Monthly Archives: May 2017

Poetic PEACE Pilgrimage – Year 4 – Day 166 – 5/31/2017

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Named Miraculous May 31 Blessing the Space Between Us Nags Head 2014 2 019

i am so happy to be able to be on line after a day without that ability to bless this moon of miraculous may and what a month it has been… on this last day, i am called to let go of something that i really wanted to hold on to but i take in a deep breath of presence and take the one step, the first step into a wilderness that is uncharted  slowly and confidently, yes, with faith and trust because i’m  really not going alone, i’m going allone… yes, i feel the deep support of all our relations as we journey into mystery… thank you…

Poetic PEACE Pilgrimage – Year 4 – Day 165 – 5/30/2017

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Named Miraculous May 30 Shavuot Gérôme,_Jean-Léon_-_Moses_on_Mount_Sinai_Jean-Léon_Gérôme_-1895-1900

tonight begins the celebration of shavuot, the biblical giving to moses at mount sinai over 3300 years ago of the divine transmission of the torah, the blueprint for creation for all of humanity… mystical wisdom explains the torah was given to bring peace to the world… it is said that most of torah’s secrets are still deeply hidden within layers of code but every year on the anniversary, the hidden is revealed and accessible here now…

i invite you to join me on a midnight pilgrimage simulating moses’ climbing the mountain to receive the 10 commandments by reflecting on the 10 commitments as proposed by rabbi michael lerner…

1. YHVH, the Power of Transformation and Healing, is the Ultimate Reality of the Universe and the Source of Transcendent Unity

Aware of the suffering caused by not acknowledging the ultimate Unity of All Being, I vow to recognize every human being as a manifestation of the Divine and to spend more time each day in awe and wonder at the grandeur of Creation.

Aware of the suffering that is caused when we unconsciously pass on to others the pain, cruelty, depression and despair that has been inflicted upon us, I vow to become conscious and then act upon all the possibilities for healing and transforming my own life and being involved in healing and transforming the larger world.

2. Idolatry

Aware of the suffering caused by taking existing social realities, economic security, ideologies, religious beliefs, national commitments, or the gratification of our current desires as the highest value, I vow to recognize only God as the ultimate, and to look at the universe and each part of my life as an evolving part of a larger Totality whose ultimate worth is measured by how close it brings us to God and to love of each other. To stay in touch with this reality, I vow to meditate each day for at least ten minutes and to contemplate the totality of the universe and my humble place in it.

3. Do not take God in Vain

Aware of the suffering caused by religious or spiritual fanaticism, I vow to be respectful of all religious traditions which preach love and respect for the Other, and to recognize that there are many possible paths to God. I vow to acknowledge that we as Jews are not better than others and our path is only one of the many ways that people have heard God’s voice. I vow to remain aware of the distortions in our own traditions, and the ways that I myself necessarily bring my own limitations to every encounter with the Divine. So I will practice spiritual humility. Yet I will enthusiastically advocate for what I find compelling in the Jewish tradition and encourage others to explore that which has moved me.

4. Observe the Sabbath

Aware of the suffering produced by excessive focus on “making it” and obtaining material satisfactions, I vow to regularly observe a 25 hour Shabbat as a day in which I focus on celebrating the world rather than trying to control it or maximize my own advantage within it. I will build Shabbat with the Beyt Tikkun community www.beyttikkun.org, the Network of Spiritual Progressives www.spiritualprogressives.org, or some other spiritually alive community to which I make a commitment to support emotionally and financially, and through participation in that community will enjoy loving connection with others. I will use some Shabbat time to renew my commitment to social justice and healing and reject the false dichotomy that sees spirituality as ruined if it also involves talkiing about the pain and cruelty in this world and exploring paths and strategies to heal and transform our world. I will also set aside significant amounts of time for inner spiritual development, personal renewal, reflection, and pleasure.

5. Honor your Mother and Father

Aware of the suffering caused by aging, disease, and death, I vow to provide care and support for my parents.

Aware that every parent has faults and has inflicted pain on their children, I vow to forgive my parents and to allow myself to see them as human beings with the same kinds of limitations as every other human being on the planet. And I vow to remember the moments of kindness and nurturance, and to let them play a larger role in my memory as I develop a sense of compassion for them and for myself.

