Monthly Archives: August 2022

Poetic Peace Pilgrimage – Year 9 – Day 258 – 8/31/2022

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blessing the space between us

as we journey into great mystery,

the pilgrimage to our one heart

so much space to bless in this intensely mysterious moon that has both flown by at the speed of hummingbird and each day filled to overflowing with the whole spectrum as if a whole turn around the sun has elapsed in the course of a day leaving me feeling i’ve covered thousands of miles metaphorically traveling the seven seas and everywhere in between even if we never left our dwelling place… so much awakening and dreaming, growing and staying still, moving and centering…

so, in this moment of eternity, this awegusto moment, may we shower ourselves and each other with lovingkindness and compassion re-membering we optimize wholeness for all with the smallest of gestures… a SMILE, hugs, thumbs up, deeply listening, taking healing breaks throughout the day, flowers, a cuppa, coming home to the moment with every breath, seeing through the eyes of wonder and awe… like this open hand, being open vessels for life to flow through… every inbreath, inhaling grace, every outbreath, surrendering efforting and striving and pushing against the river… always trusting what is ours to do/be comes to us naturally; we need only listen to our one heart’s song whispering the way of the path with heart for which we all long…

what an awegusto august we have shared, what a blessed space we have inhabited walking each other home in a sacred way through the fires of purification of the planetary portals when waves of union, of communion, sweep energetically across the planet re-minding, re-heartening all our relatives to our true, shared reality of  one source, one body, one heart, one mind, one spirit…

such a potent collective moment of great tu for living the grail quest-ion, what really matters? what breaks your heart? what breaks your heart wide open waking you up each moment to serve?

listen deeply hearing the hum of  our one heart re-joy-sing as we walk this pathless path together coming home to our one heart, summoning the courage each moment of eternity to  simply take one more step into great mystery’s sea of love energy, the ever expanding abunDANCE of  a friendly uni-verse…

today, i am re-joy-sing in the knowing that in the chaos, we are birthing a dancing rainbow star, a cosmos of peace and harmony guided by love…will you join me in placing your hand on your heart, our one heart and holding this intention wholeheartedly with every wild cell in your body, our one body?

Poetic Peace Pilgrimage – Year 9 – Day 257 – 8/30/2022

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i awaken today on this next to last day of awegusto with two words playing through me… maitri and karuna… lovingkindness and compassion… how much i/we need these nutrients of sunlight… how much i/we all require these most essential nutrients as we meet each moment of eternity fully, as we meet moments as friends…

the more turbulence in the world, the more we are called to be lovingkindness and compassion for ourselves and all others… today’s turbulence and ruptures also whisper of letting go, of traveling lightly between the worlds of here and now and the great beyond… deeper and deeper into the mystery of the cave of the heart, into the sacred space of silence beyond all words…

i’d love for you to join me now in the lovingkindness field of compassion, the bodhisattva field, the field of liberation, the field of infinite openness… and, in this sacred space, let us join in the most essential practice for cultivating lovingkindness and compassion, the practice of tonglen, of giving and taking…

truth is we all have an endless supply of these nutrients available to flow into us through the umbilical cord of our one heart…

we begin with ourselves by coming into our essence… unconditional love and imagining all limiting forces condensing into a black ball of smoke and coming out of our stomach to be received into the sacred heart of compassion… now witness the black ball dissolving and smile feeling yourself as love, joy, wisdom and liberation…

now, let’s move onto someone we love who’s suffering and witness all their pain coming out of their stomach and coming into the divine heart of boundless compassion… smile at seeing them transfigured…

now, we move onto someone who’s betrayed us terribly seeing all the forces that created their pain condensing into a black ball of smoke that dissolves as it enters the divine heart of compassion…

finally, we see a group of dangerous people and the pain that caused their views condensing into a black ball of smoke and dissolving as it enters the sacred heart of compassion… smile as you witness this group’s transformation…

now, take a deep breath from the sacred heart of compassion savoring this moment’s beingness of bliss…

  may we take this moment to open our eyes and real-eyes the awegustoness of the cosmos when we wander in wonder dancing gracefully in rhythm with the great mystery of the all that is…

“We need to be angels for each other, to give each other strength and consolation. Because only when we fully realize that the cup of life is not only a cup of sorrow but also a cup of joy will we be able to drink it.” ~ Henri Nouwen ~

