“We do not receive wisdom, we must discover it for ourselves, after a journey through the wilderness which no one else can make for us, which no one can spare us, for our wisdom is the point of view from which we come at last to regard the world.”  ~ Marcel Proust ~

today is a day of soulitude, a day of soul study, a day of listening to the silence… a day of re-membering a catastrophic earthquake and tsunami that devastated the coast of northeast Japan, claiming an estimated 20,000 lives eleven years ago today… a day of radical presence, of being the new operating system programmed with a spacious consciousness of nowhere to go and nothing to do but simply wait patiently for the soul song to flow…

i’m in good company in this moment of eternity…  my old dolphin guides, Adolpho and Adelphi/Philo and Sophy, free and easy wanderers of the great beyond, come out to celebrate our ever widening circles of courageous souls letting go of caterpillar identity to dissolve in the cosmic stew reborn as imaginal cell open (organically present & emptied now) to the natural flow of oceanic consciousness…

these wise sages of liminal space, guides at the threshold whisper words of grace… “re-member, it is the impeded stream that sings” and so i venture with them to the stillpoint to listen… here i see grandmother spider dancing creation and weaving a new web of life, carbon turned into crystals of light, a thousand dancing diamonds twinkling in the night, imbuing the all with powerful sight of the world being breathed into life again, unfolding mystery of the knowledge within… here in great silence we listen deeply to our one cosmic heart, dancing the love song we are called now to impart…

come on over and sit by the waters with me and let’s journey together back into the cosmic womb, the dark sacred space of origin…. breathe in the flowing mother waters… feel the flowing waters, be flowing water…. now, breathe deeply in the rhythm of the waves diving deeper and deeper into the stillpoint… re-member who we really are – water -we are the eternal radiance…

now, blessing the waters within and without, breathe them in, feeling the radiance you are, an illuminated being of great heart… in this wellspring, water reminds us of our purpose, we are original source, creation creating creation in the belly of the earth where all rivers converge into one rainbow stream of radiance, one cosmic circle birthing the divine…

let’s sit here silently for awhile radically present in life’s flow, trusting in the beauty of pachamama and the blessings of  great mystery and the knowing of the true bottom line – all is well and all is well and all matter of things shall be well…

our liberation is bound up with all others,

let us work together for freedom for all

~

welcome, well come to day 40 of a season of peace where i’ve been sauntering these 40 days in the desert of the heart patiently waiting to celebrate a supreme shero and queen of liberation – Harriette Tubman – and Holy Synchronicity! find that today is the 109th anniversary of  her death…

i shall now turn this platform over to the poem of Sonia Sanchez to bring light to the life of this extraordinary being…

“1

Picture a woman riding thunder on the legs of slavery    …

2

Picture her kissing our spines saying no to the eyes of slavery    …

3

Picture her rotating the earth into a shape of lives becoming    …

4

Picture her leaning into the eyes of our birth clouds   …

5

Picture this woman saying no to the constant yes of slavery  …

6

Picture a woman jumping rivers her legs inhaling moons  …

7

Picture her ripe with seasons of legs    …   running    …

8

Picture her tasting the secret corners of woods    …

9

Picture her saying: You have within you the strength,
the patience, and the passion
to reach for the stars,
to change the world    …

10

Imagine her words: Every great dream begins
with a dreamer  …

11

Imagine her saying: I freed a thousand slaves,
could have freed
a thousand more if they
only knew they were slaves    …

12

Imagine her humming: How many days we got
fore we taste freedom    …

13

Imagine a woman asking: How many workers
for this freedom quilt   …

14

Picture her saying: A live runaway could do
great harm by going back
but a dead runaway
could tell no secrets    …

15

Picture the daylight bringing her to woods full of birth moons …

16

Picture John Brown shaking her hands three times saying: General Tubman. General Tubman. General Tubman.

