Author Archives: Jo Beall

Poetic Peace Pilgrimage -Year 11 – Day 6 – 12/22/2023

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“On the day I die, when I’m being carried
toward the grave, don’t weep. Don’t say,

He’s gone! He’s gone. Death has nothing to do with going away. The sun sets and

the moon sets, but they’re not gone.
Death is a coming together. The tomb

looks like a prison, but it’s really
release into union. The human seed goes

down in the ground like a bucket into
the well where Joseph is. It grows and

comes up full of some unimagined beauty.
Your mouth closes here, and immediately

opens with a shout of joy there.”

~ Rumi ~

~

on this second day of celebrating soulstice, of standing still with the sun, of celebrating the return of the light, i celebrate the life of Ram Dass as well on this fourth anniversary of his death… eight months after he transitioned as i was transititioning he came to me saying it was not the moment for me to move on and so i came back, it seems it just happened just as it seems the blink of an eye when Ram Dass, at his last annual retreat on Maui, was chanting the first mantra from his guru he ever shared:

“shree ram jai ram jai jai ram…” over and over again we chant this mantra of grace… later, Ram Dass will go into his signature mantra… “I am loving awareness…” soon after this retreat he dropped his body and i immediately went into deep retreat with him culminating 8 months later when i died and Ram Dass asked if I wanted to walk home with him which i really did but when i went to gather my things to go with him and came back, he was gone which i took as my signal to come back into the body and continue to be here now in unwavering loving awareness… in celebration of his life, his light, let us join together in loving awareness…

taking this moment to conspire, to breathe together in gratitude gathering the quintessence re-membering who we truly are… loving sparks of light…

we are not these eyes and what they see, we are the soul of loving awareness quintessentially…

settle more deeply into spacious awareness saying… we are not these ears and what they hear, we are the soul of loving awareness quintessentially…

breathing in and out simply being and saying… we are not this mouth and what it tastes, we are the soul of loving awareness quintessentially… we are not these hands and what they touch, we are the soul of loving awareness quintessentially… we are not this nose and what it smells, we are the soul of loving awareness quintessentially…

now, noticing thoughts arising and memories saying… we are not these thoughts, we are the soul of loving awareness quintessentially… we are not these memories, we are the soul of loving awareness quintessentially…

now, seeing the whole body and feeling the body from within the body saying… we are not this body, we are the soul of loving awareness quintessentially…

breathing in feeling simply loving awareness… breathing out letting go of everything except resting in the soul of loving awareness quintessentially…

thank you for filling us with lovingkindness

thank you for supporting us in everything

thank you for holding us in peace and ease

shanti, shanti, shantihi…

now, feel this healing light flooding every cell of our being dissolving all rigid, inflexible, habitual ways of being into patterns resonant with quintessential soular consciousness…

let’s pass this gift forward sending the divine light of love through our raised hands… feel the light emanating from your hand and feel this energy of light attracting more and more light, more and more love with every pulse we transmit into ever widening circles…

thank you for walking ever more deeply into love and compassion and lighting the way for us, Ram Dass…

~

Poetic Peace Pilgrimage -Year 11 – Day 5 – 12/21/2023

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“At the still point of the turning world. Neither flesh nor fleshless;
Neither from nor towards; at the still point, there the dance is,
But neither arrest nor movement. And do not call it fixity,
Where past and future are gathered. Neither movement from nor towards,
Neither ascent nor decline. Except for the point, the still point,
There would be no dance, and there is only the dance.”
~ T.S. Eliot ~

oh, there is so much to whisper into this crystal, this moment of eternity on one of my favorite days of every turn around the sun and this one, so extraordinary…. breathing it in, this moment of soulstice, of stillness of the rainbow serpent, the divine feminine creation energy of our earthmother… the original people ask for all relatives to join in prayer at the time of soulstice to complete this ritual with the rainbow serpent becoming the rainbow bridge uniting heaven and earth and bringing peace and harmony to the ever-expanding cosmos…

