saluting the source flowing through all our relations always in this moment of celebrating the astonishing light of our interbeing, may we join together as the one heart we are in the field out beyond, the field of the stillness of love and the silence of peace as the words of the immortal John O’Donohue sing our every breath and step of our joyvolution july pilgrimage….

For the Traveler

“Every time you leave home,
Another road takes you
Into a world you were never in.

New strangers on other paths await.
New places that have never seen you
Will startle a little at your entry.
Old places that know you well
Will pretend nothing
Changed since your last visit.

When you travel, you find yourself
Alone in a different way,
More attentive now
To the self you bring along,
Your more subtle eye watching
You abroad; and how what meets you
Touches that part of the heart
That lies low at home:

How you unexpectedly attune
To the timbre in some voice,
Opening in conversation
You want to take in
To where your longing
Has pressed hard enough
Inward, on some unsaid dark,
To create a crystal of insight
You could not have known
You needed
To illuminate
Your way.

When you travel,
A new silence
Goes with you,
And if you listen,
You will hear
What your heart would
Love to say.

A journey can become a sacred thing:
Make sure, before you go,
To take the time
To bless your going forth,
To free your heart of ballast
So that the compass of your soul
Might direct you toward
The territories of spirit
Where you will discover
More of your hidden life,
And the urgencies
That deserve to claim you.

May you travel in an awakened way,
Gathered wisely into your inner ground;
That you may not waste the invitations
Which wait along the way to transform you.

May you travel safely, arrive refreshed,
And live your time away to its fullest;
Return home more enriched, and free
To balance the gift of days which call you.”

happy trails, beloveds…

woo hoo! let’s get this second day of joyvolution, a revolution of joy revved up quintessentially… perhaps you are still intoxicated, as am i, from Rumi’s drinking song and maybe you have a SMILE still on your face to start my internal love engine…

now, feel into the pure delight of our brother elephant, get as comfortable as he is, slow down, settle in, take a deep breath smiling, with our next deep breath feel thank you thank you thank you flooding every cell and as we drop down even deeper, breathe in from the earthmother below who loves us so and feel the joy of true nature flooding every cell in our one body…

as we conspire, breathe together, smiling and intoning thank you with every breath, notice the joy of our true nature deepening and expanding as we feel the shower of golden light bathing us, pouring through us,,,, while delighting in this waterfall of joy, we salute this joy always bubbling in the core of the ocean of being… breathing in toward the one, breathing out toward the one… coming home deeper and deeper into the one cosmic heart of liberation…

thank you for luxuriating with me in this moment of eternity in the frequency of joy, committing this act of rebellion, of revolution where we pause in the gap and choose to be the transformation, the deepest and most expansive expression of our wild and wonderful open heart animating the frequency of liberation, free to be the ones we have been waiting for, the ones with the courage to venture into the unknown trusting in the destinednation of the fast moving river… and, thank you for taking this moment to re-member some profound words from Viktor Frankl, a being whose life was an unbroken contemplation on liberation… join me in bathing in this frequency, may our bathing flood the cosmos with wave after wave of liberating energy:

“Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of human freedoms – to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way.

We who lived in concentration camps can remember the men who walked through the huts comforting others, giving away their last piece of bread. They may have been few in number, but they offer sufficient proof that everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms — to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way.

For the first time in my life I saw the truth as it is set into song by so many poets, proclaimed as the final wisdom by so many thinkers. The truth – that Love is the ultimate and highest goal to which man can aspire. Then I grasped the meaning of the greatest secret that human poetry and human thought and belief have to impart: The salvation of man is through love and in love.

