it all comes down to one thing: our willingness to claim our space in this life as humans on this planet at this time. When we accept our divinity, we no longer question whether we are worthy, because we know that we are meant to be here to fulfill a particular purpose, a purpose that no one other than us can fulfill.
There are no replacements who can take over and live our lives for us, no other person who has had the experiences we have had, who has access to the same resources and relationships, who carries the same message to share with the world. Our purpose may be large or small, and in most cases it is multi-leveled, with important actions taking place on the interpersonal level, as well as in terms of the work we do in the world. Small acts of kindness share the stage with large acts of sacrifice, and only through accepting and honoring our divinity can we know what we are called to do and when.
Ultimately, we are all equally, exactly, completely worthy of being here in this life. Moreover, we are all essential to the unfolding plan of which we are each one small, but important, part. If we suffer from low self worth, it is because we have lost track of understanding this truth, and allowing it to guide our actions in the world. Seeing ourselves as part of something larger, as beings called to serve, is the ultimate cure for feelings of unworthiness. In the end, it’s not about evaluating ourselves as worthy or unworthy, so much as it’s about accepting that we have been called here to serve and taking the steps required to listen and respond to what our lives are asking us to do.
In his book, A Hidden Wholeness: The Journey Toward an Undivided Life, Parker J. Palmer makes an important distinction between perfectionism, which only ever oppresses the soul, and wholeness, which liberates it:
Wholeness does not mean perfection: it means embracing brokenness as an integral part of life. Knowing this gives me hope that human wholeness — mine, yours, ours — need not be a utopian dream, if we can use devastation as a seedbed for new life.
I keep looking for one more teacher,
only to find that fish learn from water
and birds learn from sky.
If you want to learn about the sea,
it helps to be at sea.
If you want to learn about compassion,
it helps to be in love.
If you want to learn about healing,
it helps to know of suffering.
The strong live in the storm
without worshipping the storm.
Behind the Thunder by Mark Nepo
Autumn colors have settled
from Kandinsky to Rembrandt.
Trees cast down their crowns,
the ponds release their birds
bound southward, the sky
leaves its scarf in brown branches,
the round sun begins rolling up its things.
This scattering is also a drawing in.
Beds of leaves, mounds of leaves
the color of old books gather and rest.
The ground receives it all
and begins its dark, profound work
beyond my seeing, beneath my bones.
Even the leaves of childhood
and the sky’s drama of my long youth,
the naked, willing wood of trees,
and all the things piled around on my desk
like leaves when I return to the house,
are gathered in someone else’s hands,
bedded down, held close
for the long, bright winter.
__________________
Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
http://www.unfoldinglight.net
Ripening
You Are Being Lead
“The life and death of a human being is so exquisitely calibrated as to automatically produce union with Spirit.” —Kathleen Dowling Singh
Ripening reveals much bigger or very different horizons than we realize. The refusal to ripen leads to what T.S. Eliot spoke of in “The Hollow Men,” lives that “end not with a bang but with a whimper.” I hope that you are one of those people who will move toward your own endless horizons and not waste time in whimpering. Why else would you even read this? Perhaps these meditations may help you trust that you are, in fact, being led. Life, your life, all life, is going somewhere and somewhere good.
Ripening, at its best, is a slow, patient learning, and sometimes even a happy letting-go—a seeming emptying out to create readiness for a new kind of fullness—which we are never totally sure about. If we do not allow our own ripening, and I do believe it is somewhat a natural process, an ever-increasing resistance and denial sets in, an ever-increasing circling of the wagons around an over-defended self. At our very best, we learn how to hope as we ripen, to move outside and beyond self-created circles, which is something quite different from the hope of the young. Youthful hopes have concrete goals, whereas the hope of older years is usually aimless hope, hope without goals, even naked hope—perhaps real hope. Such stretching is the agony and the joy of our later years.
Old age, as such, is almost a complete changing of gears and engines from the first half of our lives and does not happen without slow realization, inner calming, inner resistance, denial, and eventual surrender, by God’s grace, working with our ever-deepening sense of what we really desire and who we really are. This process seems to largely operate unconsciously, although we jolt into consciousness now and then, and the awareness that you have been led, usually despite yourself, is experienced as a deep gratitude that most would call happiness. Religious people might even call it mercy.