now, there is so much more to whisper into this crystal, this moment of foreverness from this peace pilgrim’s perspective with my earliest memory of being visited by the rainbow serpent who sat at the foot of my crib and “taught” me stillness although it took me decades to consciously real-eyes what this awe-full encounter with the numinous had gifted, this resource this immune system booster, this natural vaccine that transmutes lead into gold, fear into love, stress into bless… this rainbow serpent that transmuted into a golden halo of light nineteen years later when at 21 i experienced a great awakening and then like the rainbow serpent i migrated from southeast to northwest to be grounded firmly here on this soulstice to align with the original peoples for the great ritual to complete… here is the stillness song re-joy-sing through this empty reed as all relatives come together calling in peace and harmony:

finding a place where you can sit comfortably, allow your body to find ease and let go of any doing… now, take a full breath – holding it for a moment and then releasing it completely… and, another full breath – holding it for a moment and then releasing it completely… and, one more deep cleansing breath…

continue breathing slowly, deeply and without effort – releasing all doing, simply witnessing the easing of stress and tension in the body and inviting more and more peace and harmony into every wild cell… notice any place that feels tight and release the tension allowing a softening around that area… as you continue to breathe in, begin to draw your attention within with every breath… notice any thoughts and release them gently…

now, draw your attention to our earthmother – no matter where you are sitting, place your attention on the earth below your feet… is it soft and verdant or hard and frozen? your earth – your home – your Mother… notice a pulsing vibration of energy and draw that connection up through your feet, up through your sitz bones – wherever you are connected to our earthmother – and draw that energy up into your first chakra noticing the grounding and connection…

continuing to breathe fully, deeply and with ease,

notice your attention and bring it gently and effortlessly to the vibration of our earthmother within… be one with our Mother as she holds and nurtures us… as you continue deep breathing, begin to bring that connection, that energy up to your heart chakra, noticing the energy, the vibration of the earth as it expands within your heart, within our one heart…

witness any thoughts, feelings or emotions, allowing them and then releasing them with love and ease… feel your heart expanding with each breath… pulling in the energy and vibration of our earthmother, notice your heart expanding with light, love, peace and harmony…

light, love, peace, harmony… your heart opening and expanding with each breath…

light, love, peace, harmony… connecting with the earth, with nature, with all beings…

light, love, peace, harmony… witnessing the intelligence within every living being…

as we breathe together, conspire, we are connecting with all that is, with earth and sky, oceans and mountains, all beings and the cosmos which surrounds us… we are one with all, one rainbow bridge uniting all… light, love, peace and harmony… expanding and connecting with all… gradually bringing our awareness back to our one heart, notice the steady heartbeating of life, the rich fullness and the expansion of the great conjunction, the grand union… blessings/blissings be…

~

Poetic Peace Pilgrimage -Year 11 – Day 4 – 12/20/2023

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on this, the cusp of soulstice, the day before the sun stands still which comes in this turning of the sun on another astonishing light of being day, i find myself in reverie, slowing down with the sun and synching into the rhythm of dreamwaves re-membering a lucid dream of profound stillness of many moons ago where i stared into a towering wave stretching across the earth and reaching up to the heavens… suspended in the stillpoint of the ocean of being, WE ARE in this moment, this beautiful moment of eternity on the precipice…

~

body, speech and mind in perfect harmony

our one heart floating along in rhythm with the waves of the sea

awestruck, we are transfixed by this still mountain of water

with the power to break us, to break our heart wide open

to welcome a new/old world, a new/old way of being

present… now… in the moment…

standing together in love

~

today, re-membering and reflecting on the still wave and a thousand other images from this turn around the sun, i am once again transfixed, in awe at the synchronous spinning of the waves, such a divine, rhythmic threading of the web of life… for one brief instant, i see simply breakdown, then, in the next flash the transcendent function kicks in transporting us to the field out beyond, the field of breaking open, breaking free, breaking through into harmony, feeling infinity…

feel our one heart smiling as we dance along the spirit path together deeper and deeper into the sacred wheel, spiraling into rainbowville… more and more magic, change in consciousness is on the way, mystical law will have its say…

as we, like the sun, slow down and still invoking the power of this potent portal, this doorway into the great turning, the shift of the ages release into the fire of spirit what no longer serves breathing in from the fire the inner light of source that guides us and shows us the way of living sacred simplicity each and every day…

