Causing colors to lose their courage,
And your eyes fix on the empty distance
That can open on either side
Of the surest line
To make all that is
Familiar and near
Seem suddenly foreign,
When the music of talk
Breaks apart into noise
And you hear your heart louden
While the voices around you
Slow down to leaden echoes
Turning the silence Into something stony and cold,
When the old ghosts come back
To feed on everywhere you felt sure,
Do not strengthen their hunger
By choosing to fear;
Rather, decide to call on your heart
That it may grow clear and free
To welcome home your emptiness
That it may cleanse you
Like the clearest air
You could ever breathe.
Allow your loneliness time
To dissolve the shell of dross
That had closed around you;
Choose in this severe silence
To hear the one true voice
Your rushed life fears;
Cradle yourself like a child
Learning to trust what emerges,
So that gradually
You may come to know
That deep in that black hole
You will find the blue flower
That holds the mystical light
Which will illuminate in you
The glimmer of springtime.
💙
A Blessing for Loneliness by John O’Donohue
at the edge
of an ocean
of memories,
a heart of the deepest blue
beats
to the slow monotony
of a swaying metronome;
found in the crashing waves
of a dark desolate shore.
The weeping wind,
with its hidden whispers,
murmurs her name;
as nights they walked
hand in hand
flashback into view.
Haunting the torn fabric of his soul.
💔
Shipwrecked heart by AllPoetry member, Halosonthemoon
read the rest here: http://ow.ly/eO4E302oGFH
when I ride the nights ragged hours
when my loneliness rages with ruthless, restless, too warm turning
when heaven is that smudge of light
seen beside the farthest star
when sleep is torn from my hungry grasp
and I am left without an inch of satisfaction
from the feathers beneath my head
when I open my eyes to the same shade of black
I see with them closed
then I feel the disappearance of my desire to conform
my self is borderless at 3 am
my pretensions dissolve into this dark
I surrender to my grief
as well as to my hope
I swim to the other end of the bed
to cooler pastures
I visit the sheep
living among the stuff
down there
I listen as they recited the 23rd Psalm
to reassure my nervous entering
in that strange world
I hear all the sounds from this new dimension
my mind takes on the shape of new perspective
alert to this unusual adventure
I cry a little
laugh a little
think about the glory of love
the world turns on its axis
I breath free
I fly home
💞
AL
and I like it
because the grass
I lie down in
feels good and the still
waters are restful and right
there if I’m thirsty
and though some valleys
are very chilly there is a long
rod that prods me so I
direct my hooves
the right way
though today
I’m trying hard
to sit at a table
because it’s expected
required really
and my enemies—
it turns out I have enemies—
are watching me eat and
spill my drink
but I don’t worry because
all my enemies do
is watch and I know
I’m safe if I will
just do my best
as I sit on this chair
that wobbles a bit
in the grass
on the side of a hill.
🐏
Here In The Psalm by Sally Fisher
Your great mistake is to act the drama
as if you were alone. As if life
were a progressive and cunning crime
with no witness to the tiny hidden
transgressions. To feel abandoned is to deny
the intimacy of your surroundings. Surely,
even you, at times, have felt the grand array;
the swelling presence, and the chorus, crowding
out your solo voice You must note
the way the soap dish enables you,
or the window latch grants you freedom.
Alertness is the hidden discipline of familiarity.
The stairs are your mentor of things
to come, the doors have always been there
to frighten you and invite you,
and the tiny speaker in the phone
is your dream-ladder to divinity.
Put down the weight of your aloneness and ease into
the conversation. The kettle is singing
even as it pours you a drink, the cooking pots
have left their arrogant aloofness and
seen the good in you at last. All the birds
and creatures of the world are unutterably
themselves. Everything is waiting for you.