17

Picture her words: There’s two things I got a
right to: death or liberty …

18

Picture her saying no to a play called Uncle Tom’s Cabin: I am the real thing  …

19

Picture a Black woman: could not read or write trailing freedom refrains   …

20

Picture her face turning southward walking down a Southern road   …

21

Picture this woman freedom bound    …    tasting a people’s preserved breath…

22

Picture this woman of royalty   …    wearing a crown of morning air   …

23

Picture her walking, running, reviving a country’s breath    …

24

Picture black voices leaving behind lost tongues  …“

~

may we continue her underground railroad mission as an aboveground movement of liberation from the inside out…

welcome, well come to day 39 of a season of peace… today is another of my favorite moments in the cycle of life when we rest again in the in between times moon, the rainbow moon who sings a song of transformation, of transmuting threatening clouds of pain, into rainbow colored arcs of joy…

and, it’s another day to celebrate the moon of women’s herstory and to rise as a great wave across the cosmos celebrating the divine feminine in all living beings and our shared quest for equality, freedom and harmony… coming together in sacred circle drawing down the energy of the waxing moon, we pause across the planet to gather in peace and be the rising tide singing our soul song… let’s focus the healing power within our one heart on all our relations and our beautiful cosmos re-membering…

it’s long been said that when 1000 women gather, heart consciousness, the divine human will be birthed… His Holiness, the Dalai Lama says that it will be women who transform the world… let us begin a new cycle of soul transformation, a moment of uniting heaven and earth, merging divine feminine and masculine, temporal and eternal and manifesting greater love on earth right here and right now with the… chanting of the mantra, I AM Grace of Beloved 10 times as we breahe in deeply and 10 times as we breathe out repeating this breathing in and out while chanting the mantra for another 4 breaths bringing us to a total of 100 mantra recitations with these 5 deep breaths and now let’s join in meditating to unify our one heart…

let’s all hold hands and gently close our eyes conspiring, inhaling together, slowing the breath… bringing our attention to how our bodies are feeling right now and in full acceptance of whatever is present… notice where your body is touching the ground and bring your focus there and begin feeling the pulsing energy of the Earth beneath us, the heartbeat of Mother Earth… with an inhale, breathe in gratitude and love for all that she gives us… continuing to breathe, feel your heartbeat, your unique beautiful rhythm pulsing in synchrony  with our earthmother… breathe deeply from your heart as you open to the sensation of love within you… feel the pulsing energy of this love… now, envision, feel and be this pulsing energy as a light glowing in your heart… breathing deeply, see and feel this light getting brighter until it fills your whole body and surrounds you… with your next exhale, think of someone you know who is having a difficult time in life and imagine this person is right in front of you… while remaining connected with the love in your own heart, embrace your  feeling of empathy for this person’s struggle as you breathe… see the light in their heart as the same loving light that is within yours… as you offer your love and compassion to this person, feel the light in both of your hearts growing brighter together… now, with an inhale, focus your attention back on your heart feeling the light grow brighter as you allow the love from your heart to nourish any parts of you that have been in pain… open to feeling compassion for yourself as you breathe the light of your love into the places you have kept fear, grief, anger, stress, and insecurity… open to feeling nourished by the love within and offer yourself acknowledgment and respect for everything you are, how far you have come and for the incredible beauty and power within you… take another a deep breath and start to feel the being to your right… this being has her own struggles, pain, fears, and insecurities… take a moment to feel empathy and great respect for this powerful being… while breathing into your heart, feel the power of the love in her heart. see and feel the light within her as it grows brighter, surrounding her… Feel the light within your heart and the light within her heart growing brighter together… take a moment to feel the being to your left… this being, too, has her own struggles, pain, fears, and insecurities… take a moment to feel empathy and great respect for this powerful being… while breathing into our own heart, feel the power of the love in her heart… see and feel the light within her as it grows brighter, surrounding her… feel the light within our heart and the light within her heart growing brighter together. feel the love and light of every being in the circle being amplified… growing brighter… filling the whole room…

now,envision in your life and community 1000 women  interacting from a space of harmony, mutual support, celebration, acceptance, and upliftment in service to the whole… feel in your heart, yourself and every divine being feeling secure and happy and supported by divine flow… bring this intention to the light in your heart and with a deep breath imagine sending that light into the earth below you, like a seed being planted… bring your hands to your heart and feel your heartbeat… take a deep breath and gently open your eyes in joying now being anchored in heavenearth soaring through deep space being peace and painting it across the vast sky sea…

welcome, well come to our even more beautiful world that is just, regenerative, healthy and peaceful where we stand in love for love and serve all our relations as instruments of peace in this sacred space founded on cosmic balance, filled to overflowing with lovingkindness and guided by wisdom…

little girls with dreams become women with vision

Happy International Women’s Choose to Challenge Day!

