2017

Posted on March 31, 2017 by Jo Beall

as we close this moon of the lion and lamb of march, i reflect on the space we have traversed, the space we have silently dwelt in, the space we honor and celebrate, the space of journey, of walking each other home, the space of awakening and deepening, of being fully present, of curiosity, of imagination, of courage in the face of chaos, of trust, of letting go, of breathing in and breathing out, of ebb and flow, of being lovingkindness, of standing in love for love, of being a space of peace built on justice and guided by love…

blessing our journey of walking home together and deepening into the heart…

The Journey

One day you finally knew

what you had to do, and began,

though the voices around you

kept shouting

their bad advice–

though the whole house

began to tremble

and you felt the old tug

at your ankles.

“Mend my life!”

each voice cried.

But you didn’t stop.

You knew what you had to do,

though the wind pried

with its stiff fingers

at the very foundations,

though their melancholy

was terrible.

It was already late

enough, and a wild night,

and the road full of fallen

branches and stones.

But little by little,

as you left their voices behind,

the stars began to burn

through the sheets of clouds,

and there was a new voice

which you slowly

recognized as your own,

that kept you company

as you strode deeper and deeper

into the world,

determined to do

the only thing you could do–

determined to save

the only life you could save.

Mary Oliver

Poetic PEACE Pilgrimage – Year 4/4 Years – Day 104/1200 Days – 3/30/2017

Posted on March 30, 2017 by Jo Beall

to celebrate the 1200th day of this pilgrimage, i turn to a brother pilgrim, OR-7 also known ass Journey, a gray wolf who made an epic pilgrimage of 1200 miles across Oregon with a stint across the border in California before coming home to Oregon to settle down and start a family…

watching the documentary, The Wolf OR-7 Expedition: 1200 Miles to Explore Human and Wolf Coexistence, which retraces the steps of Journey is revealing in so many ways and so appropriate on the 1200th day of sauntering along the 21st century Oregon Trail…

the team’s heroic journey is filled with gorgeous scenery, enlightening conversations and the opportunity to step into the body of Journey and be an amazing wanderer…

in the words of one of the expedition team members…

To Walk in the Wake of a Wolf

I wrote this just before crossing the California border back into Oregon again. It is dedicated to my team members: Rachael, David, Daniel, Jay, Michelle, and Wolf OR-7.

To walk in the wake of a wolf
is to walk into the silence of stealth and the feast of fearlessness,
it is to fight for yourself and never forget the pack.

To walk in the wake of a wolf is to know the difference between greed and hunger, between the villain and the hunter,
it is to taste unforgiving wildness and
the loyalty of kin,
to breathe the spirit of a howling chorus
and to remember what it means to stand alone in the forest and cry out.

The tracks of a wolf are the tracks of a brother waiting for you
to find the old bond of blood
in a land where ground is the only common ground.

To walk in the wake of a wolf is to see yourself
in the shadows of the moon as a rogue
always on the run,
it is to know where you belong,
and to know before the wind speaks where opportunity lies,
where the secrets of survival are hidden in the night
ready to reveal themselves only in your dreams.

It is to listen to the fierce desire to be who you are in the world
and to be it fiercely, loyal to your name and ready.

To walk in the wake of a wolf is to know the world is still wild
and that you belong in it
as much as the wolf.

— Galeo Saintz

From today onward
Until the attainment of enlightenment
May I be willing
To live with my chaos and confusion
And that of all other sentient beings.

May I be willing
To share our mutual confusion
And work incessantly and humbly
To help and elevate everyone without exception.

Poetic PEACE Pilgrimage – Year 4 – Day 103 – 3/29/2017

Posted on March 29, 2017 by Jo Beall

i love awakening in beauty each morning reciting the same prayer as the Dalai Lama, it’s also the way i love to close this peace and each day… today, i take up the challenge again to see beauty everywhere… how i love sharing this journey, this beautyway with you…

What to Remember When Waking

In that first hardly noticed moment in which you wake,
coming back to this life from the other
more secret, moveable and frighteningly honest world
where everything began,
there is a small opening into the new day
which closes the moment you begin your plans.

What you can plan is too small for you to live.
What you can live wholeheartedly will make plans enough
for the vitality hidden in your sleep.

To be human is to become visible
while carrying what is hidden as a gift to others.
To remember the other world in this world
is to live in your true inheritance.