🌎
Everything is Waiting for You by David Whyte
from Everything is Waiting for You
©2003 Many Rivers Press
“Smoke on the Water” in Cincinnati on 12/6/15 as captured by Wayne Clause
🌀
I stand where I am
lost between worlds
the past is gone
the present space between
a foggy future
not fully workable
full of hard edges
struggling
empty air
lack of conversation
missing soft expression
draining
exhausting
my fingers clasp wispy dream clouds
of you
of love
of home
of music
my tired hopes hang on by threads
longing for what I want
a home for living full of love and happy
building a life
eating food made with love
friendship filled with
silences
conversations
passion
compassion
touch to sooth our sore places
arms to hold and be held
keep me safe
let me breathe a little easier
laugh a little
sing a lot
covering me
surrounding me with love
❤️
AL
APART OR TOGETHER
So much that was
good in her,
so much in me,
cut off now
from the future
in which we
grew together.
Now
through the window
of my new house
that hawthorn’s
crooked faithful
trunk round
an old and broken
growth,
my mouth dumb
and Dante’s voice
instead of mine
from the open book.
‘Brother, our love
has laid our wills to rest.
Making us long
only for what is ours
and by no other thirst
possessed.’
Our life not lived
together
must still
live on apart,
longing only
for what is ours
alone,
each grow round the missed branch
as best we can,
claim what is ours
separately,
though not forget
loved memories,
nor that life
still loved by memory,
nor the hurts
through which we
hesitantly
tried to learn
affection.
Our pilgrim journey
apart or together,
like the thirst
of everything
to find its true form,
the grain of the wood
round the hatched knot
still straightening
toward the light.
…
From
THE HAWTHORN
in
‘THE SEA IN YOU: Twenty Poems of Requited and Unrequited Love’
© David Whyte and Many Rivers Press
Now Available at davidwhyte.com
THE ANCIENT DREAM
She has come to sense the inner world goes deep, indeed deeper than the wounds and breakages that others inflict. The contemplative has broken through to that sanctuary in the soul where love dwells. Crucial to this contemplative journey is the trust and imagination to realize that regardless of how you have been damaged, there is within you a sanctuary of deep love, trust and belonging. This is the ancient dream, the masterpiece of divine creativity: the creation of the human heart. Before time – back in the winter of nothingness and then all through the infinite springtime of evolution – the dream was the birth of an intimate well of kindness, care and love in the world, dwelling in the tabernacle of the human heart.
🔹
John O’Donohue
Excerpt from BEAUTY
dear lord in this time of darkness
help us see the darkness
dear lord help us to not pretend
no more pretending
dear lord may our gaze be defenseless
and unshardable
teach us the piety of the open eye
dear lord in this time of darkness
may we be unafraid to mourn and together and hugely
may dignity lose its scaffolding
faces crumble like bricks
dear lord let grief come to grief
and then o lord help us to see the bees yet in the lavender
the spokes of sunlight down through the oaks
and the sleep-opened face of the beloved
and the afternoon all around her
and her small freckled hands
🔹
Prayer by Teddy Macker
Hearts out searching for a home
that one place where we belong
it’s a cold dark night here lately
but I have seen the light
home is your arms
holding me tight
deeper and deeper into the beautiful
waking my heart to sing this song
fly with me as flames grow higher
passion flaming deep desire
touching us on this dark night
There are times when life goes hazy
that place we all fall down
life can be so hard my baby
will you hold the line tonight?
open up your heart and fight
we can do it together
love’s the place where dreams come true
we can make it together
I believe we can make it
through
there is hope in this moment
there is hope in the sky
when days go dark and lonely baby
as long as stars are burning bright
there is hope
there is hope, ’cause
they burn for you
oh baby
we can make it through
🔹
AL
Listen to Time of the Season by The Zombies http://youtu.be/wG5R7vyu-mA
photos found at www.pinterest.com
Longing for what I don’t have,
aware of the great space between us,
Such spaciousness leaves room
for these deep sighs
and profound joys
and mostly these calm, roomy smiles
(edited from Unfolding Light Waiting Thomas by Steve Garnaas-Holmes)
Listen to Desperado Linda Ronstadt http://youtu.be/uVhRqH7euHI
Photo sources at www.pinterest.com/al513
come with Jesus to the lynching tree
we stand aside and nod
good thing it wasn’t you or me
but just some lamb of god
we sing our hymns we know them well
we sing our righteous songs
and so we send that boy to hell
for that will right our wrongs
some people weeping in the street
they cry the lynching tree
but we can’t quit the judgment seat
the way it has to be
the boy is dead lay out the pall
it’s finished move along
but how come he forgives us all
before we know it’s wrong
how come the god we slight and say
that it’s all right to kill
the god who died comes back our way
and loves us loves us still
it looks so dark the lynching tree
so dark for you and me
but here’s the strangest thing I see
a bud upon that tree
__________________
Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
Listen to Adele sing http://youtu.be/4k-W6cZ2CiY
💔💔💔💔💔💔💔💔💔💔💔
photo source found at www.pinterest.com/al513
Somewhere in the in-between
I’ll meet you there.