welcome, well come to day 38 of a season of peace, a most auspicious day as it’s the International Day of Women… it’s long been said that when 1000 women gather, heart consciousness, the divine human will be birthed. His Holiness, the Dalai Lama says that it will be women who transform the world… let us begin in this moment a new cycle of soul transformation, a moment of uniting heaven and earth and manifesting greater love on earth by committing to this pledge to:

help women and girls achieve their ambitions

challenge conscious and unconscious bias

call for gender-balanced leadership

value women’s and men’s contributions equally

create inclusive flexible cultures

challenge bias and inequality

campaign for and wage peace

forge women’s advancement

celebrate women’s achievements

champion women’s education

for what seems like most every moon of this incarnation, i am writing /singing/being the soul song of coming home to the heart which is how i choose to challenge myself, to go beyond, which is what i have to share with the children… join me in luxuriating in another medicine elder’s wisdom as we resound this poem of nina simons…

Shifting Guidance from Head to Heart

“All the brilliant, innovative and effective solutions and strategies
won’t be enough to shift our collective course
without an accompanying — and radical — change of heart.

For me, what’s central to alleviating humanity’s strife
and addressing the devastation we are wreaking upon our mother Earth
is tending to an imbalance of the masculine and feminine.

Reclaiming the value of the feminine within each of us
is essential to bringing our human wholeness
to this time of revolutionary reinvention.

We have to practice loving, re-awakening and strengthening
the feeling parts of ourselves:
our intuition, our body wisdom,
our dreams and our deep listening.

As we re-enliven the inner knowing of our hearts
(understanding that relationships are far more important than
accomplishments, goals or tasks),

we’ll become better partners to ourselves,
each other and the Earth.

If we practice our capacity to be comfortable
with vulnerability, with uncertainty,
and with attending caringly to the cues and clues that surround us,
it will help us to re-synchronize with the world
and become more resilient, flexible and adaptive to change.

This is not about devaluing the masculine side of ourselves;
it’s about re-evaluating what a healthy masculine means.
It’s about reclaiming the whole of our dimensional humanity.

For me, I find I must begin with my inner self,
since what I see out there likely reflects what’s within me.
If I don’t, it’s far too easy (and not ultimately effective)
to blame others without cleaning, updating
and reorienting my own operating system, first.

I am practicing re-sequencing my inner voices
so that my heart’s instruction can lead,
and be supported by the plans, analysis,
structures and strategies my mind creates.

When I listen with my heart,
I am pierced with an empathic awareness
that calls me into action beyond what any amount
of learning, reading or mental understanding can prompt.

I am stunned by the power of women, and our capacity to heal.
Wise elders, friends and mutual mentors
among the women I am honored to work with
remind me to listen deeply to all my sources of guidance —
to seek assistance from nature,
from my dreams and intuition, to inquire of my ancestors,
and listen for responses, before determining a course of action.

This requires me to peel away layers of patterning,
of rushing to respond to prove my value through productivity.
It requires me to question old and deeply ingrained habits.

As I practice composting layers of acculturated learning
that I absorbed unknowingly through the invisible water of culture we swim in,
I wonder whether I will ever be free of it.
I realize I need to decolonize my mind,
and practice reclaiming and remembering other ways of knowing.

Along the way, I’ve discovered something about the feminine.
I’m learning that listening is not a passive act.
Life is teaching me that it doesn’t just require my ears.
I’m learning to listen with my belly, my dreams and my intuition.

Not only does it require actively attending to receiving guidance,
I’ve discovered I also have to ask, in order to receive,
and then wait — patiently if possible — for a response to come.