6. Do not Murder

Aware of the suffering caused by wars, environmental irresponsibility, and eruptions of violence, I vow to recognize the sanctify of life and not to passively participate in social practices that are destructive of the lives of others. I will resist the perpetrators of violence and oppression of others, the poisoners of our environment, and those who demean others or encourage acts of violence. Aware that much violence is the irrational and often self-destructive response to the absence of love and caring, I vow to show more loving and caring energy to everyone around me, to take the time to know others more deeply, and to struggle for a world which provides everyone with recognition and spiritual nourishment.

7. Do not Engage in Sexual Exploitation

Aware of the suffering caused when people break their commitments of sexual loyalty to each other, and the suffering caused by using other people for our own sexual purposes, I vow to keep my commitments and to be fully honest and open in my sexual dealings with others, avoiding deceit or manipulation to obtain my own ends. I will rejoice in my body and the bodies of others, will treat them as embodiments of Divine energy, and will seek to enhance my own pleasure and the pleasure of others around me, joyfully celebrating sex as an opportunity for encounter with the holy. I will do all I can to prevent sexual abuse in adults and children, the spreading of sexually transmitted diseases, and the misuse of sexuality to further domination or control of others. I will respect the diversity of non-exploitative sexual expression and lifestyles and will not seek to impose sexual orthodoxies on others.

8. Do not Steal

Aware of the suffering caused by an unjust distribution of the world’s resources, exploitation, and theft, I vow to practice generosity, to share what I have, and to not keep anything that should belong to others while working for a wise use of the goods and services that are available. I will not horde what I have, and especially will not horde love. I will support a fairer redistribution of the wealth of the planet so that everyone has adequate material well-being, recognizing that contemporary global inequalities in wealth are often the resultant of colonialism, genocide, slavery, theft and the imposition of monetary and trade policies by the powerful on the powerless. In the meantime, I will do my best to support the homeless and others who are in need.

Aware that others sometimes contribute much energy to keeping this community functioning, I will give time and energy to the tasks of building the Beyt Tikkun community, and, when possible, will donate generously of my financial resources and my talents and time.

9. Do not Lie

Aware of the suffering caused by wrongful speech, I vow to cultivate a practice of holy speech in which my words are directed to increasing the love and caring in the world. I vow to avoid words that are misleading or manipulative, and avoid spreading stories that I do not know to be true, or which might cause unnecessary divisiveness or harm, and instead will use my speech to increase harmony, social justice, kindness, hopefulness, trust and solidarity. I will be generous in praise and support for others. To heighten my awareness of this commitment, I will dedicate one day a week to full and total holiness of words, refraining from any speech that day which does not hallow God’s name or bring joy to others.

10. Do not Covet

Aware of the suffering caused by excessive consumption of the world’s resources, I vow to rejoice in what I have and to live a life of ethical consumption governed by a recognition that the world’s resources are already strained and by a desire to promote ecological sustainability and material modesty. I vow to see the success of others as an inspiration rather than as detracting from my own sufficiency and to cultivate in myself and others the sense that I have enough and that I am enough and that there is enough for everyone.

~

let us close with meditating on this mantra…

Hear, you who struggle to connect to God or Goddess or the ultimate spritual reality of the universe: The Power of Healing and Transformation is the ultimate reality and shaper of the universe, the Transformative Power unifies all being as One spiritually-alive, mutually inter-dependent, awesome, fantastic, evolving, conscious totality of which we are each a tiny part.

Poetic PEACE Pilgrimage – Year 4 – Day 164 – 5/29/2017

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Named Miraculous May 29 PEACE JFK

Memorial Day is when Americans honor those in the armed services who died serving the country. This year, Memorial Day falls on the 100th Birthday of our 35th President, JFK who fell while serving the causes of peace and nuclear disarmament. In a 1961 address to the United Nations, President Kennedy said:

Today, every inhabitant of this planet must contemplate the day when this planet may no longer be habitable. Every man, woman and child lives under a nuclear sword of Damocles, hanging by the slenderest of threads, capable of being cut at any moment by accident or miscalculation or by madness. The weapons of war must be abolished before they abolish us. It is therefore our intention to challenge the Soviet Union, not to an arms race, but to a peace race – to advance together step by step, stage by stage, until general and complete disarmament has been achieved.

