as we come to the moment of blessing the space between us and 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…

so, blessings and blissings and welcome, well come to day 61 of a season of peace, another day of embarking on a pilgrimage of hearing gaia’s call to be a healing vessel, a temple of love which has been forming forever, a day to celebrate the astonishing lightness of being and this day of not knowing, surrendering to and trusting in the whirlwind to lead the way as i devotedly tend soil as my ancestors have over the millenia…

 in the very instant of surrendering to the whirlwind, we are transmuted into whirling rhythm… and in that moment,that long drawn-out moment, the world cracks wide open as we return to being farmers of the heart caring for the holy vessel we interare…

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 one 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 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…

“For a seed to achieve its greatest expression, it must come completely undone. The shell cracks, its insides come out and everything changes. To someone who doesn’t understand growth, it would look like complete destruction.” 

~ Marcel Proust ~

welcome, welcome to day 60 of a season of peace, a day of pushing off from the safe banks of the river and leaping into the void of oceanic being trusting in the soul to flow in concert with the electromagnetic waves of spaciousness and trusting in the waves to bring us home to the one heart to dance with great mystery gracefully…

for so many moons, like you perhaps, i have acted on a calling to let go of all save the essential sensing deep in my bones a tidal wave building that would sweep away everything in its path requiring us to take refuge in the tiny space of the heart resting in the deep song and peace of the running wave where i am flanked by and hold paws with our sea otter tribe ensuring we all stay connected and do not drift away from each other during the dark night…

in this deep earth space of an unprecedented chaos cycle enveloping the cosmos, we share the tunnel, the birth canal where we live the questions of what’s to come…

“First the animals began dying, going extinct, and we did not stop
what we were doing because we are not animals.
Then the glaciers started melting and we did not stop
what we were doing because we thought we could do without them.
Then the forests were disappearing and we did not stop
cutting down the trees
because we could not imagine being unable to breathe.
Then the virus came and there was no one to stop us
but ourselves.” ~ Deena Metzger ~

Deena’s words remind me of the old saw, “don’t agonize, organize” which bring to mind some of our relatives who seem to be taking this calling to heart… i’m speaking of the typically solitary humpback whales who are also feeling the need to gather in super pods which confounds the scientists studying them…

let’s take a moment to imagine what inspires these singing poets to gather in this moment of eternity… do they. the archivists of the cosmos, have a message for us? are they showing us the importance of gathering together in solidarity to face challenging times? i’m going to tune in ever more deeply to the wise sages of the watery womb, the midwives of the birthing of a new and even more beautiful world…

in this liminal space where existence for all is at stake, we don’t have the indulgence of lies and pretense to stave off impending reality, we must live the questions of how to meet the challenges and how to live; and, yes, we must listen deeply for the radical (rooted) answers… yes, we are dying, not one of us will get out of here alive… may we use this dark night for the benefit of all learning how to truly live as the dancing stars we are…

welcome, weli come to day 59 of a season of peace, this day of the first moral monday when jesus went into the temple and overturned the moneychangers’ table of exploiting the people in their love of power while today we gather in solidarity to overturn another almost trillionaire moneychanger’s table to lift up the working people…

~

take heart, pilgrim!

you were born for this:

to leap into the void and wonder how to sprout wings and fly…

~

feeling tender in the turbulence as i write tonight, so, i shall let  Pema’s words on the deepening interior journey we are all traversing speak for me…

“On the journey of the bodhisattva, the path goes down, not up, as if the mountain pointed toward the earth instead of the sky. Instead of transcending the suffering of all creatures, we move toward turbulence and doubt however we can. We explore the reality and unpredictability of insecurity and pain, and we try not to push it away. If it takes years, if it takes lifetimes, we let it be as it is. At our own pace, without speed or aggression, we move down and down and down. With us move millions of others, our companions in awakening from fear. At the bottom we discover water, the healing water of bodhichitta. Bodhichitta is our heart—our wounded, softened heart. Right down there in the thick of things, we discover the love that will not die. This love is bodhichitta. It is gentle and warm; it is clear and sharp; it is open and spacious. The awakened heart of bodhichitta is the basic goodness of all beings.“

yes, take heart..