…never forget that we may also find meaning in life even when confronted with a hopeless situation, when facing a fate that cannot be changed… what then matters is to bear witness to the uniquely human potential at its best… to transform personal tragedy into triumph…”

and, now, let’s close this sacred space of ceremony with a blessing into the sacred fire within, the inner light of great spirit residing in all our relatives: may this day be blessed with gifts, lessons, understanding and friends… may our energy be a gift to all we meet… let us be centered, healing and open facing the day with courage, kindness, insight and compassion… may we honor this day being rooted in joy, the bubbling spring in the core of our interbeing…

welcome, well come joyvolution july, a month vibrating at the frequency of new beginnings, of creative momentum and, yes, i’ve coined a word for this moonth of the WILD pilgrim facing the music and love your joining me in celebrating every day as a joy revolution… for being joy in these turbulent times is a rebellious wild act and an ancient one for joy is our tue nature, who we quintessentially are… enough with the masters of the dominance worldview selling us an unsustainable bill of goods… come home to the heart, sit on the lap of the great mother as she reminds us of our true nature… let’s get right into joy with a Rumi drinking song that brings a smile to every cell…

“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”

i begin today with this soul song, Rumi’s poem, singing me, lighting me up, buzzing me as if a whole hive of bees is with me throughout this new beginning, new breath, new moment, new moonth, new day, new journey, newly standing on the brink of a new world pausing with all the pregnant possibilities alive quickening and fluttering our one heart knowing we are poised to take flight, to wing our way on unknown migratory routes trusting our one heart to fledge the way…

thank you beloved, divine presence and beloveds, divine presences for sharing the dance of synchronisiddhi deepening our pilgrimage into great mystery under the cosmic wild woman turtle moon of summer time when the living is easy… cheers!!!!!

~

how can it possibly be the last day of june? what a whirlwind this moon has been moving at the speed of light uprooting everything in the path expanding and strengthening the muscles of holding the tension while transporting us deeper and deeper into the heart of the leminscate, the stillpoint of creation where the generative energy of creativity creates creation in the blessed space between us…

today is one of my favorite days as it is the day of blessing the space between us, so, in this moment of eternity on the magical mystery tour of life as i go about polishing mirrors, i so delight being in this house of mirrors, beautiful mirrors as i look into every soul and see such radiance… thank you for being such a profound reflection of our true nature… your lovingkindness, compassion, generosity, grace, luminescence, humor, sensitivity, presence, devocean, joy, peace, patience, passion, curiosity and on and on enrich and inspire me in this moment and every moment… thank you for being so courageous in meeting each moment whatever arises and being with the pain and the joy, the suffering and the ease and continuing with one more breath, one more step, one more moment of polishing… i live in the knowing that we can make it through any adversity if there is one other heart beating in the field syncing with ours… thankfully, this wild and wooly moonth demonstrated the veracity of this knowing… thank you…

the time is now, as we bless this space between us, for all souls to play our music and rejoice in the astonishing light of our being looking into the cosmic mirror and bringing to heartmind all buddhas, bodhisattvas, teachers, ancestors, beings devoted to creating a just world and roll all the virtues and merits into a huge gaia ball re-joy-sing in the astonishing light… now, bring to heartmind all your virtues and merit and dedicate this offering to all who suffer, fear and grieve seeing the suffering, fear and grief eased… thank you for sharing your astonishing light so generously as it lifts our sails geometrically…

as we close this circle on justice june, let’s take in these words of the Buddha…

“Live in joy and freedom, even amongst those who are sick or troubled. Live in joy and a peaceful heart, even among those in conflict. Quiet the mind and heart and find the sweet joy of living in the dharma.”

in this sacred moment of pregnant pause, imagine us sitting on a high dune with a panoramic view of the all that is poised on the edge, the verge of a new world – can you hear her breathing in a world of  unconditional love guiding us into justice for all building a rock solid peace beyond our most expansive and deepest imaginings?

hear the peace that passeth all understanding palpably calling us into deep silence…. listen, listen to the cosmic hum… listen, listen to our heartbeat’s drum… listen, listen for the sound of the bell syncing our breathing to the mantra, all is well… deep peace of the running wave to you, deep peace, deep peace, deep peace…

“The best, like water,
Benefit all and do not compete.
They dwell in lowly spots that everyone else scorns.
Putting others before themselves,
They find themselves in the foremost place
And come very near to the Tao.
In their dwelling, they love the earth;
In their heart, they love what is deep;
In personal relationships, they love kindness;
In their words, they love truth.
In the world, they love peace.
In personal affairs, they love what is right.
In action, they love choosing the right time.
It is because they do not compete with others
That they are beyond the reproach of the world.”