Poetic Peace Pilgrimage – Year 9 – Day 256 – 8/29/2022

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i am so grateful for this day of sweet surrender,

this day of being one with the tides of life…

seeing from vast ocean’s vantage point

the intricate web grandmother delicately weaves

connecting dots that on first glance appear unrelated

until one looks homeward with angelic eyes of the heart

discerning now the divine design patiently waiting in the wings for the blind to see…

thousand fold thanks for this moment, this beautiful moment of luminescence…

yes, it’s another day of soulitude with one of my favorite ancient stories said to come from China flowing in on the high tide… ah so, may be…

once upon a time there was a Chinese farmer whose horse ran away… that evening, all of his neighbors came around to commiserate saying, “we are so sorry to hear your horse has run away, this is most unfortunate,” to which the old farmer replied, “ah so, may be...” the next day the horse came back bringing seven wild horses with him and in the evening everybody came back saying, “oh, isn’t that lucky, what a great turn of events, you now have eight horses!” the farmer again replied, “ah so, may be..”

the following day his son tried to break one of the horses and while riding, he was thrown and broke his leg to which the neighbors then said, “oh dear, that’s too bad,” and the farmer responded, “ah so, may be…” the next day the conscription officers came around to conscript people into the army and they rejected his son because he had a broken leg… again all the neighbors came around and said, “isn’t that great!” again, he said, “ah so, may be…”

ah so, may we all be as equanimous as this wise man of nature for:

“You never know what will be the consequence of the misfortune; or, you never know what will be the consequences of good fortune.”  ~ Alan Watts ~

Poetic Peace Pilgrimage – Year 9 – Day 255 – 8/28/2022

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today in this astonishing light of our interbeing moment of eternity is the quintessential dreamy day as last year thousands converged on the nation’s capital to demand the protection of voting rights and this year in June thousands gathered again for a march on DC walking in the footsteps of the 250,000 people who rallied in the historic March on Washington 59 years before and heard the iconic ” I Have A Dream” speech that Martin Luther King gave after being prompted by Mahalia Jackson to put down his prepared speech and tell the people of his dream…

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“I say to you today, my friends, that in spite of the difficulties and frustrations of the moment, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream.

I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: “We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal.”

I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slaveowners will be able to sit down together at a table of brotherhood.

I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a desert state, sweltering with the heat of injustice and oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.

I have a dream that my four children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.

I have a dream today.

I have a dream that one day the state of Alabama, whose governor’s lips are presently dripping with the words of interposition and nullification, will be transformed into a situation where little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls and walk together as sisters and brothers.

I have a dream today.

I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight, and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together.

This is our hope. This is the faith with which I return to the South. With this faith we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope. With this faith we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood. With this faith we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day.

This will be the day when all of God’s children will be able to sing with a new meaning, “My country, ’tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing. Land where my fathers died, land of the pilgrim’s pride, from every mountainside, let freedom ring.”

And if America is to be a great nation this must become true. So let freedom ring from the prodigious hilltops of New Hampshire. Let freedom ring from the mighty mountains of New York. Let freedom ring from the heightening Alleghenies of Pennsylvania!

Let freedom ring from the snowcapped Rockies of Colorado!

Let freedom ring from the curvaceous peaks of California!

But not only that; let freedom ring from Stone Mountain of Georgia!

Let freedom ring from Lookout Mountain of Tennessee!

Let freedom ring from every hill and every molehill of Mississippi. From every mountainside, let freedom ring.

When we let freedom ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God’s children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual, “Free at last! free at last! Thank God Almighty, we are free at last!”

~

may our dreams of freedom and peace and justice for all come alive today…

Poetic Peace Pilgrimage – Year 9 – Day 254 – 8/27/2022

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on this new moon of manifestation, may we all listen for the cosmic soul song…

every moment is pregnant with the promise of peace… with every breath, may we practice peace, we are peace, may we all be peace with every breath… for all the moments of today, may we join with all that is in a heartfelt effort to be peace for our cosmos.

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New Moon in Virgo Peace Invocation

We call on all noble hearts to find within the light of love and divinity that dwells in them from time immemorial, since their souls have existed…
May this light … expand on the earth showering her face with peace and harmony…
May this light … calm and harmonize the black shadow of war, violence, hate and disharmony…
May this light … fill the hearts of all and the sites of nations where the shadow of violence has found a place to stay.