welcome, welcome to day 58 of a season of peace, a day of a quaternity of riches as it’s the first full day of passover when we can all tune into the journey of exodus, leaving behind our slavery consciousness for one of liberation and it’s palm sunday when jesus triumphantly entered the city of peace on the humble donkey who symbolizes peace and made a clear statement that jesus aligned with the power of love and the anawim, the voices of the unheard in contradistinction to the love of power and the voice of empire and domination and it’s the day we celebrate the astonishing light of being which is visibly present in the vast skysea with the full moon in libra rising in close alignment to where the sun rose at equinox initiating this moon to act as a reflector and transmitter to illuminate yet again the equinox mysteries and amplifying the energy of the sacred marriage / cosmic egg activated by the serpent of fire for the integration of the masculine and feminine, seen and unseen, above and below, within and without when we honor the energetics of divine union / death / re-birth and resurrection…

so let’s journey together into inner space with all our relations giving thanks… we are a circle of power conjoined in our intent to be love, peace, joy, harmony and balance under the glow of the libra full moon as we travel within and without our ever expanding cosmos… we are feeling the power of luna and how she amplifies our frequency… we greet and welcome the directions, elementals and all our helping spirits… looking out, we see vast ocean and hear the rolling waves coming in and out like our breath… as we gaze at beautiful sky, sister moon bathes us in silvery, shimmering light…

we breathe in invisible realms as we walk out into the forest primeval and our soles tenderly kiss the earth with each and every step… when we arrive at a great clearing with a radiant fire in the center, we thank the spirits for this sacred space and see our guardian spirit approaching to cleanse us with herbs and a feather… with this clean-sing, we are unburdened and walk over to the fire where we pick up a prayer blessing from the earth and resonate deeply with its hidden message… we look to the moon and feel her great creative power washing through us, filling us with a dream of and for the cosmos…

as the moon opens our one heart, we, in turn, open to her creative fire and blow onto our prayer blessing amplifying its intention and then offering it to the fire in the center of the circle where we see all our prayers burning as one eternal flame… now, we all stand wide and deep with our arms outstretched as five pointed stars bridging earth and sky and ask sistar moon for how to best flow with the river of life… we close the circle with giving thanks to the night star of magnetic tides, the one who flows in us as the rhythm of waves waxing and waning eternally and with this poem of Hafiz…

“The Moon is most happy When it is full.

And the Sun always looks Like a perfectly minted gold coin That was just polished and placed in flight By God’s playful kiss.

And so many varieties of fruit Hang plump and round From the branches that seem like a sculptor’s hands.

I see the beautiful curve of a pregnant belly Shaped by a soul within, And the Earth itself, And the planets and the spheres – I have gotten the hint: There’s something about circles The Beloved likes.

Hafiz, Within the circle of a perfect One There is an infinite community of Light.”

may the spirit of the sea of love energy open our one heart to re-membering our true nature as an ocean, a devocean of overflowing lovingkindness…

welcome, welcome to day 57 of a season of peace, the beginning of passover at sunset which marks the exodus of the children of israel from slavery and the eve of palm sunday when jesus triumphantly entered jerusalem and the full moon in libra of equanimity and balance…

today, i metaphorically meander with the ocean along the rocky coast of life in this moment of eternity looking deeply within reflecting upon the vast seasky that stretches forever and ever and listening to the rhythm of the waves and the comforting voice of grandmother ocean resonating from the deeps 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.” 

may we all make the exodus from slavery to freedom triumphantly coming home to our open one heart dan-sing synchronicity in alignment with the cosmic truth of our belonging to each other with all of our actions in service to all our relatives…

welcome, welcome to day 56 of a season of peace and day 100 of this eighth turn around the sun on the poetic peace pilgrimage, a day where on awakening, i re-member as i gaze into the slowly rising sun that i’d wanted to share that yesterday marked seven months ago that i died and came back followed by the miraculous birth of a babe a moon later… this meditation moved into a momentary thought of wishing i’d had a mentor as a young child to talk with me about living on this third rock from the sun… a waterfall of mentoring images rapidly flowed… the rainbow serpent, so many days meandering on the lowgrounds of the powhatan confederacy, the dreams, psalm 23, the robin singing me awake each morning and on and on, each experience wordlessly embedding the knowing that we are never alone. the third rock from the sun is a world of original blessing in a cosmic field of loving presence…

deepen with me now to the tune of the poet laureate, Joy Harjo’s beautyway…

“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.”

let us close the circle with one more song…

Let’s find a Way today,
that can take us to tomorrow.
We’ll follow that Way,
A Way like flowing water.