~

Poetic Peace Pilgrimage -Year 11 – Day 3 – 12/19/2023

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121 moons ago, this prayer dreamed me… i was driving over a bridge with my mother when suddenly a tsunami appeared… now, i am swimming in dark water knowing i must find my mother who is not a strong swimmer… after what seemed an eternity, i surrendered realizing all i could do was go with the flow… instantaneously, i was transported to paradise and then to our beach cottage where i found my daughter… i knew i had to call my siblings to let them know our mother was lost at sea but it was the last thing i wanted to do…

as i waited for them to answer my call, i felt movement behind me and turned around to see my mother standing there in my nightgown with my hair and smile – best miracle ever! during this wholly season filled with such turbulence, sometimes it feels like a tidal wave… i re-member the dream and surrender to this sea of love energy we are… i breathe into the stillness of this sacred space as peace flows through in the rhythm of the waves…

thanks bee for all the support of the imaginal realms, our true reality of rainbow mystery…

~

Poetic Peace Pilgrimage -Year 11 – Day 2 – 12/18/2023

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according to the latest UNHCR report, 221 million plus individuals are now forcibly displaced worldwide as a result of persecution, conflict, violence, or human rights violations – 1 in every 40 people – and with fewer and fewer of those who flee being able to return home this UN Refugee Agency is appealing to countries worldwide to do far more to find homes for millions of refugees and others displaced by conflict, persecution or events seriously disturbing public order… i invite us to include all our relatives when we say migrants and that we work rather than fight for a better world for all…

let us take this sacred moment of eternity on this international migrants day to offer metta, lovingkindness, for all seeking refuge and sanctuary:

may i be filled with lovingkindness.
may i be well.
may i be peaceful and at ease.
may i be happy all the days of my life.

take a deep breath bringing the mantra in knowing it to be true…

now, visualize a refugee — a specific person or a group of people allowing yourself to believe in these aspirations, as though they are gifts you are actually giving this person…

may this refugee be filled with unconditional kindness.
may they have good health.
may they have inner and outer safety all the days of their lives.
may they be peaceful and at ease.
may they know happiness today and always.

now visualize all beings and repeat these phrases:

may all beings be filled with lovingkindness.
may we all know good health all the days of our lives.
may we know that inner and outer safety is our right.
may we all be peaceful and at ease.
may all being in all directions and all times be happy.

may we bring these intentions into actions for the benefit of all beings…

~

Poetic Peace Pilgrimage -Year 11/11 Years – Day 1/3653 Days – 12/17/2023

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today is another especially auspicious day marking this sacred moment of eternity… 760 years ago the poetic peace pilgrim, Rumi, died; 120 years ago the 1st flight took place on the outer banks, my former home; it is the first day of the 13th year of dwelling in the abundance of infinite love and gratitude, it is the first day of the eleventh year of  the daily practice of writing this ppp peace and it is… drumroll… the day of a flight of liberation for us all as we tune into the ancient roman feast of saturnalia which is celebrated december 17-23…

in honor of this confluence of riches, let us begin soaring into spaciousness and deepening into soulstice and our core with Rumi: 

“If you are seeking, seek us with joy
For we live in the kingdom of joy.
Do not give your heart to anything else
But to the love of those who are clear joy,
Do not stray into the neighborhood of despair.
For there are hopes: they are real, they exist –
Do not go in the direction of darkness –
I tell you: suns exist.”