May this light reach the hearts and minds of ALL the Heads of State,
of ALL leaders of the revolution from  right to left from north to south…

We extend our profound gratitude to all the Mamos (Shamans) of the world, all men, women and children from  different cultures, races and creeds, from all cardinal directions who have joined us and those who will join us in this effort to raise a prayer for peace…

We wash away the cries of the distressed, the blood of the victims of violence, the pain of their families.

May they be replaced by the innocent laughter of children, the ideals of youth and the wisdom of life of our elders.
May we no longer know the signs of strife: to hear birds singing sorrows, nor watch clouds stained with blood, nor feel breezes intense with heat, nor see rivers swollen by the mountains’ tears…
May new bonds of unity and peace form through our reciting this invocation together  embracing humanity in cosmic harmony…

Poetic Peace Pilgrimage – Year 9 – Day 253 – 8/26/2022

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withdrawing from the outer world may seem like capitulation or loss, when, in reality the very act of emptying out and coming into the stillpoint is what engenders creation….

ah, the gift of unplugging and standing in the center of the sacred hoop of life – everywhere i walk today reveals the divine, every step deepens the knowing of the interconnection, the oneness we are, all is love… look into the reflecting pool of life, what do you see? what sees you? may we all take this moment to breathe in our true nature, feel the love and celebrate with wild abandon…

the invitation to go within and listen for the heart song instructing each and every relative to slow down and take it easy for all answers are within always comes through so emphatically after spending the day with a soul new to the planet giving so many moments of eternity to soul study, soulitude, solitude… may we in this moment of great turning all be hollow reeds attuned to the cosmic hum with the divine music of the spheres resounding the frequencies of peace, love, joy, harmony, wisdom, compassion and grace in ever widening circles rippling across the ever expanding cosmos…

offering great thanks to our mother the earth, our father the sky, sister moon,  brother sun and to all our relations for our earth walk, the way of the heart…

as we (s)age into grace we return to where we began… the garden of eden, heaven on earth and we see everything as if for the first time… this present moment, this ordinary moment, this extraordinary moment all one in the same…

when we rest fully in this moment, dwelling in the consciousness of the divine, we embody awe, awakened wonderfilled energy, and radiant light fills our being shining everywhere…

“The world… has forgotten the joys of silence, the peace of solitude which is necessary, to some extent, for the fullness of human living.  Not all…  are called to be hermits, but all…  need enough silence and solitude in their lives to enable the deep inner voice of their own true self to be heard at least occasionally.  When that inner voice is not heard, when man cannot attain to the spiritual peace that comes from being perfectly at one with his own true self, his life is always miserable and exhausting.  For he cannot go on happily for long unless he is in contact with the springs of spiritual life which are hidden in the depths of his own soul.  If man is constantly exiled from his own home, locked out of his own spiritual solitude, he ceases to be a true person…  He becomes a kind of automaton, living without joy because he has lost his spontaneity.  He is no longer moved from within, but only from outside himself.”

~ Thomas Merton ~

let’s close this sacred ceremony in a silent retreat into the watery womb where we nurture our roots, our soulfull essence as we cross over the liminal space, the threshold to go within for truth of how to dwell in an upended world by stopping the world we have known and living more and more in graceland, in the sacred space beyond words, in the joyous radiance of the silent heart overflowing with compassion… blessed bee…

Poetic Peace Pilgrimage – Year 9 – Day 252 – 8/25/2022

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“We need to be angels for each other, to give each other strength and consolation. Because only when we fully realize that the cup of life is not only a cup of sorrow but also a cup of joy will we be able to drink it.”

