on this day 64 of a season of peace, i am transported back 55 years ago when Martin was in Memphis, TN in support of the striking sanitation workers and celivered a prescient speech and one of my favorites foreshadowing his assassination the next day… let’s get right into his words:

“Thank you very kindly, my friends. As I listened to Ralph Abernathy in his eloquent and generous introduction and then thought about myself, I wondered who he was talking about. It’s always good to have your closest friend and associate say something good about you. And Ralph is the best friend that I have in the world.

I’m delighted to see each of you here tonight in spite of a storm warning. You reveal that you are determined to go on anyhow. Something is happening in Memphis, something is happening in our world.

As you know, if I were standing at the beginning of time, with the possibility of general and panoramic view of the whole human history up to now, and the Almighty said to me, “Martin Luther King, which age would you like to live in?” — I would take my mental flight by Egypt through, or rather across the Red Sea, through the wilderness on toward the promised land. And in spite of its magnificence, I wouldn’t stop there. I would move on by Greece, and take my mind to Mount Olympus. And I would see Plato, Aristotle, Socrates, Euripides and Aristophanes assembled around the Parthenon as they discussed the great and eternal issues of reality.

But I wouldn’t stop there. I would go on, even to the great heyday of the Roman Empire. And I would see developments around there, through various emperors and leaders. But I wouldn’t stop there. I would even come up to the day of the Renaissance, and get a quick picture of all that the Renaissance did for the cultural and esthetic life of man. But I wouldn’t stop there. I would even go by the way that the man for whom I’m named had his habitat. And I would watch Martin Luther as he tacked his ninety-five theses on the door at the church in Wittenberg.

But I wouldn’t stop there. I would come on up even to 1863, and watch a vacillating president by the name of Abraham Lincoln finally come to the conclusion that he had to sign the Emancipation Proclamation. But I wouldn’t stop there. I would even come up to the early thirties, and see a man grappling with the problems of the bankruptcy of his nation. And come with an eloquent cry that we have nothing to fear but fear itself.

But I wouldn’t stop there. Strangely enough, I would turn to the Almighty, and say, “If you allow me to live just a few years in the second half of the twentieth century, I will be happy.” Now that’s a strange statement to make, because the world is all messed up. The nation is sick. Trouble is in the land. Confusion all around. That’s a strange statement. But I know, somehow, that only when it is dark enough, can you see the stars. And I see God working in this period of the twentieth century in a away that men, in some strange way, are responding — something is happening in our world. The masses of people are rising up. And wherever they are assembled today, whether they are in Johannesburg, South Africa; Nairobi, Kenya; Accra, Ghana; New York City; Atlanta, Georgia; Jackson, Mississippi; or Memphis, Tennessee — the cry is always the same — “We want to be free.”

And another reason that I’m happy to live in this period is that we have been forced to a point where we’re going to have to grapple with the problems that men have been trying to grapple with through history, but the demand didn’t force them to do it. Survival demands that we grapple with them. Men, for years now, have been talking about war and peace. But now, no longer can they just talk about it. It is no longer a choice between violence and nonviolence in this world; it’s nonviolence or nonexistence.

That is where we are today. And also in the human rights revolution, if something isn’t done, and in a hurry, to bring the colored peoples of the world out of their long years of poverty, their long years of hurt and neglect, the whole world is doomed. Now, I’m just happy that God has allowed me to live in this period, to see what is unfolding. And I’m happy that He’s allowed me to be in Memphis.

I can remember, I can remember when Negroes were just going around as Ralph has said, so often, scratching where they didn’t itch, and laughing when they were not tickled. But that day is all over. We mean business now, and we are determined to gain our rightful place in God’s world.

And that’s all this whole thing is about. We aren’t engaged in any negative protest and in any negative arguments with anybody. We are saying that we are determined to be men. We are determined to be people. We are saying that we are God’s children. And that we don’t have to live like we are forced to live.