As I practice this —
with my inner self, with nature, with my body,
with ancestors, and dreamtime and intuition —
I find I have many more sources of insight or guidance
than I’d previously imagined or remembered.

May we remember how to bring the wholeness of our humanity —
our deep listening; our patient observation;
our loving, powerful, tender hearts; our humble hands;
and our prayers —
to co-creating the conditions for thriving life.“

mysterious moments

break the heart wide open

to flow in love with source wisdom

~

welcome, well come to day 37 of a season of peace… today is another of my favorite moments in the cycle of life when we rest in the in between times moon, the rainbow moon who sings a song of transformation, of transmuting dark, threatening clouds of pain, into rainbow colored arcs of joy…

speaking of clouds of pain, today’s amazingness took a turn that i did not see coming – it seems the explosiveness of the outer world entered the blissness blue moon lodge peace hut as i entered into ceremony and the electrical fireplace insert which i don’t use erupted violently mirroring Mt St Helen’s which is due north shocking me as i found myself in a circle of shattered glass so reminiscent of the shattering of so many systems and all my plans for the day shattered as well as the archetypal energies brought me back to essence and to the absolute necesity of being peace in this moment, in every moment… many moments later re-membering that not one of us is free until all of us are free, i am reminded that today as we stand in solidarity with all those suffering on our island earth home, the world honors the 57th  Anniversary of bloody sunday on the historic Selma to Montgomery Freedom March which directly led to the Voting Rights Act of 1965 in the United States… the Poetic PEACE Pilgrimage bows deeply to and is greatly inspired by the countless peace pilgrims who courageously bear witness every day, who walk the talk of being love, peace, justice and harmony no matter the personal cost… thousandfold thanks for walking the freedom path and making justice visible…

nine turns around the sun ago on this special day, this day of celebrating the astonishing light of being, the rainbow moon of the in between times manifested a double rainbow foreshadowing the abundance field we all inhabit, the quantum field of transformation we are…

thank you rainbow woman for appearing in the sky promising of fortune’s smile  returning to the land, cosmic order restored with the birth of a thousand dancing stars…

Blessings from the Rainbow Trail

she who arrived attended by rainbows

under the fullness of the in between times moon

gifted with light’s radiance, like the sun she glows

with crystalline shafts reflecting the moon

~

under the fullness of the in between times moon

veils are lifted revealing the all that there is

sky father dressed in rainbow robes

mirroring colors of earth mother below

~

blowing sweet breath on the crystalline shafts

igniting combustible fiery light

she who arrived attended by rainbows

whispers creation into the dark night

~

and in the morning’s returning light,

the cosmos is colored in waves of pure light

by the one who arrived attended by rainbows

gifted with radiance, like the sun she glows

~

oh great spirit of our
ancestors, we raise
our pipe to you…
to your messengers the four winds, and
to Mother Earth who provides
for your children…
give us the wisdom to teach our children
to love, to respect, and to be kind
to each other so that they may grow
with peace of mind…
learning to share all good things that
you provide for us on this singing bowl of earth…

~

welcome, well come to the 36th day of a season of peace,,. let’s take this moment of eternity to breathe deeply through our one heart and drop down into our wisdom space in the core of our being to listen to an old hasidic tale of our soul’s conception and journey to birth supported by the angel (messenger), lailah…

it all begins in the roots of the tree of life where the soul is seeded and then moves to the branches of the tree to ripen… when the soul falls to the ground, the angel lailah, serving as a midwife of souls, puts the sacred soul in the mother’s womb… while the infant grows in the womb, lailah places a lighted candle at the head of the unborn infant, so he or she or they can see from one end of the world to the other and lailah teaches the soul in utero her/his/their soul’s herstory…

when the time comes for the baby to be born, the angel extinguishes the light in the womb and brings forth the child into the world… in the instant the child emerges, the angel lightly strikes her finger to the child’s lips as if to say “shh,” which causes the child to forget everything learned in the womb and reminds us to listen to the deep self within, the soul, that always re-members…

may we all re-member our soul song and that “shhh” is to silence us so we can listen for el canto hondo, the deep self song of the soul that whispers to us of our true nature, who we are and what is ours to gift the world…

