on this thirteenth day of Appreciation April, I’m so grateful to and for Don Juan and his teachings that first began inspiring me in the late ’60’s and continue to do so still to this moment… may we all follow our bliss, our path with heart… may we all be led deeper and deeper into our true nature radiating lovingkindness wherever we go…

on this thirteenth day of Appreciation April, I’m also and always so grateful to and for all our relations for sharing the journey, this magical mystery tour, the pilgrimage of life…

ps… i’m going to the hospital tomorrow for a drive thru surgery, a follow up om my eye to restore vision… it may be a little rough going in the beginning so if you don’t see me, know that i’m resting and being breathed into healing, transforming the ruptured eye into the rapturous organ of sight…  boundless love…

On this 4th night of Navaratri as we celebrate and honor Lakshmi, goddess of enlightenment, let’s call in Porcupine Goddess to share an ancient wisdom story…

long ago, in the coldest winter ever, many of our relations were dying… we of the porcupine council met and decided we’d nestle together to keep warm and stay alive… alas, we were warm but the quills of our neighbors were wounding us, so we decided to separate from each other to relieve the hurts of living in close quarters… although now we were protected from being wounded, we began to die one by one, alone and frozen cold… faced with our extinction or living as wounded porcupines, we chose wisely – deciding to return to being together… we learned to live with wounds caused by being in close relationship to receive the greater benefit of the warmth that comes from others. this way, we were able to not only survive but also to thrive.

may we be as wise as our porcupine relations in realizing interdependence, the way of the heart, is the way…

a day of celebration of restoration, a day of walking a path of redemption as once again we make a Confluence Pilgrimage to the confluence of the rivers, Sandy and Columbia where back in 1805 when Lewis and Clark had visited they were unable to sleep due to the air filled with bird song… this lush habitation spot changed dramatically over the years with industrialization and the damming of the rivers…

with the undamming of the Sandy some 8 years ago and a confluence of so many, both collectively and individually, the Sandy River Delta, gateway to the stunningly beautiful Columbia River Gorge, is coming back to lush life…

as we wend our way down the gently curving path toward the confluence of the rivers, we sense we are being magnetically pulled to a sacred space of threshold, a portal into presence where past and future melt into present… we re-member… present moment, only moment… always being love… always becoming love… breathing in and breathing out…

fear knocks on my door today, i welcome this guest and begin to pray

please grant me the courage, the heart to be hospitable

come, holy spirit., come, help me to stay

in  a space of feeling vulnerable

thousandfold thanks for answering my plea

with golden divine light embracing and cradling me

empowering the gift of seeing light in life’s darkest moments

coming home to graceland, courageous new world bathed in iridescence

~

a day of re-membering, moment after moment of connecting the dots… walking through the woods alone as a child and reciting the 23rd Psalm to encourage taking one more step and one more step… being inspired as a child by the shepherdess, Joan of Arc, a maiden of valor who surrendered her all to the call to be true… today i follow her lead whilst listening deeply to ancestors’ whispers… empty, surrender, purify, re-member, imagine, trust…  a day of dancing divinely on the rainbow trail…

walking a path of devotion asks us to be present in every moment trusting that all is divinely woven together seamlessly and calls us to surrender to or merge with  the divine web of life which is both rooted in the river below the river and winging it across the sky above in free flight… showing up wholeheartedly is a smile plastered on your face, is the sun lighting up the world, is a wave rushing home to shore, is the wind whispering through the trees and you chanting a litany of thank you, thank you, thank you…

loving this poetic road today, literally walking a path with hearts pointing the way… as my sole descends deeper and deeper into earth relaxing into her embrace, my soul merges into beloved… dancing heart to heart in rhythm with our one heartbeat… surrendering to love…

“All paths are the same: they lead nowhere. … Does this path have a heart? If it does, the path is good; if it doesn’t, it is of no use. Both paths lead nowhere; but one has a heart, the other doesn’t. One makes for a joyful journey; as long as you follow it, you are one with it. The other will make you curse your life. One makes you strong; the other weakens you.”
― Carlos Castaneda, The Teachings of Don Juan: A Yaqui Way of Knowledge

so many celebrations today on the path with heart… sunshine, waning moon, communion with friends, weaving dreams, being still, listening deeply, radiating love…