Now, what does all of this mean in this great period of history? It means that we’ve got to stay together. We’ve got to stay together and maintain unity. You know, whenever Pharaoh wanted to prolong the period of slavery in Egypt, he had a favorite, favorite formula for doing it. What was that? He kept the slaves fighting among themselves. But whenever the slaves get together, something happens in Pharaoh’s court, and he cannot hold the slaves in slavery. When the slaves get together, that’s the beginning of getting out of slavery. Now let us maintain unity.

Secondly, let us keep the issues where they are. The issue is injustice. The issue is the refusal of Memphis to be fair and honest in its dealings with its public servants, who happen to be sanitation workers. Now, we’ve got to keep attention on that. That’s always the problem with a little violence. You know what happened the other day, and the press dealt only with the window-breaking. I read the articles. They very seldom got around to mentioning the fact that one thousand, three hundred sanitation workers were on strike, and that Memphis is not being fair to them, and that Mayor Loeb is in dire need of a doctor. They didn’t get around to that.

Now we’re going to march again, and we’ve got to march again, in order to put the issue where it is supposed to be. And force everybody to see that there are thirteen hundred of God’s children here suffering, sometimes going hungry, going through dark and dreary nights wondering how this thing is going to come out. That’s the issue. And we’ve got to say to the nation: we know it’s coming out. For when people get caught up with that which is right and they are willing to sacrifice for it, there is no stopping point short of victory.

We aren’t going to let any mace stop us. We are masters in our nonviolent movement in disarming police forces; they don’t know what to do, I’ve seen them so often. I remember in Birmingham, Alabama, when we were in that majestic struggle there we would move out of the 16th Street Baptist Church day after day; by the hundreds we would move out. And Bull Connor would tell them to send the dogs forth and they did come; but we just went before the dogs singing, “Ain’t gonna let nobody turn me round.” Bull Connor next would say, “Turn the fire hoses on.” And as I said to you the other night, Bull Connor didn’t know history. He knew a kind of physics that somehow didn’t relate to the transphysics that we knew about. And that was the fact that there was a certain kind of fire that no water could put out. And we went before the fire hoses; we had known water. If we were Baptist or some other denomination, we had been immersed. If we were Methodist, and some others, we had been sprinkled, but we knew water.

That couldn’t stop us. And we just went on before the dogs and we would look at them; and we’d go on before the water hoses and we would look at it, and we’d just go on singing “Over my head I see freedom in the air.” And then we would be thrown in the paddy wagons, and sometimes we were stacked in there like sardines in a can. And they would throw us in, and old Bull would say, “Take them off,” and they did; and we would just go in the paddy wagon singing, “We Shall Overcome.” And every now and then we’d get in the jail, and we’d see the jailers looking through the windows being moved by our prayers, and being moved by our words and our songs. And there was a power there which Bull Connor couldn’t adjust to; and so we ended up transforming Bull into a steer, and we won our struggle in Birmingham.

Now we’ve got to go on to Memphis just like that. I call upon you to be with us Monday. Now about injunctions: We have an injunction and we’re going into court tomorrow morning to fight this illegal, unconstitutional injunction. All we say to America is, “Be true to what you said on paper.” If I lived in China or even Russia, or any totalitarian country, maybe I could understand the denial of certain basic First Amendment privileges, because they hadn’t committed themselves to that over there. But somewhere I read of the freedom of assembly. Somewhere I read of the freedom of speech. Somewhere I read of the freedom of the press. Somewhere I read that the greatness of America is the right to protest for right. And so just as I say, we aren’t going to let any injunction turn us around. We are going on.

We need all of you. And you know what’s beautiful tome, is to see all of these ministers of the Gospel. It’s a marvelous picture. Who is it that is supposed to articulate the longings and aspirations of the people more than the preacher? Somehow the preacher must be an Amos, and say, “Let justice roll down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream.” Somehow, the preacher must say with Jesus, “The spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to deal with the problems of the poor.”

And I want to commend the preachers, under the leadership of these noble men: James Lawson, one who has been in this struggle for many years; he’s been to jail for struggling; but he’s still going on, fighting for the rights of his people. Rev. Ralph Jackson, Billy Kiles; I could just go right on down the list, but time will not permit. But I want to thank them all. And I want you to thank them, because so often, preachers aren’t concerned about anything but themselves. And I’m always happy to see a relevant ministry.