what a day of  cosmic flight and deep sea journey dissolved into the radiant light of Green Tara who comes when we call to clear all obstacles and relieve the suffering of all our relatives, a moment of eternity of flying home to the heart through the outer turbulence to soar and swim in inner open spaciousness trusting in the implicate order and listening for the call of the wild emanating  from the watery womb of great silence…

“How could the soul not take flight
When from the glorious Presence
A soft call flows sweet as honey,
And whispers, “Rise up now, come away.”
How could the fish not jump
Immediately from dry land into water,
When the sound of water from the ocean
Of fresh waves springs to his ear?
How could the hawk not fly away,
Back, back, to the wrist of the kind
As soon as he hears the drum
The king’s baton hits again and again,
Drumming out the signal of return?
How could the Sufi not start to dance,
Turning on himself, like the atom in the sun of eternity,
So he can leap free of this dying world?
Fly away, fly away, bird, to your native home.
You have leaped free of the cage,
Your wings are flung back in the wind of God.
Leave behind the stagnant and marshy waters,
Hurry, hurry, hurry, O bird, to the source of life!”

 ~ Rumi ~

happiest of turns ’round the sun and may this one be overflowing with love, liberation and luxuriating in each beautiful and interesting sacred moment of eternity… blessed bee us all as we release the stagnant and come home to our winged wild nature singing our soul songs full throatedly harmonizing with the hum of our one cosmic heart…

~

Poetic Peace Pilgrimage – Year 10 – Day 365- 12/16/2023

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today is an incredibly special day in thought word and deed as it marks the completion of ten turns around the sun (that’s 3652 days) posting the poetic peace pilgrimage each night unless on my deathbed or without connection – the ppp is a daily breathing and being peace in every moment devocean i practice… today also marks the completion of twelve turns around the sun (that’s 4383 days) of dwelling in the superabundance of infinite love and gratitude… this 2023 year is so very remarkable personally and collectively with our interbeing’s vision beeing so dramatically refined while the cosm has so profoundly quickened the outpourings of golden light to support the great turning of the ages, the transmutation, the transformation, the unfolding of the birth-death-rebirth cycle of the magical mystery tour we call life…

a turn like no other

breaking down to break through

and gathering strength to make the quantum leap

this year, more expansively and deeply than ever, in the midst of constant stimulation, i have loved taking refuge in living the iconic quest ion of what will i do with my one wild and precious life and have loved witnessing the answer of being drawn by the stronger pull of what i really love and seeing that pull embedded in and engraved upon the compass of the immortal soul while always inviting in each moment of eternity as a friend to ->

open my eyes so i may vision

open my ears so i may listen

open my voice so i may rejoice

open my heart so i may know not knowing

as i sit in the dream cave now, the interior sounds of  water moving inspires re-membering all the beautiful moments of this journey of the heart, of  simply breathing into lovingkindness presence, being the now, embracing the uncertainty and impermanence of what is and…

dan-sing in rhythm

with the river of being

opening to flow

along this path of heart, this path of purification, this path of polishing the heart, we keep coming back with every breath, with every step into infinite love and gratitude no matter what is happening in the outer, coming back home to our one heart where we experience over and over again…

moments of peace

wildpeace flowing in ripples

and dan-sing joyously

how i love this practice of pilgrimage, of living story, of being poets on an interior deep sea journey where we’re all walking each other home into our one heart where we stand in the center seeing in a sacred manner all beings as one spirit…

thanks for being nomads in the sea

celebrating rainbow mystery

being harmony

real-eye-sing more than ever the gift of standing together in solidarity as the dominance world collapses making space for returning to the true reality of interconnection, of belonging to each other, i pledge to live right action in the rhythm of the waves of creation for the benefit of the seven generations… aho…

~

Poetic Peace Pilgrimage – Year 10 – Day 364- 12/15/2023

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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’s words 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 ~

~

Poetic Peace Pilgrimage – Year 10 – Day 363- 12/14/2023

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Honoring the 1th Anniversary of the Sandy Hook Massacre

“There’s a revolution that needs to happen and it starts from inside each one of us.”