In June of 1963 in a Commencement Address at American University, JFK delivered A Strategy for Peace:

…I have, therefore, chosen this time and this place to discuss a topic on which ignorance too often abounds and the truth is too rarely perceived–yet it is the most important topic on earth: world peace.

What kind of peace do I mean? What kind of peace do we seek? Not a Pax Americana enforced on the world by American weapons of war. Not the peace of the grave or the security of the slave. I am talking about genuine peace, the kind of peace that makes life on earth worth living, the kind that enables men and nations to grow and to hope and to build a better life for their children–not merely peace for Americans but peace for all men and women–not merely peace in our time but peace for all time.

I speak of peace because of the new face of war. Total war makes no sense in an age when great powers can maintain large and relatively invulnerable nuclear forces and refuse to surrender without resort to those forces. It makes no sense in an age when a single nuclear weapon contains almost ten times the explosive force delivered by all of the allied air forces in the Second World War. It makes no sense in an age when the deadly poisons produced by a nuclear exchange would be carried by wind and water and soil and seed to the far corners of the globe and to generations yet unborn.

Today the expenditure of billions of dollars every year on weapons acquired for the purpose of making sure we never need to use them is essential to keeping the peace. But surely the acquisition of such idle stockpiles–which can only destroy and never create–is not the only, much less the most efficient, means of assuring peace.

I speak of peace, therefore, as the necessary rational end of rational men. I realize that the pursuit of peace is not as dramatic as the pursuit of war–and frequently the words of the pursuer fall on deaf ears. But we have no more urgent task.

Some say that it is useless to speak of world peace or world law or world disarmament-and that it will be useless until the leaders of the Soviet Union adopt a more enlightened attitude. I hope they do. I believe we can help them do it. But I also believe that we must reexamine our own attitude–as individuals and as a Nation–for our attitude is as essential as theirs. And every graduate of this school, every thoughtful citizen who despairs of war and wishes to bring peace, should begin by looking inward–by examining his own attitude toward the possibilities of peace, toward the Soviet Union, toward the course of the cold war and toward freedom and peace here at home.

First: Let us examine our attitude toward peace itself. Too many of us think it is impossible. Too many think it unreal. But that is a dangerous, defeatist belief. It leads to the conclusion that war is inevitable–that mankind is doomed–that we are gripped by forces we cannot control.

We need not accept that view. Our problems are manmade–therefore, they can be solved by man. And man can be as big as he wants. No problem of human destiny is beyond human beings. Man’s reason and spirit have often solved the seemingly unsolvable–and we believe they can do it again.

I am not referring to the absolute, infinite concept of universal peace and good will of which some fantasies and fanatics dream. I do not deny the value of hopes and dreams but we merely invite discouragement and incredulity by making that our only and immediate goal.

Let us focus instead on a more practical, more attainable peace–based not on a sudden revolution in human nature but on a gradual evolution in human institutions–on a series of concrete actions and effective agreements which are in the interest of all concerned. There is no single, simple key to this peace–no grand or magic formula to be adopted by one or two powers. Genuine peace must be the product of many nations, the sum of many acts. It must be dynamic, not static, changing to meet the challenge of each new generation. For peace is a process–a way of solving problems.

With such a peace, there will still be quarrels and conflicting interests, as there are within families and nations. World peace, like community peace, does not require that each man love his neighbor–it requires only that they live together in mutual tolerance, submitting their disputes to a just and peaceful settlement. And history teaches us that enmities between nations, as between individuals, do not last forever. However fixed our likes and dislikes may seem, the tide of time and events will often bring surprising changes in the relations between nations and neighbors.

So let us persevere. Peace need not be impracticable, and war need not be inevitable. By defining our goal more clearly, by making it seem more manageable and less remote, we can help all peoples to see it, to draw hope from it, and to move irresistibly toward it…

~

yes, let us persevere and move irresistibly toward peace…

namaste’

Poetic PEACE Pilgrimage – Year 4 – Day 163 – 5/28/2017

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Named Miraculous May 28 Love Maya Angelou

three years ago today, maya angelou, an astonishing light of being, was released to always be our rainbow and sing of love, peace and joy freely across the cosmic sky… i’m re-membering and celebrating her on this astonishing lightness of being day with a profound poem on peace she read at the United Nation’s 50th anniversary in 1995…