It’s all right to talk about “long white robes over yonder,” in all of its symbolism. But ultimately people want some suits and dresses and shoes to wear down here. It’s all right to talk about “streets flowing with milk and honey,” but God has commanded us to be concerned about the slums down here, and his children who can’t eat three square meals a day. It’s all right to talk about the new Jerusalem, but one day, God’s preachers must talk about the New York, the new Atlanta, the new Philadelphia, the new Los Angeles, the new Memphis, Tennessee. This is what we have to do.

Now the other thing we’ll have to do is this: Always anchor our external direct action with the power of economic withdrawal. Now, we are poor people, individually, we are poor when you compare us with white society in America. We are poor. Never stop and forget that collectively, that means all of us together, collectively we are richer than all the nations in the world, with the exception of nine. Did you ever think about that? After you leave the United States, Soviet Russia, Great Britain, West Germany, France, and I could name the others, the Negro collectively is richer than most nations of the world. We have an annual income of more than thirty billion dollars a year, which is more than all of the exports of the United States, and more than the national budget of Canada. Did you know that? That’s power right there, if we know how to pool it.

We don’t have to argue with anybody. We don’t have to curse and go around acting bad with our words. We don’t need any bricks and bottles, we don’t need any Molotov cocktails, we just need to go around to these stores, and to these massive industries in our country, and say, “God sent us by here, to say to you that you’re not treating his children right. And we’ve come by here to ask you to make the first item on your agenda fair treatment, where God’s children are concerned. Now, if you are not prepared to do that, we do have an agenda that we must follow. And our agenda calls for withdrawing economic support from you.”

And so, as a result of this, we are asking you tonight, to go out and tell your neighbors not to buy Coca-Cola in Memphis. Go by and tell them not to buy Sealtest milk. Tell them not to buy—what is the other bread?—Wonder Bread. And what is the other bread company, Jesse? Tell them not to buy Hart’s bread. As Jesse Jackson has said, up to now, only the garbage men have been feeling pain; now we must kind of redistribute the pain. We are choosing these companies because they haven’t been fair in their hiring policies; and we are choosing them because they can begin the process of saying, they are going to support the needs and the rights of these men who are on strike. And then they can move on downtown and tell Mayor Loeb to do what is right.

But not only that, we’ve got to strengthen black institutions. I call upon you to take your money out of the banks downtown and deposit your money in Tri-State Bank—we want a “bank-in” movement in Memphis. So go by the savings and loan association. I’m not asking you something we don’t do ourselves at SCLC. Judge Hooks and others will tell you that we have an account here in the savings and loan association from the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. We’re just telling you to follow what we’re doing. Put your money there. You have six or seven black insurance companies in Memphis. Take out your insurance there. We want to have an “insurance-in.”

Now these are some practical things we can do. We begin the process of building a greater economic base. And at the same time, we are putting pressure where it really hurts. I ask you to follow through here.

Now, let me say as I move to my conclusion that we’ve got to give ourselves to this struggle until the end. Nothing would be more tragic than to stop at this point, in Memphis. We’ve got to see it through. And when we have our march, you need to be there. Be concerned about your brother. You may not be on strike. But either we go up together, or we go down together.

Let us develop a kind of dangerous unselfishness. One day a man came to Jesus; and he wanted to raise some questions about some vital matters in life. At points, he wanted to trick Jesus, and show him that he knew a little more than Jesus knew, and through this, throw him off base. Now that question could have easily ended up in a philosophical and theological debate. But Jesus immediately pulled that question from mid-air, and placed it on a dangerous curve between Jerusalem and Jericho. And he talked about a certain man, who fell among thieves. You remember that a Levite and a priest passed by on the other side. They didn’t stop to help him. And finally a man of another race came by. He got down from his beast, decided not to be compassionate by proxy. But with him, administering first aid, and helped the man in need. Jesus ended up saying, this was the good man, this was the great man, because he had the capacity to project the “I” into the “thou,” and to be concerned about his brother. Now you know, we use our imagination a great deal to try to determine why the priest and the Levite didn’t stop. At times we say they were busy going to church meetings—an ecclesiastical gathering—and they had to get on down to Jerusalem so they wouldn’t be late for their meeting. At other times we would speculate that there was a religious law that “One who was engaged in religious ceremonials was not to touch a human body twenty-four hours before the ceremony.” And every now and then we begin to wonder whether maybe they were not going down to Jerusalem, or down to Jericho, rather to organize a “Jericho Road Improvement Association.” That’s a possibility. Maybe they felt that it was better to deal with the problem from the causal root, rather than to get bogged down with an individual effort.