Let’s leave behind,
the things that do not matter…

…Let’s take the time and try to find,
what real life has to offer…
…Like a friend, true ’til the end,
it will help us onward.

The sun is high, the road is wide,
and it starts where we are standing.
No one knows how far it goes,
for the road is never-ending.

It goes away,
beyond what we have thought of.
It flows away,
Away like flowing water.

~ Benjamin Hoff ~

(The Te of Piglet)

welcome, welcome to day 55 of a season of peace and day 99 of this eighth turn around the sun on the poetic peace pilgrimage… it is also a day i’m hearing of tornadoes which reminds me it’s the 110th anniversary of a terrible fire in the garment district which led to a protest which led to international women workers day…

in the midst of all the whirling energies, i am reminded of falling in love with paths and pilgrimages as a child; i loved the annual spring ritual of watching The Wizard of Oz and dancing merrily down the yellow brick road with Dorothy, the Scarecrow, the Tin Man and the Cowardly Lion… march winds and turbulent energy flows are taking me back to the whirlwind that began the journey of awakening for Dorothy, for me, for you…

in the midst of the tornado, everything known and stable is deconstructed to be built anew and so we must start fresh with a child’s vision of wonder and trust as we travel the yellow brick road, the golden path, the SHERO Journey to SELF™ where we re-member, like Dorothy, that we had the power all along, we are the power, we always have the ability to come home, we are always home for, after all, home is where the heart is…

~

on this pilgrimage home, I AM surrendering more completely…

re-membering we are love and that’s all that there is

living from the heart in thought word and deed

real-eye-sing we are rainbow clouds

flowing into great mystery

welcome, welcome to day 54 of a season of peace and to a day of watery loving presence re-treat, a day of savoring the quintessence, the essence of our 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 wrote for and read on his seventieth birthday in 1959; many years later Kim McKillen wrote a book with the same poem, As I Began to Love Myself… whether the words are only Kim’s or both of theirs and many other people’s, the poem is so beautiful, so filled with wisdom and exactly the right medicine to sing our one heat home as we watery beings dance along the rainbow trail…

“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”!

~

may we real-eyes ever more deeply and expansively as we come home to our one heart, the beloved is always leading the way…

everyday is a water blessing day for water is life, so let’s continue celebrating water with the whole world in one gigantic wave across the planet on this 53rd of a season of peace joining in the worldwide mission to make sure everyone has access to safe drinking water… right now, many of the world’s poorest do not have access to one of our most essential and valuable natural resources…

in many areas around the world, taps, pipes and wells simply don’t exist and if they do they’re not affordable for many people which means drinking dirty water is the only option with dirty water being responsible for hundreds of thousands of deaths each year…

we, like all other bodies of water, can change course and follow a sustainable direction by first believing we can and next acting on the belief with action by loving our waters for they are our mother, our ancestors and are the web weaving all our relatives into an amazing tapestry… we have a duty of care to protect and nurture our grandmothers and grandfathers and mothers and fathers and children who give us life…

let us all in this moment of eternity breathe deeply together, yes, conspire and envision and answer the urgent call to action for a world where everyone drinks freely and safely of our life giving relative, water, instead of the present figure of only.01% of water is potable… here’s a first step whenever using this sacred elixir…

 Prayer When Drinking Water

“As I receive this water and it flows through me,
May it become medicine dispelling all ills,
May it become medicine revealing the wisdom within and through out.
I offer apology for any harm done through wrong speech & action

As this water flows through me and becomes vapor,
May it purify the atmosphere
May it nourish the wisdom potential in the people
I offer apology for any harm done through wrong speech & action

As this water flows through me, and returns to the water table
May it remove the impurities of chemicals placed within the water
May the water be made new again
May this water become medicine for all beings in this and all worlds“

~ Venerable Dhyani Ywahoo ~

~

We  Are The Eternal Radiance