Somewhere between the friends benches
from one to infinity –
and the Constable’s at the BAM
Between unexpected Mondays
and snow storms of epic proportion.
Somewhere in the in-between
of stained-glass Tiffany windows
and those in the old, cold, beautiful church –
that’s where you’ll see me waiting.
Somewhere in the in-between,
on a street corner with our names intersecting,
on a spring day, before the flowers bloom,
or falling on my behind in a pile of snow, in the middle of winter,
laughing, and loving, weather of all sorts,
that’s where I’ll be hangin’ out, gettin’ rained on.
Somewhere in the in-between
of Louis’ Wonderful World,
Sam and Ruby singing the truth,
Cause Ain’t Love Somethin?
and Suzane Vega not allowing the wish for Caramel,
there’s where I’ll be.
That’s where I’ll always be,
waiting for an adventure with you.
Somewhere in the in-between
of stars, dust, lovers, Anam Cara – soul friend, kindness, beauty and truth,
Right there blazing glory, in the middle of the gray.
Yes, somewhere in between the in-between,
I’ll meet you right there,
my dearest, darling friend,
I’ll see you there,
Cause that’s where we always meet,
where we’ve always known each other.
Somewhere in the in-between
of heaven and earth.
AL 10/02/13
Sent from my iPhone
You are on your way from Jerusalem to Jericho,
going out from the heart of your religion into your daily life.
Along the way you are assaulted.
Whatever your religion has given you is taken.
You are stripped of a good way to present yourself.
You are robbed of your worthiness, whatever is to your credit.
The priest who would receive your sacrifice is not interested.
The Levite who would assure your righteousness does not.
You have no power, no treasure, nothing to offer,
nothing with which to prove or defend yourself.
You are utterly dependent, and deeply alone.
There is no reason to love you.
And your enemy draws near and bends over you.
Your fear, what you reject and despise, looms.
And heals you.
The one you distance makes you a neighbor.
The one you judge shows you mercy.
The one you refuse to love loves you.
We are loved without reason.
We are saved, not successful.
Only the one dependent on mercy can show us mercy.
Only the vulnerable can teach us trust.
We need the poor, to learn to receive.
We need the guilty, to learn to be forgiven.
We need the alien, to see ourselves, and all souls.
Without them, how destitute we are
on the road from Jerusalem to Jericho,
poor and naked, lost in the land of grace,
love draining out of us, ravenously sucking on our egos,
shivering in the rags of our self-sufficiency.
I don’t know about trusting the Lord
what the mother in the projects knows.
I don’t understand forgiveness like the prisoner.
I need to learn humility from the prostitute.
I will truly get mercy only side by side
with those who have no other hope.
The Samaritan I fear and despise
is my teacher, my master,
my savior,
my Christ.
________________
Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
http://www.unfoldinglight.net
The past 5 months have been some of the toughest I have ever experienced – and I have been through some tough times over these past 23 years – but the past 5 months have been brutal. They have worn me down and out. My faith has been strong and I have had miracles and amazing people come into my life to help me in every way possible, but there is something about day after day of this type of faith – walking for months in extremely difficult living, months of having no money, pain and grief from loss. Living with no relief for months on end, not knowing where you will eat or sleep next – which wears you out and drains your resources to the very last drop.