You are not a troubled guest on this earth,
you are not an accident amidst other accidents
you were invited from another and greater night
than the one from which you have just emerged.

Now, looking through the slanting light of the morning window
toward the mountain presence of everything that can be
what urgency calls you to your one love?
What shape waits in the seed of you
to grow and spread its branches
against a future sky?

Is it waiting in the fertile sea?
In the trees beyond the house?
In the life you can imagine for yourself?
In the open and lovely white page on the writing desk?

— David Whyte

From today onward
Until the attainment of enlightenment
May I be willing
To live with my chaos and confusion
And that of all other sentient beings.

May I be willing
To share our mutual confusion
And work incessantly and humbly
To help and elevate everyone without exception.

Tibetan Prayer from Light the Flame

Poetic PEACE Pilgrimage – Year 4 – Day 102 – 3/28/2017

Posted on March 28, 2017 by Jo Beall

ah yes, a strange encounter early this morning reminds me of this profound spiritual teaching, this reality of life sending me into a tailspin at first until it sinks in… there is no exit, this is life… and, in the very instant i surrender to the whirlwind, i am transmuted into whirling rhythm… and in that moment,that long drawn-out moment, the world cracks wide open…

may we all awaken to earth’s energy re-membering we are one heart…
may we all awaken to earth’s oceans as our clean-sing tears…
may we all awaken to earth’s wind as our enlivening breath…
may we all awaken to earth’s landscape as our body…

may our one heart open dormant seeds
may our tears fill rain clouds
may our breath give flight to migrating birds
may our body be an island of refuge

may earth mother receive our one heart for her energy
may earth mother receive our tears for her oceans
may earth mother receive our breath for her wind
may earth mother receive our body for her landscape

may earth mother open dormant seeds
may earth mother fill rain clouds
may earth mother give flight to migrating birds
may earth mother nurture islands of refuge

and, may the cycles of life flow unceasingly

~

From today onward

Until the attainment of enlightenment

May I be willing
To live with my chaos and confusion
And that of all other sentient beings.

May I be willing
To share our mutual confusion
And work incessantly and humbly
To help and elevate everyone without exception.

Tibetan Light the Flame Prayer

Poetic PEACE Pilgrimage – Year 4 – Day 101 – 3/27/2017

Posted on March 27, 2017 by Jo Beall

on this new moon in aries, heralding the start of the astrological turn around the sun, we have the opportunity to tap into the field of new beginnings and plant seeds of intention in the fertile ground for this new moment, this new day, this new cycle, this new year…

breathe in the clarity radiating from this dark moon representing both inner and outer love, universal love… yes, feel the awakening, the enlivening energy of this fire moon inspiring creative action and the realizing of dreams…

yes, we are empty enough to love boundlessly… empty enough to live spacious and free… we are clear enough to truly be…

Poetic PEACE Pilgrimage – Year 4 – Day 100 – 3/26/2017

Posted on March 26, 2017 by Jo Beall

I wish I could show you when you are lonely or in darkness the astonishing light of your own being.

~Hafiz of Shiraz~

blessed be… the 100th day of the fourth year of the poetic peace pilgrimage falls on the 11th annual whalewatching pilgrimage and the day of the weekly segment of an image showing you the astonishing light of your being…

this picture that’s worth a thousand words looks like the wild sea of the pacific northwest today although it was taken moons ago on another extraordinary pilgrimage and the pilgrim in the picture, like you, is a being filled with such astonishing light… let her words carry you into the light of your being… thousandfold thanks, geri…

MOON BATH ~ In honor of World Water Day 2017

Standing in the river at Rosebud Camp
Full moon sending beams of light connecting me to the ALL that is.
Sending up my sacred water prayers as I receive the water from my moon bath and allow it to wash over me,
wash over me,
wash over me.
Sending up my sacred water prayers as I let the water from the moon bath wash over me.
Please Great Mother hear my prayer,
my deep gratitude for the blessed element of Water that flows across these lands to quench my thirst,
hydrate our crops, sustain all living beings on this planet Earth. I Thank You.
Please, Revered Water, forgive me for my trespasses and hear my vow get louder with every ceremony devoted to you, that I will carry the message to serve and protect you in any way I can. I’m Sorry.
As I anoint my lips with you, I declare my love to you Sacred Water, and make myself accountable to you in my words, deeds and actions to demonstrate my love and devotion to you by this Moon Bath ritual. Water, I love you.
As I anoint my forehead with you, I pray for you to show me compassion for my ignorance or misuse of your resource in the past and I vow to continue to educate myself in ways to conserve and protect you from this day forward. I will live my life with ultimate love and compassion for you, my Beloved Water. Please Forgive Me.
~
©Geri Fox