But I’m going to tell you what my imagination tells me. It’s possible that these men were afraid. You see, the Jericho road is a dangerous road. I remember when Mrs. King and I were first in Jerusalem. We rented a car and drove from Jerusalem down to Jericho. And as soon as we got on that road, I said to my wife, “I can see why Jesus used this as a setting for his parable.” It’s a winding, meandering road. It’s really conducive for ambushing. You start out in Jerusalem, which is about 1200 miles, or rather 1200 feet above sea level. And by the time you get down to Jericho, fifteen or twenty minutes later, you’re about 2200 feet below sea level. That’s a dangerous road. In the days of Jesus it came to be known as the “Bloody Pass.” And you know, it’s possible that the priest and the Levite looked over that man on the ground and wondered if the robbers were still around. Or it’s possible that they felt that the man on the ground was merely faking. And he was acting like he had been robbed and hurt, in order to seize them over there, lure them there for quick and easy seizure. And so the first question that the Levite asked was, “If I stop to help this man, what will happen to me?” But then the Good Samaritan came by. And he reversed the question: “If I do not stop to help this man, what will happen to him?”

That’s the question before you tonight. Not, “If I stop to help the sanitation workers, what will happen to all of the hours that I usually spend in my office every day and every week as a pastor?” The question is not, “If I stop to help this man in need, what will happen to me?” “If I do not stop to help the sanitation workers, what will happen to them?” That’s the question.

Let us rise up tonight with a greater readiness. Let us stand with a greater determination. And let us move on in these powerful days, these days of challenge to make America what it ought to be. We have an opportunity to make America a better nation. And I want to thank God, once more, for allowing me to be here with you.

You know, several years ago, I was in New York City autographing the first book that I had written. And while sitting there autographing books, a demented black woman came up. The only question I heard from her was, “Are you Martin Luther King?”

And I was looking down writing, and I said yes. And the next minute I felt something beating on my chest. Before I knew it I had been stabbed by this demented woman. I was rushed to Harlem Hospital. It was a dark Saturday afternoon. And that blade had gone through, and the X-rays revealed that the tip of the blade was on the edge of my aorta, the main artery. And once that’s punctured, you drown in your own blood—that’s the end of you.

It came out in the New York Times the next morning, that if I had sneezed, I would have died. Well, about four days later, they allowed me, after the operation, after my chest had been opened, and the blade had been taken out, to move around in the wheel chair in the hospital. They allowed me to read some of the mail that came in, and from all over the states, and the world, kind letters came in. I read a few, but one of them I will never forget. I had received one from the President and the Vice-President. I’ve forgotten what those telegrams said. I’d received a visit and a letter from the Governor of New York, but I’ve forgotten what the letter said. But there was another letter that came from a little girl, a young girl who was a student at the White Plains High School. And I looked at that letter, and I’ll never forget it. It said simply, “Dear Dr. King: I am a ninth-grade student at the White Plains High School.” She said, “While it should not matter, I would like to mention that I am a white girl. I read in the paper of your misfortune, and of your suffering. And I read that if you had sneezed, you would have died. And I’m simply writing you to say that I’m so happy that you didn’t sneeze.”