~ Henri Nouwen ~

this sacred moment of eternity goes on infinitely on this day of stopping the world, spending this moment in soulitude and seeing inside as i saunter (walk on holy ground) along the rainbow trail, the path with heart, the pilgrimage of the soul, the pathless path for this is not only the 106th birthday of the usa’s national parks; it is also the second year anniversary of my latest close encounter with death…

still i hear the words, as i was coming back to life, of the ICU doctor standing at the threshold of the room they put me in to pass over saying to the nurse it was a miracle she was alive… at first i wondered who they were talking about and then it came back to me that i had been at a gathering with Ram Dass who had died physically 8 months earlier and he asked me if I’d like him to walk me home… i was so excited to get to spend time with this being who’s been so impactful on my life for half a century and told him that i’d gather my things and meet him right back here but when i returned a moment later he had walked on and i understood that i was to come back here to the middle world… it was not the easiest thing to find my way back meandering through vast labyrinthian canyon lands of the other world but here i was hearing this man in white coat talking of someone who’d miraculously come back to life after dying…

so, dear co-hearts of our one heart, still in the glow of the astonishing light of our being and so in awe of grandmother spider and the web of life she weaves, i now want to share this heartfelt message fra angelico sent to his co-hearts 500 years ago which expresses what i say today and everyday and hear all our relatives singing the same tune…

“I salute you. I am your friend, and my love for you goes deep.

There is nothing I can give you which you have not already, but there is much, very much, which though I cannot give it, you can take.

No heaven can come to us unless our hearts find rest in today.

Take heaven.

No peace lies in the future which is not hidden in this precious little instant.

Take peace.

The gloom of the world is but a shadow. Behind it, yet within our reach is joy. There is radiance and courage in the darkness could we but see; and to see, we have only to look.

Life is so generous a giver, but we, judging its gifts by their coverings, cast them away as ugly or heavy or hard. Remove the covering, and you will find beneath it a living splendor, woven of love, and wisdom, and power. Welcome it, greet it, and you touch the angel’s hand that brings it.

Everything we call a trial, a sorrow, a duty, believe me, that angel’s hand is there, the gift is there, and the wonder of an overshadowing Presence.

Our joys, too, be not content with them as joys. They, too, conceal diviner gifts.

Life is so full of meaning and purpose, so full of beauty beneath its covering, that you will find earth but cloaks your heaven.

Courage, then, to claim it, that is all! But courage you have, and the knowledge that we are pilgrims wending through unknown country our way home.”

~

Dear Angels, Take Heaven! Take Peace! Take Joy! Take Love! Take Wisdom! Take Courage!

We Are The Eternal Radiance of Loving Presence…

Poetic Peace Pilgrimage – Year 9 – Day 251 – 8/24/2022

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each beautiful thing, each new day awakens in our soul the memory of whom we are, luminous beings, the shining ones… i am re-membering some words on beauty and wonder from Thay that help me to hear the voice of the soul:

“Dear Mother Earth,

Each morning when I wake up you offer me twenty-four brand new hours to cherish and enjoy your beauty. You gave birth to every miraculous form of life. Your children include the clear lake, the green pine, the pink cloud, the snowcapped mountain top, the fragrant forest, the white crane, the golden deer, the extraordinary caterpillar, and every brilliant mathematician, skilled artisan, and gifted architect. You are the greatest mathematician, the most accomplished artisan, and the most talented architect of all. The simple branch of cherry blossoms, the shell of a snail, and the wing of a bat all bear witness to this amazing truth. My deep wish is to live in such a way that I am awake to each of your wonders and nourished by your beauty. I cherish your precious creativity and I smile to this gift of life.

We humans have talented artists, but how can our paintings compare to your masterpiece of the four seasons? How could we ever paint such a compelling dawn or create a more radiant dusk? We have great composers, but how can our music compare to your celestial harmony with the sun and planets—or to the sound of the rising tide? We have great heroes and heroines who have endured wars, hardship, and dangerous voyages, but how can their bravery compare to your great forbearance and patience along your hazardous journey of eons? We have many great love stories, but who among us has love as immense as your own, embracing all beings without discrimination?

Dear Mother, you have given birth to countless buddhas, saints, and enlightened beings. Shakyamuni Buddha is a child of yours. Jesus Christ is the son of God, and yet he is also the son of Man, a child of the Earth, your child. Mother Mary is also a daughter of the Earth. The Prophet Mohammed is also your child. Moses is your child. So too are all the bodhisattvas. You are also mother to eminent thinkers and scientists who have made great discoveries, investigating and understanding not only our own solar system and Milky Way, but even the most distant galaxies. It’s through these talented children that you are deepening your communication with the cosmos. Knowing that you have given birth to so many great beings, I know that you aren’t mere inert matter, but living spirit. It’s because you’re endowed with the capacity of awakening that all your children are too. Each one of us carries within ourself the seed of awakening, the ability to live in harmony with our deepest wisdom—the wisdom of interbeing.