~ Thich Nhat Hanh ~

i write again today 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 calling for the ceremony of the children’s fire…

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…

may all of us tend 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…

let’s 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 deep inside to connect with where we carry our soul light… do you feel it in your heart? crown? 3rd 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 our being real-eye-sing your sacred nature as a tree reaching the light of the stars and re-membering 3 essences: that we are to always walk in beauty and be of service, that we are to always be in ceremony, in sacred space and that once we have moved from nowhere to now here we are to celebrate… finally, re-member, we can return here any time – we are the eternal radiance, we are the luminous shining ones we’ve been waiting for…

yes, we are the ones moving from nowhere to now here

anxiety, overwhelm, listlessness, disorientation, frustration, heartbreak and tenderness are some of the feelings many of us are experiencing in this nowhere, in-between phase of the great mutation, transfiguring us from caterpillars to butterflies and is the kind of place we usually want to avoid… we are challenged to stay in this nowhere space rather than buy into struggle and complaint, to soften us rather than make us more rigid and afraid… when we are brave enough to stay in nowhere, compassion arises like the sun… organically dissolving into the caterpillar stew of not knowing, not hoping to know, and not acting like we know what cannot be known, dying to the false self, we open to birthing the true self, our new butterfly way of being…

take heart! we are made for this moment of coming home to now here from nowhere…

always being, always becoming… always arrived, always arriving…

may we  wander from nowhere to now here with hearts wide open letting golden light sync into every pore feeling mama gaia singing us, dancing us, pulsing us, breathing us, celebrating us, loving us, at-oneing us, blessing us… deep peace of gaia’s humming resonance…

come, join with me standing in love for love in the center of interbeing around the children’s fire where we dream the new story, where singing waters hum in harmony bathing the new world lovingly, peacefully, joyfully, beautifully, where we build beloved community in the new jerusalem of stillness… behold, graceland!

now is the moment for inner awakening, for listening for the call of soul, the whispers of our one heart encouraging our slowing down to come home and tend the garden of our genius, the spark of light, the inner flame that is eternal and immortal, the dream that will never die…. yes, may we be instruments of  peace built on justice guided by love, hollow reeds of flowing lovingkindness…

~

Poetic Peace Pilgrimage – Year 10 – Day 362- 12/13/2023

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“You have no need to travel anywhere – journey within yourself. Enter a mine of rubies and bathe in the splendor of your own light.”

~ Rumi ~

the more deeply i dwell in the sacred spaciousness of the eternal present moment continuously chanting make me an instrument of peace and a chorus of thank yous and welcomes and the more wholeheartedly i surrender to love and being loving presence in every moment, the more i am taken to places i could not imagine, to ultima thule, the great beyond within our one cosmic body… today, as i look back over 362 days of tripping to unplanned places, i’m in awe of the wondrous beauty of unfolding mystery we see, even in the midst of profound unraveling, as we are pulled by the pathless path of the heart…

~

The Journey

“One day you finally knew
what you had to do, and began,
though the voices around you
kept shouting
their bad advice–
though the whole house
began to tremble
and you felt the old tug
at your ankles.
“Mend my life!”
each voice cried.
But you didn’t stop.
You knew what you had to do,
though the wind pried
with its stiff fingers
at the very foundations,
though their melancholy
was terrible.
It was already late
enough, and a wild night,
and the road full of fallen
branches and stones.
But little by little,
as you left their voices behind,
the stars began to burn
through the sheets of clouds,
and there was a new voice
which you slowly
recognized as your own,
that kept you company
as you strode deeper and deeper
into the world,
determined to do
the only thing you could do–
determined to save
the only life you could save.“

~ Mary Oliver ~

~