And I want to say tonight, I want to say that I am happy that I didn’t sneeze. Because if I had sneezed, I wouldn’t have been around here in 1960, when students all over the South started sitting-in at lunch counters. And I knew that as they were sitting in, they were really standing up for the best in the American dream. And taking the whole nation back to those great wells of democracy which were dug deep by the Founding Fathers in the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. If I had sneezed, I wouldn’t have been around in 1962, when Negroes in Albany, Georgia, decided to straighten their backs up. And whenever men and women straighten their backs up, they are going somewhere, because a man can’t ride your back unless it is bent. If I had sneezed, I wouldn’t have been here in 1963, when the black people of Birmingham, Alabama, aroused the conscience of this nation, and brought into being the Civil Rights Bill. If I had sneezed, I wouldn’t have had a chance later that year, in August, to try to tell America about a dream that I had had. If I had sneezed, I wouldn’t have been down in Selma, Alabama, been in Memphis to see the community rally around those brothers and sisters who are suffering. I’m so happy that I didn’t sneeze.

And they were telling me, now it doesn’t matter now. It really doesn’t matter what happens now. I left Atlanta this morning, and as we got started on the plane, there were six of us, the pilot said over the public address system, “We are sorry for the delay, but we have Dr. Martin Luther King on the plane. And to be sure that all of the bags were checked, and to be sure that nothing would be wrong with the plane, we had to check out everything carefully. And we’ve had the plane protected and guarded all night.”

And then I got to Memphis. And some began to say the threats, or talk about the threats that were out. What would happen to me from some of our sick white brothers?

Well, I don’t know what will happen now. We’ve got some difficult days ahead. But it doesn’t matter with me now. Because I’ve been to the mountaintop. And I don’t mind. Like anybody, I would like to live a long life. Longevity has its place. But I’m not concerned about that now. I just want to do God’s will. And He’s allowed me to go up to the mountain. And I’ve looked over. And I’ve seen the promised land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight, that we, as a people, will get to the promised land. And I’m happy, tonight. I’m not worried about anything. I’m not fearing any man. Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord.”

on this day 63 of a season of peace, i write again of the necessary revolution in this sacred moment of great turning and cosmic rite of passage… the revolution i write of today is one of consciousness, a bold adventure the cosmos invites us to explore as foretold in other moments of eternity by the grandmothers…

there came a time when the grandmothers noticed it was the moment to focus on the good of the village and to remind the earthlings of how to be… they called in the spirits of the ancestors and the teachers and the unborn generations and the spirit of fire to kindle a flame which they nurtured and tendered and placed in the center of the wisdom council where the villagers sit in circle…

the grandmothers called on all the relatives to take a pledge repeating these words… in every action, in every thought, in every decision, i promise to hold the good of the children of all beings in this generation and for seven generations hence and this is my sacred vow…

imagine the world of beauty we inhabit with all of us tending the inner flame supported by the communitas of the invisible realms holding in our one heart and living out this sacred calling to always put first the good of the whole, to do what is best for the children in every thought word and deed…

let’s take a moment to embody this vow… the invitation is for us to close our outer eyes and tune in with our inner vision to the eternal flame within as we follow our breath noticing how our breath is in rhythm with the waves of life, with the tides’ ebb and flow, the waning and waxing of the moon, the changing of seasons all inextricably interconnected with the rhythms of mama gaia’s breath… breathing in and breathing out… love… light… as we continue to breathe in from Pachamama, notice if there is any tension in your body and if so, shake it off and get all loosey goosey… breathing in deep relaxation into the body, breathing out an ecstatic ahh… breathing in, I smile… breathing out, i start my internal love engine…

now, let’s go deeper inside to connect with where we carry our soul light… do you feel it in your heart? crown? 3^rd eye? throat? soular plexus? belly? root? Take your time… it may look like a beautiful candle flame, a burning ember, a flashlight, a lantern, a whirling vortex of pure white light… however your soul light appears and feels, rest assured it is always shining brightly…now, look very closely at your light and see silver threads emanating from your soul light… we are going to follow these threads finding any and all fractures and splinters to heal, to whole, to bless and bring home… look for the threads and follow them back and back and back through all dimensions… you may find 2 or 3 or several hundred, simply follow them looking at each one closely, healing it, blessing it and bringing it home one after the other and notice with each fragment returning home into the circle of unconditional love how your soul light is brightened a thousand fold with every fragment that returns home… the healing happens so quickly with each thread so happy to be re-woven into the gr8 tapestry of soul light that is more and more luminous with every re-union… take this moment and luxuriate in the warm embrace of the astonishing light of your being,,, re-member, you can return here any time – we are the eternal radiance, we are the luminous shining ones we’ve been waiting for…