Adapted from ‘Ripening,’ Oneing, Vol. 1, No. 2, pp. 11-12
Gateway to Silence:
Ripen me into fullness.
Richard Rohr’s Daily Meditation
To go into the darkness with a light
is to know the light.
To know the dark, go dark.
Go without light and find that the dark too, blooms and sings
and is traveled by dark feet and dark wings.
– Wendell Berry
Black. out. black.
Black. on. black.
Dark. on dark. on dark.
I was simply looking for home.
Not knowing the current alley would lead
to where the sidewalk ended
I stepped off the edge
out of the world of light
waking into morning night
a banished sun
no stars
or moon
or streetlights
or fireflies
or lighters
in pitch darkness
I lay, unable to move,
senses adjusting
to what is my new reality
hearing the life
that lives here
wondering if I’ll make friends
while I’m here
learning this new space.
ACL 9/12/13
Sent from my iPhone
You say you have no spirit,
but truthfully ask yourself this—
Would you look into my eyes
and see something beyond color?
You look at my hands,
but do you see beyond their shape to what they create?
When you notice my feet,
would you see beyond perception to
see how I travel through my journey,
or the way I am following after you?
Don’t imitate an eye and only see the object;
Don’t be fooled by the word reality.
When I look into your eyes, I see your spirit.
When I notice your feet,
I see the journey you’re taking,
the compass you follow.
Would you put down your logical way of thinking for just
a moment to see the hidden spirit glowing in you,
the spirit I see living through the truthful, inspirational
things you do,
the spirit that keeps me walking after you?
Beyond Words by Katie Pratt
There are a million beaten paths. And no matter what words people use — everyone is just asking to be loved.
– Ann Voskamp
The leaves above the brook
begin their great journey now,
letting go and dropping into the water.
Who knows what worlds they will see?
Trees shed the weight of their work
and slip into something more comfortable.
Now the sun’s laying on of hands
is not so forceful, but more intimate, more gentle.
The hillside deepens from its reds and yellows
to the color of experience,
the color of knowing without having to say.
Leaves fall, each with its own little tap.
They gather in sorrow and gratitude,
ready to become what is next.
This is the season of bareness and of seeds.
This, too, is newness, and peace.
________________________
Weather report
Release,
as all that is passes
and becomes what shall be.
An occluded front of attachment passes,
allowing what is before us
to be beautiful enough.
_________________
Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
http://www.unfoldinglight.net
adventures don’t always lead to a good nights sleep,
I’ve found comfy beds are somewhat a rarity
on the road less traveled.
there’s an occasional soft, fluffy, sweet sinking into soft sheets,
hot water,
and though they appreciate those amenities when they come,
pilgrims don’t get used to such things.
the gifts of adventure are many and varied –
the very best of these gifts is
people!
folks sharing themselves,
sharing whatever they have to give,
blessing you with love,
their food and drink,
their spare beds or sofas,
their conversation and hospitality,
their inmost parts vulnerable and open,
revealed completely
in the intimacy of how they live,
as, mostly unaware, they entertain angels.
no matter how humble, uncomfortable,
or even frightening and shocking at times,
we will find people living uniquely,
creating their own version of what works for them.
every lifestyle carries learning and vast wisdom.
receiving these amazing gifts of hospitality are one of life’s grandest joys and lessons.
I have found it true,
there are many things more important than physical comfort.
some of my most cherished memories,
the most generous gifts I have ever received,
include smelly, stinky, lumpy, hard, sleep-depriving surfaces
on which sleep was just a whimsical wish.
the blessing of adventure opens, within us, all the avenues of grace.
all we must do is be willing to
open our minds and hearts in new ways,
then continue to explore past our need to be comfortable.
💞
ACL 10/29/14
You will face situations that will challenge the very foundation of what you believe. Even though it will feel very difficult at times, I want you to understand it is necessary. For these situations will cause you to do some much needed soul searching, which will bring you to a new plateau of faith.
The situations you face will provide opportunities to seek Me for wisdom, and establish trust in your life. I am your very present help in times of trouble; and I alone will bring you through. It is a refiner’s fire that is burning within you. Let those things burn that cannot withstand the heat, for that which remains will be cherished for its eternal value. Eternal value is what your life is all about, and that is a very precious thing.
http://chosenoneministries.com/mainpage.htm
life: acoustic & amplified 