Poetic PEACE Pilgrimage – Year 4 – Day 99 – 3/25/2017

Posted on March 25, 2017 by Jo Beall

today is one of my favorite days… not only is it the 99th day of this year’s pilgrimage, but also it is our eleventh whale watching pilgrimage along the pacific coast, a day of meandering with the ocean along the rocky coast, a day of looking deeply within the sea that seems to stretch forever and ever, a day of listening to the rhythm of the waves and the voice of grandmother echoing from the deep below…

“I send love and blessings to all from the spirit world. I am so honored to feel your love and your concern.

Do not forget to do everything you can to heal the oceans and water of this beautiful planet. Send your healing, loving thoughts to the water daily and get others to do the same. You must hold a vision of the water sparkling clean and full of vibrant life, for as you create this vision it will be done. It will however, take millions of people holding this vision to make the shift.

Do not be dragged down by the current chaos in the world. Humans are gifted and powerful creators. You only need to shift your focus ever so slightly to come into alignment and do good for each other and all creatures on planet earth. It is time to forgive and let go of violence. Make your priority loving the earth, loving and supporting each other, loving and protecting all creatures, and doing everything you can to make life a paradise for all.”

~ Granny ~

may we open our one heart and re-member that we are an ocean of lovinhkindness…

Poetic PEACE Pilgrimage – Year 4 – Day 98 – 3/24/2017

Posted on March 24, 2017 by Jo Beall

like the celestial sea eagle, i’m about to fly away home to the oceanic waters of the pacific northwest for our eleventh annual whalewatching pilgrimage of peace… like the eagle, we will have no internet connection, it will be a beautyway of innernet, of flying so close to great spirit, of being enveloped in the uplift of the sheltering wings of love, like this….

Eagle Poem

To pray you open your whole self
To sky, to earth, to sun, to moon
To one whole voice that is you.
And know there is more
That you can’t see, can’t hear
Can’t know except in moments
Steadily growing, and in languages
That aren’t always sound but other
Circles of motion.
Like eagle that Sunday morning
Over Salt River. Circles in blue sky
In wind, swept our hearts clean
With sacred wings.
We see you, see ourselves and know
That we must take the utmost care
And kindness in all things.
Breathe in, knowing we are made of
All this, and breathe, knowing
We are truly blessed because we
Were born, and die soon, within a
True circle of motion,
Like eagle rounding out the morning
Inside us.
We pray that it will be done
In beauty.
In beauty.

~ Joy Harjo ~

Poetic PEACE Pilgrimage – Year 4 – Day 97 – 3/23/2017

Posted on March 23, 2017 by Jo Beall

today, i must take a day of sabbath, a day of savoring the quintessence, the essence of essence… love, sweet love… as i float in the spaciousness of the stillpoint, i re-member a poem that it is said that Charlie Chaplin read on his seventieth birthday which re-minds me of the uplifting letter the beautiful Irina, pictured here, wrote on her birthday…

“Happy birthday my darling one. The world is a more beautiful place because you are here. I celebrate you. I welcome you into this day lovingly. May you be always feel welcome here. I am honoring you today with all of my heart. I accept you with everything you are and feel, with all that you do. I honor your journey so far and today I pause to see all that you have become. I am in awe of you and I deeply bow to your being, your heart, your soul. Thank you!”

“Tears blessed this letter and I took a photo of this single teardrop filled with the transmission of Grace. I want to share it as my gift to you on my birthday. Thank you all for this amazing journey we are on together, for each of your individual journeys, your work, that birth the possibility of a new world where Grace roams free.”

and now to the poem that it’s said Charlie Chaplin read in 1959 and that many years later Kim McKillen wrote a book with these words, whether the words are only Kim’s or both of theirs and many other people’s words, the poem is so beautiful, so filled with wisdom and exactly the medicine that makes my heat sing along the rainbow trail…

As I Began to Love Myself

As I began to love myself I found that anguish and emotional suffering are only warning signs that I was living against my own truth. Today, I know, this is “AUTHENTICITY”.

