Dear Friend, Holidays are rich times in the life of your soul. Complex emotions may surface. Give your heart space for all you may be feeling today. I offer you a collection of poems to assist your soul-self to open and receive all that's present for you on this day. I've sent these poems before on Thanksgiving because I find they speak to many levels and layers. When you have time, read one or more of these poems, and let it be an invitation to write. Take the first line of a poem, or any line that calls to you, write it down as if it's your first line, and just let yourself write, whatever comes, for at least five minutes. May you be blessed with a container wide enough to hold all that arises for you today, and every day. May writing be one of the ways you hold, honor, heal and transform all that your life offers you. Blessings to you today, and every day. Gift W.S. Merwin I have to trust what was given to me if I am to trust anything it led the stars over the shadowless mountain what does it remember in its night and silence what does it not hope knowing itself no child of time what did it not begin what will it not end I have to hold it up in my hands as my ribs hold up my heart again in the mountain I have to turn to the morning I must be led by what was given to me as streams are led by it and braiding flight of birds the gropings of veins the leaning of plants the thankful days breath by breath I call to it Nameless One O Invisible Untouchable Free I am nameless I am divided I am invisible I am untouchable and empty nomad live with me be my eyes my tongue and my hands my sleep and my rising out of chaos come and be given Thanks W.S. Merwin Listen with the night falling we are saying thank you we are stopping on the bridges to bow for the railings we are running out of the glass rooms with our mouths full of food to look at the sky and say thank you we are standing by the water looking out in different directions. back from a series of hospitals back from a mugging after funerals we are saying thank you after the news of the dead whether or not we knew them we are saying thank you looking up from tables we are saying thank you in a culture up to its chin in shame living in the stench it has chosen we are saying thank you over telephones we are saying thank you in doorways and in the backs of cars and in elevators remembering wars and the police at the back door and the beatings on stairs we are saying thank you in the banks that use us we are saying thank you with the crooks in office with the rich and fashionable unchanged we go on saying thank you thank you with the animals dying around us our lost feelings we are saying thank you with the forests falling faster than the minutes of our lives we are saying thank you with the words going out like cells of a brain with the cities growing over us like the earth we are saying thank you faster and faster with nobody listening we are saying thank you we are saying thank you and waving dark though it is More Honey Locust --Mary Oliver Any day now the branches of the honey locust will be filled with white fountains; in my hands I will see the holy seeds and a sweetness will rise up from those petal-bundles so heavy I must close my eyes to take it in, to bear such generosity. I hope that you too know the honey locust, the fragrance of those fountains: and I hope that you too will pause to admire the slender trunk, the leaves, the holy seeds, the ground they grow from year after year with striving and patience; and I hope that you too will say a word of thanks for such creation out of the wholesome earth, which would be, and dearly is it needed, a prayer for all of us. Halleluiah ----Mary Oliver Everyone should be born into this world happy and loving everything. But in truth it rarely works that way. For myself, I have spent my life clamoring toward it. Halleluiah, anyway, I’m not where I started! And have you too been trudging like that, sometimes almost forgetting how wondrous the world is and how miraculously kind some people can be? And have you too decided that probably nothing important Is ever easy? Not, say, for the first sixty years. Halleluiah, I’m sixty now, and even a little more, and some days I feel I have wings. … [Read more...]