and then, peace prevails on earth… blessed bee…

welcome, well come to day 62 of a season of peace and to the first day of arriving april and to the day of celebrating the holy fool in us all setting off on a new turn around the sun of the adventure of life…

traditionally, the fool card in the tarot is associated with the numbers, 0 and 22… at 0, the fool symbolizes life force before manifestation; at 22, the fool has sauntered the 21 keys of the major arcana completing a full cycle of awareness and experience and now steps beyond into a new dimension of limitless potential as a free and easy wanderer, an awakened and adventurous pilgrim/poet on a journey…

so, on this first day of April, as we celebrate the ultimate pilgrim, the holy fool, let us bless this new beginning of a moonth of arriving, of coming home to the present moment by contemplating what’s been quietly forming in the background, what’s emerging now…

for me, the pathless path continues to be more and more mysterious in proportion with letting go to flow… this living more and more in the now takes heart, courage, it is a defying of gravity and moving into levitating… i’m trusting in Beloved and the power of love as iterated below by the incomparable Rumi…

“This is love: to fly toward a secret sky, to cause a hundred veils to fall each moment. First to let go of life. Finally, to take a step without feet.”

speaking of flying, eight years ago on this fool’s day (which seems like several lifetimes ago in this moment of eternity), i flew off on quite an adventure to gather holy water from the chalice well arriving the next day on the isle of avalon, sacred space of the goddess where i joined with a beloved community of thirteen in the breaking of bread and drinking of holy water and clean-sing (cleansing), as in the washing of feet, of our soles who kiss the earth and ground us into embodied presence as it was the day in the christian calendar known as maunday thursday, the last supper…

in this moment of eternity, in every moment of eternity, we offer thanks for our last breath/first breath, our always flowing in the rhythm of dying/rebirthing, ebbing/flowing, breathing in/breathing out always being love, always becoming love… it is thanksgiving that transports us into the quantum realm of the unitive field where our heartmind is one…

thousand fold thanks for sharing this journey of arriving calling us into a deep dive into true nature…

“Journeys bring power and love back into you. If you can’t go somewhere, move in the passageways of the self. They are like shafts of light, always changing, and you change when you explore them.”
~ Rumi ~

welcome, well come to day 61 of a season of peace, this day of closing the circle on metamorphing march, a day of reverie reverencing this wild and woolly moonth of transformation as we draw down the powerful energies calling us into a deep dive on a journey of adventure, a pilgrimage into great rainbow mystery…

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 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 we devotedly tend soil as our 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 ~

Drink the wine down, tip the glass.  Drink with the Beloved.
Take this breath like it’s your last.   Drink with the Beloved.
We’re a caravan, you see, moving towards our destiny.  You must find the eyes to see.
Drink with the Beloved.

La Illaha il’Allah, La Illaha il’Allah
La Illaha il’Allah, La Illaha il’Allah

Go to the East or to the West.  Drink with the Beloved.
You can’t escape this birth and death.  Drink with the Beloved.
Drink the cup of loving down.  This is truly drink and drown.  What is lost, it shall be found.
Drink with the Beloved.

La Illaha il’Allah, La Illaha il’Allah
La Illaha il’Allah, La Illaha il’Allah

So listen to the inner call.  Drink with the Beloved.
The tavern masters rise and fall.  Drink with the Beloved.
Watch the drunkards reel and spin.   Feel the Presence from within, toasting with the dearest Friend.  Drink with the Beloved.