A Brave and Startling Truth

We, this people, on a small and lonely planet
Traveling through casual space
Past aloof stars, across the way of indifferent suns
To a destination where all signs tell us
It is possible and imperative that we learn
A brave and startling truth

And when we come to it
To the day of peacemaking
When we release our fingers
From fists of hostility
And allow the pure air to cool our palms

When we come to it
When the curtain falls on the minstrel show of hate
And faces sooted with scorn are scrubbed clean
When battlefields and coliseum
No longer rake our unique and particular sons and daughters
Up with the bruised and bloody grass
To lie in identical plots in foreign soil

When the rapacious storming of the churches
The screaming racket in the temples have ceased
When the pennants are waving gaily
When the banners of the world tremble
Stoutly in the good, clean breeze

When we come to it
When we let the rifles fall from our shoulders
And children dress their dolls in flags of truce
When land mines of death have been removed
And the aged can walk into evenings of peace
When religious ritual is not perfumed
By the incense of burning flesh
And childhood dreams are not kicked awake
By nightmares of abuse

When we come to it
Then we will confess that not the Pyramids
With their stones set in mysterious perfection
Nor the Gardens of Babylon
Hanging as eternal beauty
In our collective memory
Not the Grand Canyon
Kindled into delicious color
By Western sunsets

Nor the Danube, flowing its blue soul into Europe
Not the sacred peak of Mount Fuji
Stretching to the Rising Sun
Neither Father Amazon nor Mother Mississippi who, without favor,
Nurture all creatures in the depths and on the shores
These are not the only wonders of the world

When we come to it
We, this people, on this minuscule and kithless globe
Who reach daily for the bomb, the blade and the dagger
Yet who petition in the dark for tokens of peace
We, this people on this mote of matter
In whose mouths abide cankerous words
Which challenge our very existence
Yet out of those same mouths
Come songs of such exquisite sweetness
That the heart falters in its labor
And the body is quieted into awe

We, this people, on this small and drifting planet
Whose hands can strike with such abandon
That in a twinkling, life is sapped from the living
Yet those same hands can touch with such healing, irresistible tenderness
That the haughty neck is happy to bow
And the proud back is glad to bend
Out of such chaos, of such contradiction
We learn that we are neither devils nor divines

When we come to it
We, this people, on this wayward, floating body
Created on this earth, of this earth
Have the power to fashion for this earth
A climate where every man and every woman
Can live freely without sanctimonious piety
Without crippling fear

When we come to it
We must confess that we are the possible
We are the miraculous, the true wonder of this world
That is when, and only when
We come to it.

~Maya Angelou~

Poetic PEACE Pilgrimage – Year 4 – Day 161 – 5/26/2017

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Named Miraculous May 26 Divine Re-TREAT 5-2014 031 Moon New in Gemini

gathering under gemini new moon

opening space for divine union soon

intentions painted in pearly sand

borne by tides across venus land

~

flying high and diving deep

path with heart our quantum leap

flowing and rippling rhythmically

graceful dancing rainbow mystery

~

in this wild and precious moment under the wild and precious dark moon of the cosmic womb, the navigating the journey moon, let’s gather together as creativity creating creation setting our compass and contemplating the map we’ll draw and dancing/singing the song of wisdom  for this moon journey…

how will we nurture creativity?

what will we focus on creating?

what will we be/do to deepen and heighten soulful creation?

such a vital calling vibrating in the cosmic airwaves of turbulence

for the wise ones to sing us home, to help us to navigate the journey into peace guided by justice and anchored in love…

For the Traveler

Every time you leave home,
Another road takes you
Into a world you were never in.

New strangers on other paths await.
New places that have never seen you
Will startle a little at your entry.
Old places that know you well
Will pretend nothing
Changed since your last visit.

When you travel, you find yourself
Alone in a different way,
More attentive now
To the self you bring along,
Your more subtle eye watching
You abroad; and how what meets you
Touches that part of the heart
That lies low at home:

How you unexpectedly attune
To the timbre in some voice,
Opening in conversation
You want to take in
To where your longing
Has pressed hard enough
Inward, on some unsaid dark,
To create a crystal of insight
You could not have known
You needed
To illuminate
Your way.

When you travel,
A new silence
Goes with you,
And if you listen,
You will hear
What your heart would
Love to say.