Rainbowmaker’s Peace Pilgrimage Re-Dedication from the Peace Hut:

“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 ~

~

it seems so perfectly fitting in this moment of confusion and chaos falling on the thirty-fifth day of a season of peace to journey to the garden of zen and breathe in this mountain, surrendering all distractions and clearing the path to come home to our one heart, our true refuge in the midst of madness… thousand fold thanks for this path of devotion, thousand fold thanks for the courage and encouragement to be wholeheartedly here, thousand fold thanks for lighting the way…thousand fold thanks for your overflowing grace today…

many of us in these uncertain times despair not for we are unwavering and resolute in the knowing we are made for these times, these chaos cycles which call out the best in us…

“The most remarkable feature of this historical moment on Earth

is not that we are on the way to destroying the world –

we’ve actually been on the way for quite awhile.

It is that we are beginning to wake up, as from a millennia-long sleep,

to a whole new relationship to our world, to ourselves

and each other.”

~Joanna Macy~

listen, take courage as Howard Zinn elucidates the right way of being in these turbulent times…

“An optimist isn’t necessarily a blithe, slightly sappy whistler in the dark of our time. To be hopeful in bad times is not just foolishly romantic. It is based on the fact that human history is a history not only of cruelty but also of compassion, sacrifice, courage, kindness. What we choose to emphasize in this complex history will determine our lives. If we see only the worst, it destroys our capacity to do something. If we remember those times and places- and there are so many- where people have behaved magnificently, this gives us the energy to act, and at least the possibility of sending this spinning top of a world in a different direction. And if we do act, in however small a way, we don’t have to wait for some grand utopian future. The future is an infinite succession of presents, and to live now as we think human beings should live, in defiance of all that is bad around us, is itself a marvelous victory.”

now, take peace with the words of Desmond Tutu…

“You and I are made for goodness. You and I are creatures who were made for transcendence, were made for love, were made for caring, were made for embracing one another… And that is what is going to prevail.”

today, on this mystery tour of life, i delight being in a house of mirrors, beautiful mirrors as i look into your soul and see such radiance… thank you for being such a profound reflection of our true nature… your lovingkindness, compassion, generosity, grace, luminescence, humor, sensitivity, presence, devotion, joy, peace, patience, passion, curiosity and on and on enrich and inspire me in every moment… thousandfold thanks and deep bows…

~

“IT ISN’T MORE LIGHT WE NEED, IT’S PUTTING INTO PRACTICE WHAT LIGHT WE ALREADY HAVE. WHEN WE DO THAT, WONDERFUL THINGS WILL HAPPEN WITHIN OUR LIVES AND WITHIN OUR WORLD.”

– PEACE PILGRIM –

welcome, well come to day 34 of a season of peace, on this day of march 4th, we honor this day when exactly nine years ago the Poetic Peace Pilgrimage was conceived as a daily breathing practice, a daily presencing practice of  being peace in every moment of eternity…

just days before International Women’s Day, what image better to grace this peace with than the inspiration for how to walk this pilgrimage…

may we all join together giving some of our time to make herstory…

her peace message still remains and still rings true: “This is the way of peace – overcome evil with good, and falsehood with truth, and hatred with love. That’s still the message that I’m carrying after all these years. Well, you see, we haven’t learned to live it yet. The key word for our times is really practice. It isn’t more light we need, it’s putting into practice what light we already have. When we do that, wonderful things will happen within our lives and within our world.”

may we all be empty vessels to be filled to overflowing with lovingkindness, peace passing all understanding and a bubbling joy arising from our inner river of being…

welcome, welcome to a most auspicious day… 3-3, day 33 of a season of peace and it’s the day of celebrating Losar, the Tibetan New Year beginning a 15 day celebration of miracles in the moonth of Women’s Herstory… in this pivotal moment of eternity, sitting in the blissness blue moon lodge peace hut, i search for words of peace and so resonate with another’swords which mirror my own, one of the original 13 Indigenous Grandmothers who offers these pearls:

SEARCHING FOR WORDS OF PEACE – Grandmother Maria Alice  

“At this moment I seek in my heart words of peace, words of union, after several days of perplexity in the face of events and the attitudes of the world’s political leaders.