Ways To Practice Knowing You Are Holy Ground
You Are Holy Ground Since writing the poem, and then article In Shaky Times: You Are Holy Ground a few weeks ago, I’ve been learning more about the healing powers of those four words. As you may or may not know, part three of the Come Back Home through Writing course is called “You Are Holy Ground.” In that section, you’re guided to work with one story in your life where you did not feel that way. Through writing and prayer, you begin the process of re-inhabiting that part of you as sacred space—holy ground. It takes some time and dedication, but it works if you devote yourself to it. It’s been an unexpected gift for me to discover that those four words also work as a mantra—an instantaneous reminder that can bring you back to your core when you’re feeling vulnerable or lost. I’ve been moved to hear from so many of you how you’ve started saying to yourself “I am holy ground” and finding you’re able to come back home. I’ve also been uncovering more layers of working with this phrase and the whole concept in my own life, and finding more and more gifts get revealed. Lately, it’s been writing itself that’s been feeling vulnerable for me. I’ve been writing the story that accompanies the Come Back Home Through Writing Course—my own story of how I literally came back to my childhood home after my mother died, to allow myself to receive unexpected, life altering healing. In the course of this writing, more healing asked to be done. I won’t go into the whole story here—it’s in the book—suffice to say, old fears of trusting my voice returned with a vengeance, just at the time when I’d thought I’d broken free of them. Of all the things I did to heal and transform those fears and restore my ability to keep going with my book, none worked more powerfully than saying those four words “You are holy ground” to the scared, younger part of myself who never knew it was true. I’m sharing this with you today for two reasons: The more I discover and hear from you about how this phrase works for you, the more I’m inspired to focus a program on teaching the deeper applications of writing and healing guided by “You are holy ground.” I’d love to know if that interests you. I want to encourage you –now—to start experimenting with this in your own life, when you find yourself on shaky ground. Here are a few ideas for practice: Try it when you want to do something that scares you and you feel stuck to take the first—or the next—step. Whisper it quietly to the frightened part of you: You are holy ground. I’ve written earlier about using it at 3 AM on a sleepless night when negative thoughts take over. I’ll remind you of that, and also mention that it’s a great way to talk back to negative voices any time they threaten to take over your inner world. Say out loud: I am holy ground. When you want to write, and are afraid; when your Inner Critic is threatening to steal your voice, or your trust in your voice, say it then, in your own defense, “I am holy ground." Over the next few weeks I’ll be sharing more ways to work with this practice to help you navigate the vulnerable places in your heart that often emerge when you’re writing deeply. For today, and this week, see what changes when you remind yourself that you are holy ground. I’d love to hear what unfolds for you. If you missed the original article, you can find it here. https://www.elephantjournal.com/2017/10/four-words-for-tumultuous-times/ … [Read more...]
In Shaky Times: You Are Holy Ground
In Shaky Times, You Are Holy Ground When earthquakes shatter your foundation You are holy ground When nuclear war gets played with like a game You are holy ground When the wildfires come, and the hurricanes, and you know that climate change is already here You are holy ground When fear arises and stops your breath and you can’t take another step You let it rise, and let it go and know again that you are Holy Ground Over and over in these changing times when an old paradigm is dying You let the old paradigm die within you as well You call out the lie of your weakness, your powerlessness, your shame You step into the wider truth, the deeper truth the ever present unchanging truth of who you are and why you came now… To be in service to the earth’s Great time of change You want to remember and help others remember and you know that fear cloaks the light you are the light you came to remember to come back home so you walk and every step you take is planted on the earth and you remember the promise you made right now when it feels impossible is the time you remember without a doubt who you are you are holy ground you are holy ground You Are Holy Ground already even now with every breath you take Remember … [Read more...]