~ Lao Tzu~

at 21, i was given heirloom seeds of devocean… at 42, i planted the seeds saying a mantra over them daily about being a midwife of heart consciousness… at 63, i began devotedly tending, caring for, watering, chanting over these seeds in co-llaboration with Beloved and an earth angel…

today marks a sacred anniversary, a quintessential anniversary of 7 years of sauntering along the above noted devoceanal path of invocation, 2557 days of opening the seven sacred seals’ portals of grace, 61,344 hours of offering the wounds of us all up for clean-sing and 3,680,640 moments of eternity of being breathed into life more abundant…

thank you Beloved for breaking our hearts open ever wider empowering us to see through the eyes of love, to deepen in the ways of compassion, to stretch our capacity for patience and trust, to flow in the peace that passeth all understanding in this moment, this beautiful moment…

deepest bows to my beloved contemplative partner whose steadfast devocean brings us to this moment, to Richard Rudd, receiver and transmitter of The Seven Sacred Seals and to all beings populating the one cosmic sea of love energy…

thanks  for pausing in this beautiful moment on our endless voyage deeper and deeper along the pathless path into the great unknown to honor our sacred pilgrimage of coming home to the heart in a moment so momentous as the whole planet goes through the great unraveling and turning, the cosmic dark night and rebirth when we are all called to listen for our soulsong and commit to being here as fully and openheartedly as we can…

in honor of this moment, i want to close with the 21st century bodhisattva vow, the eco-sattva vow with thanks to the ecosattva, Joanna Macy…

“i vow to:

commit daily to the healing of our world and the welfare of all beings

live on earth more lightly and less violently in the food products and energy i use

draw strength and guidance from the earth, ancestors, future generations and my brothers and sisters of all species

support others in our work in the world and ask for help when needed

to pursue a daily practice that clarifies my mind, strengthens my heart and supports me in observing these vows“

thousand fold thanks for joining in this daily practice of clean-sing, polishing the mirror of our one heart, yes, we are all involved for we all live in the same field, we are family, communitas, sangha of the one heart of boundless love all breathed into life by the same spirit… deep, deep bows as we meet each moment more and more openheartedly…

“where there is no vision, the people perish…”

proverbs 29:18

welcome, wee come to the mother of all new moons, hear cancer whispering to great mother ocean… it is the moment for rebirth, for new beginnings, for a vastly expanded vision with a deeper and fuller connection of our soul’s desires, for finding our true home – our one heart and opening wider and wider in strength and courage and trust to face and embrace what is with love and wisdom and compassion transmuting the base ingredients into into a harmonious symphony of the sea riding the waves of pure delight and like the new moon rising, we seed the cosmic field with light…

i love this seventh moonth of this turn around the sun and how synchronistic that the cancer new moon is exact in my hood at 7:51 and that this moon is in Cancer at 7 degrees and 23 minutes with both sets of numbers illuminating my birth date – holy synchronicity! in honor of this new moon and its call for self- nurturance and being guided by our one cosmic heart, i share a poem of my deepest desire and values:

