Connection

Inspiration and the Sacred

Where does inspiration come from?
It can be a fleeting idea,
A word or phrase that lights me up
And I want to become the explorer
of my own inner terrain.

[The Sacred]
It happens in solitude
And when I’m out in nature.
I feel most connected to
The wisdom of my heart.

Beauty always surrounds me,
Even in the mundane and hard times.
I just have to be willing
And open to see it.

When I connect to my heart and breath,
I feel I am taking an active role in my life.
I’m not getting carried away by the rushing tide
of emotions and circumstance.

In that moment, the magic happens.
I no longer have to struggle.
I can literally go with the flow.

Again, I return to the explorer within,
Who recognizes the difficulty in truly letting go
With surrender and vulnerability.

There is peace and ultimate freedom
To find creative solutions,
To take a beat before I react,
And to connect to my inner wisdom.

How does inspiration and the sacred come to you?



Connection

Seeds

The doorway opens.
Heartbeat to heartbeat
Seeds clutched in my hand
Waiting to be sowed
Not knowing what lies ahead.

Seeds are like ideas and words.
Some have a way of 
Flowing into the heart and mind.
Germinating into core beliefs,
A shared memory or story.
Where it originated
Sometimes a mystery.

Seeds can root into an entire story
whose words and thoughts
can empower and create growth.
Some stories have to be
Pruned back to allow in more light
And space for new growth to take shape,
To embody and take root.

It all starts with a little seed.
A seed in my heart
that germinates into thought,
Speech and the written word.
Those fruits can then be passed
From me to you.
An offering from the heart.

Connection

The Spring Crocus

The wild darling on the cusp of spring
The crocus has found its way to the surface
Having traveled over and over
In the same track as its predecessors.

The cold earth has found a softness,
An opening.
And the lush green breathes into me.
The fragileness of new life.

The sun breathes out energy.
The seedlings desperately alchemize
And rapidly transforms.

Their ripe green petals mimicking grass
Kiss and pepper the earth.
I marvel at the emerald blades
That try to camouflage into the lawn.

They are hardy and make the perennial trip.
They wake me from my winter slumber
And remind me, even in the bitter harshness
of cold and darkness,
This too shall pass.

And my heart leaps to join the beauty,
To wear green and lie in the grass
Warm to the touch from the golden sun.

I touch the delicate petals
And thank them for this yearly gentle reminder.
A smile forms on my face.

The mourning doves have returned this year.
I wonder if the young couple will find 
a more hardier, sturdier nesting place.

Nature is the greatest teacher.

Connection

I open the window of my heart

I accept the ever changing season.
The pendulum swings
From extreme heat to bitter cold.

I accept that among the cosmos 
The entire planet is smaller than
The dot in the letter i

I matter.  I belong here.
I walk the earth gently.
I smile upon those I greet
On this shared path.

I accept that this moment
is fleeting.
It always is.
And then the next.

I allow myself to fully accept
that which is out of my control.
I cannot make the icy wind chill go away
Nor stop the tide from crashing onto the shore.

And since the earth is but a dot,
My comings and goings hardly go noticed
And I accept that too.

My very existence means the world
To my family and friends
And that I do not take for granted.

When I feel surrounded by love
For myself and others
I open the window of my heart
And let love in.

Inspired by:
“Close your eyes and open the window of your heart.
Only when you have no more need for acceptance
will everything you do be accepted.” RUMI
self-care

Why are we here?

Why are we here at this moment in time on this small blue green planet?

They say we too are made up of the stars down to the smallest molecule. It can feel so small when the universe is so vast. How can I affect change as such?

What I know is my life has meaning. The answer is always connection. The root is love. So how did I live the answer? I must have lived the question first.

What I didn’t know is I was being led by invisible forces, situations, people and opportunities which became my challenges, my lessons, my guides.

How to live a life well lived and loved is the question. It took me 40+ years to come to the realization and to accept even if the universe is so vast and my actions seem so small and individual, there is a ripple.

If I too am made up of the stars, I have a light inside. A unique heart like an emerald when the light hits it a certain way. I do not know who put it there or where does the light originate from. I can accept that it’s a part of me and we each have our own illuminated hearts beating in our chest. Not so narrow and individually separate. Our hearts can be in rhythm like the collective breath that illuminates the soul.

Connection

Heart Sky

When I am still and quiet my mind, 
I take a look up at the grand sky. 
If there are clouds they often take shape in my mind’s eye. 
There is a dragon with its pointed tail and craned long neck. 
There is a bird with wings that seem to engulf and span across the whole sky above me. 
I feel so little like I’m a worm in the earth about to be gobbled up as prey. 
Then I see sea creatures. 
Mermaids dancing with their magical tails as fish clamber around to find their own space. 

I breathe deep. I try to share what I see.

My favorite times are when my mind is busy and away with thoughts and then I catch just a glimpse of the sky and the cloud is shaped like a heart.

Finding hearts randomly around nature is my symbol. 
I’m always grateful of the reminder that I am love and loved 
whether it’s the cloud up above like a large heartbeat in the sky 
or the dried up and grayed gum on the sidewalk that shares a similar shape 
or the lotion just pumped onto my palm. 
And the heart makes me smile and pause for just a brief moment. That’s all it takes really.

Though the clouds and heart shapes may disappear, the image is contained in my mind and my heart. 
I am grateful. Alive. I am not so small. 
When I am present with the sky or the sidewalk, 
I am in awe and connected to the universal magic that is always surrounding us.
Heart Sky