I Choose Love
“I alone cannot change the world, but I can cast a stone across the waters to create many ripples.” ---Mother Teresa Thanks to all who responded to last week’s writing, Don’t Abandon Yourself. I’m struck by the many ways people relate to this…and how important it is for all of us, at different times, to learn the lesson of not abandoning who we really are. Also, I want to let you know that I am no longer struggling with Lyme Disease in the way I wrote about a few years ago….many things have shifted in my health, and I’m grateful for more and more days of vibrant energy (even with occasional setbacks, as I wrote about last week.) All the teachings I’ve developed have come from this path of opening to illness as a teacher, and not abandoning my body when she’s at her weakest. In learning to love the most fragile parts of myself, I’ve found possibilities of healing I could not have imagined. Love is the doorway to so many kinds of health. And, love is under attack in our world now. Hatred and fear are coming out of the shadows and showing their faces in broad daylight, in large numbers, in a highly organized fashion. I am wrestling about what to write to you, this week. My mind, my heart and my body are very aware of the attacks in Charlottesville. I am a Jewish woman. My next door neighbors are African Americans on one side, Hispanic on the other, two doors down live a couple of gay men who are married to each other. This is the world I live in. I wrote my first play based on the life of Holocaust survivors. My work has been to help us heal from the impact of trauma and genocide. I am working hard, this week, to keep myself out of fear over what is happening in my country, right now. How do we, as sensitive, caring souls, who want to be true to ourselves and write as a way to heal ourselves, our communities, and our world, respond to this level of hatred and violence? For me, it is important to return to the sacred center at the core of all life. These times are times to move through the fire and burn away what’s no longer needed. Much is being purified and let go. Choosing love over fear has never been an easy choice. It’s true personally and it’s true on a global scale. Hate crimes stem from tremendous fear, and violence breeds more fear. At every moment, love is possible. At every moment, we can turn away from fear. What happens, when you recognize the fear in your own heart, and surround it with love? What happens, when we recognize the fear in our world, and surround it with love? I believe that our own hearts are the crucible for change. Our own hearts are the first place to turn---not the last step, and not the only place—but each heart is a living hologram of the world. Each of us knows what it is to be afraid. Each of us knows how to turn away from our self and how to turn back. I choose love. I choose love. I stand for love. I stand for love. Moment by moment, with every step I take, with every choice I make, I create a world I want to live in, or I destroy it. Personal choices lead to political choices. I do not have answers to the hard questions we face today. I only have an awareness, that choosing love is something that matters more than ever. When I say, I choose love, it is not a hollow phrase or a cliché, it is a nitty gritty reminder of how I keep walking. How do I choose love, now? How do I choose love, now? How do I care for the part of me that is afraid, and not bring more fear into the world, or into my own life? Do you have questions, about how to be alive today? Do you have questions, about how to respond to hatred when it kills? I support many levels of action. I support many groups who are organizing with integrity today. And, I believe that as a community of writers on a path to heal ourselves and heal the world, we must honor what it means to live a life that heals. We must come together to support each other to value the sacred in all things, especially when the sacred is being violated. Hate crimes violate the sacred in life. If you choose to uphold the sacred today, you are doing something that helps the energy of the world return to balance. Each of us affects the whole, even if it seems like in very small ways. … [Read more...]
Don’t Abandon Your Self
In the past few weeks I've been hearing from a number of people who've been going through serious health challenges...or life challenges. I've been going through some health challenges as well and I keep remembering a piece I wrote a few years ago, in a similar time, which kept reminding me to Not Abandon Myself. I've decided to send this piece out this week, in case it helps you or someone you love. Also: in case you missed the Writing the Prayer of Your Life workbook, I'm sending it out as a free gift again...and you can download it below this article. I hope you're well and thriving...and in case you're not, today, remember to not abandon your self. Stay connected to love, and know that no matter what is happening, you are worthy of your own love, and you are worthy of Divine Love, and both are available to you at all times. In order to receive that love, you have to come into the present moment, and that's the first step through whatever challenge is facing you. September 2015: A journal entry For the past six weeks I’ve been sick, off and on. Mostly on. For the past six weeks I’ve also been taking powerful doses of immune strengthening supplements and herbs that usually