A Community of the Spirit

“There is a community of the spirit.
Join it, and feel the delight
of walking in the noisy street
and being the noise.
Drink all your passion,
and be a disgrace.
Close both eyes
to see with the other eye.
Open your hands,
if you want to be held.
Sit down in the circle.
Quit acting like a wolf, and feel
the shepherd’s love filling you.
At night, your beloved wanders.
Don’t accept consolations.
Close your mouth against food.
Taste the lover’s mouth in yours.
You moan, “She left me.” “He left me.”
Twenty more will come.
Be empty of worrying.
Think of who created thought!
Why do you stay in prison
when the door is so wide open?
Move outside the tangle of fear-thinking.
Live in silence.
Flow down and down in always
widening rings of being.”
~Rumi~  

let it be, let it be, let it be… deep bows, beloveds and wild woman moon, for magnetizing us home to om to listen, listen, listen to our heartsong of great mystery…

“I live my life in widening circles
that reach out across the world.
I may not ever complete the last one,
but I give myself to it.

I circle around God, that primordial tower.
I have been circling for thousands of years,
and I still don’t know: am I a falcon,
a storm, or a great song?”

~ Rainer Maria Rilke ~

~

i circle around, i circle around, the boundaries of the earth…

i have loved Berry’s and Rilke’s poems and this chant for so many moons, the feeling of expansiveness and liberation… for so many moments of eternity while deepening in stillness, i’ve also been deepening my practice of the three tenets of  the Order of Zen Peacemakers – not knowing, bearing witness, and taking action and this poem sings these tenets inspiring moving into them on a day when impermanence is rocking my everyday world reheartening me to take  action by meeting each moment of eternity as a friend in ever-widening circles of wonder…

may every moment of our (w)hol(l)y meandering unfold in harmony as circle gathering space for nomads of the heart awakening to and singing the illumination we be…

in this moment of eternity of celebrating the astonishing light of our being and on the next to the last day of the sixth moon of this turn around the sun, here is a painted pony image of this pivotal moon of navigating the journey… how do we navigate? when i tune into the wisdom of this painted pony so lovingly crafted by one of my favorite poetic peace pilgrim artists and am transported to a historic lighthouse on the outer banks of the tarheel state, the message is simple and clear… stand still in your radiance and shine; in silence, listen to the whispers of the heart and follow with your whole heart and an unwavering YES! we must re-member that we the people are the power and when we align our power with the spirit of ultimate reality, we are unstoppable…

“There was a startling recognition that the nature of the universe was not as I had been taught… I not only saw the connectedness, I felt it.… I was overwhelmed with the sensation of physically and mentally extending out into the cosmos. I realized that this was a biological response of my brain attempting to reorganize and give meaning to information about the wonderful and awesome processes that I was privileged to view.”

in the quotation above, astronaut Edgar Mitchell shares an epiphany from outer space travel, a shift in consciousness that has been called the overview effect, a shift that all our relatives are being called to adopt… after many days/moons/turns around the sun of inner space exploration, the overview effect has been living me for several turns around the sun and like Mitchell and thousands of others, i sit perched in a nest high in the heavens and deep in the buoyant sea with telescopic vision empowering a 360 degree view of the cosmic web in that field out beyond right and wrong doing which mightily informs my living lucidly here on earth… thank you for walking along the rainbow trail of spirit with me transforming homo sapiens to homo luminous standing in solidarity in the astonishing light of our true being, our true nature…

awaken today in the field of the dream weave… i have moved to somewhere unknown where there is much exploring called for… i love the energy of this space and being reunited with people living in another realm and that this pilgrimage is so flowing and so effortless…

what an auspicious dream for this 22nd moonth anniversary of my most recent rising from the deeps, from the dead, from the tidal pool where crabs reside right in the midst of mutation… further, when first i reread the dream that i had a year ago, it was amazing to think that in six months from the dream’s emergence, i would be living in a new unknown place when i didn’t even know i’d be moving… still under the effect of so much turbulence, i reflect on how “and still i rise” is very apropos as a theme song for moi personally and all of us collectively… may we all, all our relatives, dive deep and soar high finding the courage and the strength to meet the challenges of our time in a way that supports and sustains our living in harmony, a cosmos of flourishing…