To talk about peace, it is necessary to find peace in oneself , silence, agreement with life. This is a thorough exercise, very fine. 

We see war everywhere in the world today, the determination to invade, to destroy, to dominate. War-makers speak in the name of peace, of progress, of the defense of self-determination. Everyone develops a lot of speech, but what they all really want is to continue selling weapons, and extorting riches from the earth to use for more destruction and discord.

So, for us, simple people, citizens of the world, workers, women, men, children, who don’t have weapons to sell and don’t want to buy weapons, who aim for the good, who revere life, we need a lot of attention and a lot of conviction in our purpose.

War-makers have many facets and forms of manifestation. They are not only the ones who drop bombs and command tanks, but they are also the great liars who seek to instill in our minds and hearts hatred and malevolence through slander and false news. They are also the silent killers, who poison the land, the waters and the air we breathe, who poison the food we eat, who set the forests on fire out of greed and evil. They are everywhere, in government posts, spreading racism, separation, dispute between people, making our diversity the fraud of separation.

Therefore, to defend peace, we need conviction. Conviction in true love, in the cultivation of life. If we take sides in the war, we have already deviated from the goal. We need to misidentify ourselves from the war dispute, all sides are war-makers.

We live in a time when people despair, looking to lean on some point of strength, to move forward. Let us not be deceived. Our point of strength is not the rulers, it is not the lying deceitful politicians. Our point of strength is the light that emanates from our hearts and radiates, creating solidarity, friendship, union between people and all of life. Our point of strength is manifested in our intuition that shows us collaborative paths that are independent from domination. We are light, we are the manifestation of the Great Spirit of Creation, we are part of the great universal organism.

Attention to the thought of peace, to the cultivation of peace in our hearts. Let’s hold our hands, let’s assemble the union in our hearts, let’s connect with the infinite eternal Breath of Life.

In Peace”

~

“Colorful demonstrations and weekend marches are vital but alone are not powerful enough to stop wars. Wars will be stopped only when soldiers refuse to fight, when workers refuse to load weapons onto ships and aircraft, when people boycott the economic outposts of Empire that are strung across the globe. ” 
~ Arundhati Roy ~

deep dark moon mystery

dances with infinite luminosity

in spacious emptiness

~

welcome, well come to this day of a new moon in pisces which whispers to us of how to be the cosmic one by opening your whole self and leaping into the unknown to float with great mystery in the imaginal zone for the iconic pilgrimage of forty days in the desert where i, for one, will dwell in the peace hut in the center of the peace wheel being peace with every breath… breathing in, i merge with peace; breathing out, we are peace…

and, yes, carl, living in a spaciousness of solitude, silence, in deed, comes alive in such mysterious ways as i reflect  on this sojourn in the quantum field of deep dark mystery where i saunter along a path unknown, a dancing with infinite luminosity pausing,resting, suspending in the gap, in the sacred space of silence, the stillpoint…

in this field beyond words, beloved appears to breathe us alive, inspiring we hollow reeds to open to being conduits of divine flow responsive to taking one more step, encouraging our sitting tenderly in the moment with our feelings, our ancestral feelings, our descendants’ feelings all merging in the one cosmic devocean of now…

in this solitude, in this divine alchemical flowing temple, the daft (divine alchemical flow team) transmute our shadowlands into gardens of grace… watered by our tears, we blossom like flow-ers opening to the light and revealing the sparkling jewel, the polished star pearl of the sea, radiantly resting in the center of the bloom…

here in the deep void of great silence, in the dancing stillness of great mystery, we stand at the portal of a brave new world where we’re called to courageously let go the old and break our one heart wide open to expansive, creative  space for birthing the new… do we have it in us? of course we do, in this knowing we can all relax into enjoying this ride on the wild side to the other shore of a peace passing all understanding and to the house of belonging for evermore…