help me get well. And, I’ve been doing a daily Chi Qong practice called Iron Body—the best thing, my Chi Qong teacher tells me, for the lungs and lymphatic system. I did it this morning and felt pretty good for a few hours. But then I took a walk in the wind that has grown suddenly strong and my throat is sore again. My lungs hurt. I want to cry and scream and give up. I want to lie down. I have a desk full of unfinished work, including a class to plan for tomorrow morning. I have no energy. I make a cup of tea. I wonder how I can be present with this and not give up on myself. “Loving what is” is Byron Katie’s instruction. My version is, “Rest Until You Remember What You Love.” That’s always the first step when I’m too tired to stand: remember love. Remember I am loved, even now, when I have no energy to function, again. This is so familiar to me, being sick. Too sick to do what I want and need to be doing. “Good for you,” my friends say, when I call, again, to cancel a dinner plan. “Good for you, for taking care of yourself.” I refrain from saying, “This is the story of my life, taking care of myself.” Taking very good care of myself. And still, I’m sick quite a lot. Is it a failure? Am I a failure, because I am so sick? Again? Or is it my life, asking me to love it, just the way it is, fragile immune system and all? In the words of my own poem: “God’s invitation to let this life be enough.” It’s always a relief when I feel better. When I wake up without a sore throat or a low grade fever. When I have energy to teach the class, and energy left over, when the class is done. Those days are blessing. Ease. Comfort. And then there are days like this. I haven’t eaten gluten, or processed food, or sugar or dairy. I pretty much don’t do those things, have not done those things, for decades. I eat organic foods. Lots of vegetables. I drink very clean water. I practice Chi Qong daily. This is all pretty much standard operating procedure in my life. And, I have Lyme Disease. Late Stage Lyme Disease. So, in fact, I do a lot more than this. And still I’m sick. Again. So here’s my choice—do I despair? Or surrender. To love. More love. More more more more more— Love. An endless supply. Because I’m so tired and the sickness seems endless. Because here I am. This is my body, my life, and it is miraculous, after all I’ve been through, that I am still alive. And I am still alive. And quite often sick. But it’s the despair that threatens me now, more than the sore throat, cough, fever and weariness. And so, I pray. With every breath I take. I sing a song to counter the despair. I lie down on my back on the floor, on my old oriental rug, and rest my heart on the earth below me. I ask her to help. It’s all I know how to do right now. This is the body I have. I take this body, In sickness and health, To have and to hold, To love and to cherish, Till death do us part. My vow is to love. My self, first of all, and life itself, as much as I can. But myself, in sickness or in health, I vow to love. It would make such a nice story, if it ended with: one day she woke up and ran marathons, became a rock climber, traveled the world and was never sick again. But that hasn’t happened, yet. The happy ending in my story is something else. And you see, there is a happy ending. Even though I am still sick, quite a lot of the time. Because the truth is, sickness was never the enemy. Sickness is just sickness. Some of us have more than others. In a world where toxins are endemic in our air, water, food, it’s amazing that any of us are still upright. But here we are. And I’m a sensitive. A canary sent down to the coal mines, to give warning to those above ground, wondering whether it’s safe to enter the mind. It’s not. Yet here we are. If I am the canary then I am also the eagle: a person with Lyme who lived with low level carbon monoxide that nearly killed me. But all that matters for this story to have a happy ending is for me to not abandon myself. Or to believe that I’ve been abandoned by life. If I tell that story, to myself, or to you, I’m doomed. And that would be a real failure. Because it’s such a lie. My immune system may be fragile, but my heart is not. And my own ability to find my way home, to my own heart, in the face of my own despair--in the face of my own inclination to believe that I’ve been, or am being, abandoned ---that is what I know about prayer. That’s my first –and eternal prayer. The first commandment on the tablet I have written with my life: Thou shalt not abandon oneself, no matter what. I am always worthy of love. The second is: The body is not wrong in its symptoms. The body always has something to say. For all I know, this wind carries high levels of radiation from Fukishima and that’s why I have a sore throat. Everyone has a sore throat now, my sister tells me. It’s entirely possible that my body is simply more sensitive to this radiation and so the sore throat that everyone has knocks me down, further. I’m sick a lot, but I’m also healthy, in lots of ways that count. Health is a blessing and there are all kinds of things that add up to health. All kinds of things that health can mean. The health I value most is the relationship I have with me. The health of knowing that I am worthy of love, no matter what. Always. Even now. When I’m too sick to get out of bed. I am still worthy of love. Still worthy of my own love. And this is the prayer that matters most. … [Read more...]