i intend on listening to the injunctions of this moon to be pulled by and dance in rhythm with the soul song singing me ever more deeply into the remaining years of a new decade and new seven year cycle, to release what no longer serves so as to live more and more deeply and expansively in the kingdom of joy being loving presence; yes, i’m always up and down for being infused with WILDness (Wonder, Imagination, Liberation and Devotion)…

may this moment of eternity be a celebration of diving deeply in the ocean of devotion, of delighting in being breathed in and out like the oscillating waves of the deep blue sea… a day of thanksgiving, of bubbling joy, a day of reverence, of being in the moment… a day of deep peace in whatever is, a day of embracing love and harmony… a day of walking lightly upon the earth, a day of being filled with a zany mirth… a day of tiptoeing between the veils, of feeling the tides lifting all sails… a day of facing into the uncomfortable and unjust, unbalanced filled with spirit of courage to stand in right action, a day of trusting our one heart to carry us home…

“To pray you open your whole self
To sky, to earth, to sun, to moon
To one whole voice that is you.
And know there is more
That you can’t see, can’t hear;
Can’t know except in moments
Steadily growing, and in languages
That aren’t always sound but other
Circles of motion.
Like eagle that Sunday morning
Over Salt River. Circled in blue sky
In wind, swept our hearts clean
With sacred wings.
We see you, see ourselves and know
That we must take the utmost care
And kindness in all things.
Breathe in, knowing we are made of
All this, and breathe, knowing
We are truly blessed because we
Were born, and die soon within a
True circle of motion,
Like eagle rounding out the morning
Inside us.
We pray that it will be done
In beauty.
In beauty.”

~ Joy Harjo ~

i arise today and soon was hearing that this was a dark day in the life of the United States, a day we knew was coming but still a shock to the nervous system personally and collectively when the Supremes’ overturning of Roe v Wade became the law of the land… some of us are celebrating today but more of us are outraged to have freedom of choice overturned real-eye-sing the implications of this decision are about much more than abortion…

the next thing that comes to me is that today is the 480th birthday of St John of the Cross, patron saint of contemplatives, mystics and poets… centuries ahead of the modern discovery of the unconscious, st john spoke of darkness, inner journeys, and the shadow self… his genius, his gift for the good of the whole was in living and speaking about the imperative of transformation of embracing the dark night of the soul and holding steadfast trusting in benevolent great mystery to lovingly bring forth the light… it seems such a synchronicity, such a meaningful coincidence, such a sign from the implicate order to re- member the father of the dark night and here is that signature poem of his:

I.

In a dark night,
With anxious love inflamed,
O, happy lot!
Forth unobserved I went,
My house being now at rest.

II.

In darkness and in safety,
By the secret ladder, disguised,
O, happy lot!
In darkness and concealment,
My house being now at rest.

III.

In that happy night,
In secret, seen of none,
Seeing nought myself,
Without other light or guide
Save that which in my heart was burning.

IV.

That light guided me
More surely than the noonday sun
To the place where He was waiting for me,
Whom I knew well,
And where none appeared.

V.

O, guiding night;
O, night more lovely than the dawn;
O, night that hast united
The lover with His beloved,
And changed her into her love.

VI.

On my flowery bosom,
Kept whole for Him alone,
There He reposed and slept;
And I cherished Him, and the waving
Of the cedars fanned Him.

VII.

As His hair floated in the breeze
That from the turret blew,
He struck me on the neck
With His gentle hand,
And all sensation left me.

VIII.

I continued in oblivion lost,
My head was resting on my love;
Lost to all things and myself,
And, amid the lilies forgotten,
Threw all my cares away.

this poem boils down the spiritual journey into 40 lines, a journey where for many years st john spent in darkness, in the cloud of unknowing with only his trust in a loving universe to sustain him… may all who see freedom of choice with our body temple as a human right continue to stand in solidarity, in direct action day after day and week after week to voice the will of the people to live free according to the imperative of right action… and, may we all re-member that when all seems lost, new life is right around the corner…