As I began to love myself I understood how much it can offend somebody if I try to force my desires on this person, even though I knew the time was not right and the person was not ready for it, and even though this person was me. Today I call it “RESPECT”.

As I began to love myself I stopped craving for a different life, and I could see that everything that surrounded me was inviting me to grow. Today I call it “MATURITY”.

As I began to love myself I understood that at any circumstance, I am in the right place at the right time, and everything happens at the exactly right moment. So I could be calm. Today I call it “SELF-CONFIDENCE”.

As I began to love myself I quit stealing my own time, and I stopped designing huge projects for the future. Today, I only do what brings me joy and happiness, things I love to do and that make my heart cheer, and I do them in my own way and in my own rhythm. Today I call it “SIMPLICITY”.

As I began to love myself I freed myself of anything that is no good for my health – food, people, things, situations, and everything that drew me down and away from myself. At first I called this attitude a healthy egoism. Today I know it is “LOVE OF ONESELF”.

As I began to love myself I quit trying to always be right, and ever since I was wrong less of the time. Today I discovered that is “MODESTY”.

As I began to love myself I refused to go on living in the past and worrying about the future. Now, I only live for the moment, where everything is happening. Today I live each day, day by day, and I call it “FULFILLMENT”.

As I began to love myself I recognized that my mind can disturb me and it can make me sick. But as I connected it to my heart, my mind became a valuable ally. Today I call this connection “WISDOM OF THE HEART”.

We no longer need to fear arguments, confrontations or any kind of problems with ourselves or others. Even stars collide, and out of their crashing new worlds are born. Today I know “THAT IS LIFE”!

Poetic PEACE Pilgrimage – Year 4 – Day 96 – 3/22/2017

Posted on March 22, 2017 by Jo Beall

everyday is truly blessing water day, water is the innernet connecting us all, the more blessings of peace, love and harmony we pour into water, the more peaceful, loving and harmonious life is… thousandfold thanks for our joining hands across the cosmos in sacred honoring… thousandfold thanks, water for giving us life and blessing our earth walks… standing before you, we re-member we are water, we are the ocean in a drop… may our one heart be purified more than ever before for the benefit of all as we drink you into our being and as water reciprocates in the next breath by blessing us and generously bestowing pure water spirits throughout the web of life… water is a mirror for us as well as perfectly mirroring us… water responds in perfect harmony to the messages we send; the more beautiful our transmission, the more beautifully water creates all that is..

In Praise of Water

Let us bless the grace of water:

The imagination of the primeval ocean
Where the first forms of life stirred
And emerged to dress the vacant earth
With warm quilts of color.

The well whose liquid root worked
Through the long night of clay,
Trusting ahead of itself openings
That would yet yield to its yearning
Until at last it arises in the desire of light
To discover the pure quiver of itself
Flowing crystal clear and free
Through delighted emptiness.

The courage of a river to continue belief
In the slow fall of ground,
Always falling farther
Toward the unseen ocean.

The river does what words would love,
Keeping its appearance
By insisting on disappearance;
Its only life surrendered
To the event of pilgrimage,
Carrying the origin to the end.

Seldom pushing or straining,
Keeping itself to itself
Everywhere all along its flow…

Let us bless the humility of water,
Always willing to take the shape
Of whatever otherness holds it,

The buoyancy of water
Stronger than the deadening,
Downward drag of gravity,
The innocence of water,
Flowing forth, without thought
Of what awaits it,
The refreshment of water,
Dissolving the crystals of thirst.

Water: voice of grief,
Cry of love,
In the flowing tear.

Water: vehicle and idiom
Of all the inner voyaging
That keeps us alive.

Blessed be water,
Our first mother.

~

From today onward
Until the attainment of enlightenment
May I be willing
To live with my chaos and confusion
And that of all other sentient beings.

May I be willing
To share our mutual confusion
And work incessantly and humbly
To help and elevate everyone without exception.

Tibetan Light the Flame Prayer

Abundance Created Together (ACT)

This is the miracle that happens every time to those who really love; the more they give, the more they possess. – Rainer Maria Rilke –

Monthly Archives: March 2017