And then one day, after 127 days of this, I woke up and it was the day I had known could happen. The day I had feared would come. The day I had dreaded and tried to keep from coming. It was upon me. I woke up with no hope and all was dark. I’ve had a few such days, weeks, even months over these past years and they are some of the hardest, bleakest of times I have ever experienced. I shudder when I think about them. I wasn’t able to write, or share during those times. I would completely shut myself off and not even talk to people for the most part. When I have gone into the dark, it has been me, alone, locked into the darkness struggling to find God, to find my way forward, my way out, wrestling with the questions which have no answer. I am always concerned I won’t make it, I won’t recover, I won’t come out, I won’t have the strength to make this next choice I need to make – I will finally just give up and stay there. Everything I have hoped for, and struggled so hard for, will never be accomplished and I will die of my brokenness. This time was different, this time I had no defense and there was no more fight, no more struggle.
Somehow in the darkest of my days, I am always given some thin thread of hope. Sometimes just a whisper. A glimpse of God working. When I can’t. God does. Every time. I have found that I am never alone. God is always in the dark with me, and that is why my faith has taken over my life. I have found the love of God to be so transformative I have nothing else I can do but to remove my will so that God can, hopefully, be seen more and more –
Union with God means every bit of our human nature transfigured in Christ, woven up into his creative life and activity, into his redeeming purpose, heart soul, mind and strength. Each time it happens it means that one of God’s creatures has achieved its destiny. – Evelyn Underhill
As I move through this darness I am more and more aware of the magnitude of God. I am finding glimpses of devastating grace and am learning how little I know about the mystery and magnitude of God.
The next few days I will be sharing some insights from my place of darkness. This darkness has been a scary thing to encounter and I pray that it is the right thing to share it. This is new territory for me and I am not sure where it will lead me. My constant prayer is, ‘Help me – Not my will, but Thine be done.”
I share this to bring hope to myself, and to others who also find themselves in the darkness, it’s always easier when we walk together. Once again I have found, I do not know the answers to this mystery and we are never alone.
Most of our Advent traditions formed centuries ago among Christian and pre-Christian Celtic and Germanic peoples, as they approached the winter solstice. So there’s a lot about darkness, stillness and silence. Farmers removed idle wagon wheels to make wreaths with candles, reflecting on the fallow season of waiting and hope. All this darkness and cold might sound a little off to you who live in Australia, where summer’s about to begin, or South Africa or Brazil, or for that matter even Texas. While we’re singing about the “bleak midwinter” the folks in Corpus Christi and Adelaide go to the beach.
We call this a season of silence and stillness―notice how may carols have silence in them―but we’re rushing around, busier than ever, and making more noise than usual ringing bells and singing in public, if you can believe it! We’re playing music and stringing up extra lights as if to banish the very darkness and silence we adore.
The darkness and quiet of December in the north country is a symbol, but not the whole of it. After all, there isn’t that much bleak, dark midwinter in Bethlehem―and actually Jesus probably wasn’t born in the winter anyway. “The dawn that breaks upon those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death” has nothing to do with latitude. The darkness of Advent is the darkness within, and the darkness of a fearful, competitive world. The silence is the deep silence at the center of our souls. That’s where Advent happens, and the birth of Christ unfolds.
Where is the darkness in your life? Where are the places in your life where you can’t see, where the known disappears into the unknown? Where is that place in your awareness where you can be without “seeing,” without knowing or understanding, and be at peace?
Where is the silence in you? You won’t find it “out there.” Go within. Sit with it. Sit with it a lot, and let it speak to you in the language of angels, the language of God, which is silence.
Your wagon wheels may not be idle, but there is a place of quiet in your soul. Where are the empty places in your life? We might feel uncomfortable about emptiness, but an empty place is one where the Christ child can come when there is “no room in the inn” elsewhere. Perhaps even the painfully empty places―the places of loss, bereavement, poverty or fruitlessness―maybe these are places where even now angels are gathering.
Don’t expect the world to offer you darkness, silence and stillness. Go to where they are, and wait there. God will meet you there.
__________________
Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
http://www.unfoldinglight.net