But there are times when we have not done so well. There are times when we have not loved you enough; times when we have forgotten your true nature; and times when we have discriminated and treated you as something other than ourself. There have even been times when, through ignorance and unskillfulness, we have underestimated, exploited, wounded, and polluted you. That is why I make the deep vow today, with gratitude and love in my heart, to cherish and protect your beauty, and to embody your wondrous consciousness in my own life. I vow to follow in the footsteps of those who have gone before me, to live with awakening and compassion, and so be worthy of calling myself your child.”

acknowledging the preciousness of each day is a wondrous way to walk in beauty…

Poetic Peace Pilgrimage – Year 9 – Day 250 – 8/23/2022

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this is the 250th day of the ninth year of posting the Poetic PEACE Pilgrimage daily; on the 250th day of the first year i re-member honoring and celebrating the inspiration, the mother of this journey, someone breathing and being this walk every moment and it seems so perfect on the 9th year and in this moment of eternity of the astonishing light of being to reprise the honoring of this most remarkable being of light…

peace pilgrim, in her late forties, committed to walking the planet being peace and in so doing, she planted and spread peace across the world demonstrating that a life lived trusting in a world of lovingkindness reaps an abundant harvest… never once did she lack for a ride or a meal or a place to sleep finding abundant generosity always surrounding her every step, her every breath…

thank you for joining in the peace pilgrimage and making her story our story and history/herstory… and, thank you for the astonishing light of your beings, beacons shining so brightly helping to guide all of us home re-membering…

Poetic Peace Pilgrimage – Year 9 – Day 249 – 8/22/2022

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“He who experiences the unity of life sees his own Self in all beings, and all beings in his own Self.”

~ Bhagavad Gita ~

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“Let us remember within us
The ancient clay,
Holding the memory of seasons,
The passion of the wind,
The fluency of water,
The warmth of fire,
The quiver-touch of the sun
And shadowed sureness of the moon.That we may awaken,
To live to the full
The dream of the Earth…”

~ John O’Donohue ~

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Welcome Home!

relatives, we are lovingly invited

to spend this moment, this beautiful moment

at home with Beloved…

simply being presence of essence…

come as you are, your radiant Self,

for this moment of

wonder, awe, bliss, compassion, flow, grace, joy, kindness

to drink in the gamma rays flooding the cosmos with a divine transfusion of transfiguring love…

~

i am having a time trying to write these words as they bring back so many memories because the image and the welcome home words posted here today is what i posted two years ago and after that posting it would be a full moon before i would post again,.. a moon spent in the icu as i returned slowly from the jaws of death… in hindsight, it’s astonishing to see i was writing of the dream of the cosmos as i was about to enter the void and live the dream, a dream of being in a field where the Beloved Communion dwells and hearing that our mission is to sing and listen for that song of the soul that knows the geography and map of our destiny and takes us there in unimaginable ways… last night/this morning the dream returns saying it is the moment of eternity to be about this business of singing in the wake of the ever quickening transformational initiation we are all undergoing…

today, i want to riff a little more on that singing field of the beloved community where the sea of love energy flows through all the cells of our one cosmic body… as i merge more deeply with this dream, i heart that we are one interbeing reverberating, resounding, frequencing the lost chords of harmony as we more and more profoundly tune into great mystery on our walk of infinity which is undeniably intended to be the dream of the ever-expanding cosmos manifested by our co-creating a world of peace built on justice guided by love and sung in joy…

are you hearing beloved singing you? listen a little deeper for the cosmic hum as you suspend noise and distraction in this moment, this beautiful moment… are you hearing the whispers of the ancestors flowing through our oceanic body? ah yes, let’s pause here in the stillpoint and align with the rhythm of our one heart… may earth’s song reach into our deepest and wildest sacred spaces… may we hear the melodic voices of all our relations… may our inhalations inspire re-joy-sing and our exhalations re-sound and re-verberate harmony throughout the watery womb of our one heart…

we are the caravan of re-joy-sing being dreamed and weaved and breathed and walked and sung to the tune of thank you, thank you, thank you… and so it is… blessed bee…

~