La Illaha il’Allah, La Illaha il’Allah
La Illaha il’Allah, La Illaha il’Allah

~ Rumi ~

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 – what better way than to join Rumi with re-joy-sing in a “drinking” song from another kind of tavern…

additionally, today is a day of challenge as we are called in this profound portal of metamorphing to deepen into the practice, of polishing the mirror, of deepening into our true nature which is not only what Rumi calls us to but also which this moment of planetary mutation calls us to, whispers to the us to mutate, transform…

i begin today with this soul song, Rumi’s poem singing me, as i am clean-sing, still it sings me… as i head to the healing temple it sings me, as i drink the potion to light me up, it sings me and i’m starting to feel quite a buzz as if a whole hive of bees were with me throughout the scan…

thank you beloved, divine presence and beloveds, divine presences for sharing the dance of synchronisiddhi deepening our pilgrimage into great mystery… cheers!!!!!

~

welcome, welcome to day 38 of a season of peace, a most auspicious day as it’s the International Day of Women which was begun in 1911 when a million people gathered in solidarity… 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:

~

embrace equity

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

~

today as we rise, we are a great wave rippling across the cosmos celebrating the divine feminine, in all genders, in her quest for equality, freedom and harmony… coming together in sacred circle drawing down the energy of the full 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 hearts on all our relations and our beautiful cosmos aligning with the energies of:

• stepping into a new capacity to keep pace with sudden and complete change
• opening to our spirit dropping deeply into our physical bodies and our mundane reality
• discovering our higher purpose hidden within the seed of our personal ambition
• consciously moving into relationships that are based on love, caring and affection rather than being compelled to play out our old relationship stories
• a rising aspiration to move up the ladder of the spiritual hierarchy
• learning obedience to higher laws
• finding the support and connections we need to step out of survival based relationships like jobs and old world marriages
• staying within ourselves and allowing the universe to co-create with us, rather than going outside ourselves and pushing to make things happen

let us close the circle with the Unify Heart Meditation…

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 woman to your right… this woman has her own struggles, pain, fears, and insecurities… take a moment to feel empathy and great respect for this powerful woman… 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 woman to your left… this woman, too, has her own struggles, pain, fears, and insecurities… take a moment to feel empathy and great respect for this powerful woman… 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 woman in the circle being amplified… growing brighter… filling the whole room…

envision in your life and community women  interacting from a space of harmony, mutual support, celebration, acceptance, and upliftment… feel in your heart, yourself and every woman feeling secure and happy in whom she is and supported by our global sisterhood. 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… now being anchored in heavenearth soaring through deep space being peace and painting it across the sky sea…

welcome, welcome to our beautiful world that is just, regenerative, healthy and peaceful…

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 very favorite moments of eternity in the cycle of life when we draw down the radiance of the full moon in virgo on this day, the day of miracles as 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, a year ago on this day 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 necessity of being peace in this moment, in every moment… 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 58th  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… thousand fold thanks for walking the freedom path and making justice visible…

ten 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, welcome to day 36 of a season of peace, a day on the pilgrimage like all others of  living the quest ion of what drumbeat are we dancing? what heartbeat are we musing? how are we called to serve? how to be this one wild and precious life? i give you, my co-heart pilgrims, poets on a journey, Rilke’s plea from “Letters to a Young Poet” to be patience, to live patiently with everything, loving all that is yet unresolved, for it is in the loving that sacred balance organically rises…

a quest ion that i have been living since i was a teenager and that i injoyed so much deep conversation and living with today and lives inside me so strongly over the last few moons building to the force of a tidal wave energetically was and is inspired by another of my favorite poets…

“to be nobody but yourself in a world which is doing its best, night and day, to make you everybody else – means to fight the hardest battle which any human being can fight; and never stop fighting.” ~ e e cummings ~

for myself, i’d edit out the words of fight and battle, it is so resonant a challenge in this sped-up world impelling us to be human doings rather than to be our true nature as light beings of divine love embodied through our one cosmic heart in an intricate web of interconnection, a challenge inviting us into more and more profound levels of soulfulness…

thousand fold thanks, dear rilke, dear life, dear co-hearts as i heed your sage words to have patience and love the quest ions sans attachment to how the mystery unfolds, living ah so, open as a wanderer of wonder…

little girls with dreams become women with vision

welcome, well come to day 35 of a season of peace, a most auspicious day as it’s the moment of eternity on this quintessential day when we celebrate the astonishing light of our being and today we are under the radiation of the almost full earthmother moon… 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…

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, to metamorph 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.”

~