A journey can become a sacred thing:
Make sure, before you go,
To take the time
To bless your going forth,
To free your heart of ballast
So that the compass of your soul
Might direct you toward
The territories of spirit
Where you will discover
More of your hidden life,
And the urgencies
That deserve to claim you.

May you travel in an awakened way,
Gathered wisely into your inner ground;
That you may not waste the invitations
Which wait along the way to transform you.

May you travel safely, arrive refreshed,
And live your time away to its fullest;
Return home more enriched, and free
To balance the gift of days which call you.

~ John O’Donohue ~

 ~

namaste, beloveds…

Poetic PEACE Pilgrimage – Year 4 – Day 160 – 5/25/2017

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Named Miraculous May 25 Divine Re-TREAT 5-2014 010 Footprint

A Spiritual Journey
And the world cannot be discovered by a journey of miles,
no matter how long,
but only by a spiritual journey,
a journey of one inch,
very arduous and humbling and joyful,
by which we arrive at the ground at our feet,
and learn to be at home.

~Wendell Berry ~

on this new moon in gemini, in every moment, with every breath, we enter into the unknown… this mysterious realm is known by the heart, it is home to the heart and with every step we walk deeper into the journey, into life… when we still ourselves and quiet the noise and chatter, we are able to see the heart’s road map and hear the directions… and, when the anxieties, worries and fears pop up, we simply return to the breath, to the cosmic hum, to source, the penultimate resource to re-source, re-source and re-source again… Mary Oliver speaks so beautifully about the journey we are all on, may her words inspire courage, inspire our taking heart…

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.

~

Poetic PEACE Pilgrimage – Year 4 – Day 159 – 5/24/2017

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Named Miraculous May 24 Painted Pony Orbits of the Heart 002

today is the last day of the fifth moon, orbits of the heart, it seems so fitting to memorialize this 5th of the 13 moons with the 5th of my 13 painted ponies, the children’s prayer pony…

painted in the fall of 2001, with prayers of children of many faiths for all the chidren of the earth, this pony shares heartfelt messages of hope for seven generations…

No one knows the wonder

Your child awoke in you,

Your heart a perfect cradle

To hold its presence.

Inside and outside became one

As new waves of love

Kept surprising your soul.

Now you sit bereft

Inside a nightmare,

Your eyes numbed

By the sight of a grave

No parent should ever see.

You will wear this absence

Like a secret locket,

Always wondering why

Such a new soul

Was taken home so soon.

Let the silent tears flow

And when your eyes clear

Perhaps you will glimpse

How your eternal child

Has become the unseen angel

Who parents your heart

And persuades the moon

To send new gifts ashore.

~ John O’Donohue ~

Poetic PEACE Pilgrimage – Year 4 – Day 158 – 5/23/2017

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Named Miraculous May 23 Dream Cave Heart

being still in the tiny space of the heart

opening to boundless spaciousness

floating in eternity

~

today, the journey transports me into Stillness, a natural place, a sacred space where i love to sojourn, especially during the ebb tides when life goes dormant and slowing down and grounding deeply into dark earth is the way through… holding the tension and embracing the pause ensures our seeing the light at the end of the proverbial tunnel… do you see, feel, taste, hear, touch the radiance? breathe in deeply through our one heart with me and hear this sacred space of silence singing… love greatly, live gently, let go gracefully…

Poetic PEACE Pilgrimage – Year 4 – Day 157 – 5/22/2017

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Named Miraculous May 22 Rainbowmaker Wanderer of Wonder

walking the rainbow trail today

being the center in a sacred way

weaving a radiant web of love

encircling earth below and sky above

~

it is the 22nd and 22 is the number of grace and may is the moon of miracles, a sacred space of re-membering who we are… as wanderers of wonder, weavers of rainbow joy, let us wave our rainbow wands over all our relations gifting all with openhearted, trusting wonder…

“A child’ s world is fresh and new and beautiful, full of wonder and excitement. It is our misfortune that for most of us that clear-eyed vision, that true instinct for what is beautiful and awe-inspiring, is dimmed and even lost before we reach adulthood. If I had influence with the good fairy who is supposed to preside over all children, I should ask that her gift to each child in the world be a sense of wonder so indestructible that it would last throughout their life.”

~ Rachael Carson ~