Author: Jo Beall

Poetic PEACE Pilgrimage – Year 5 – Day 69 – 2/23/2018

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The Tao that can be spoken is not the eternal Tao
The name that can be named is not the eternal name
The nameless is the origin of Heaven and Earth
The named is the mother of myriad things

Thus, constantly free of desire
One observes its wonders
Constantly filled with desire
One observes its manifestations

These two emerge together but differ in name
The unity is said to be the mystery
Mystery of mysteries, the door to all wonders

~ Lao Tzu ~

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it is said it takes three days for the body to settle when on retreat, for the rainmaker, the rainbowmaker  to come into harmony, for the re-joy-sing…

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rise up singing kissed by sun

river dancing always dreaming magic to come

gliding over stones, nothing impedes the flow

wind whispers softly to lean in and let all go

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river dancing always dreaming magic to come

earth giving thanks tuning into celestial hum

wind whispers softly to lean in and let all go

light shines brilliantly plugged into cosmic glow

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earth giving thanks tuning into celestial hum

for the beautiful field of love that we have become

light shines brilliantly plugged into cosmic glow

trusting in the rhythm of eternal ebb and flow

~

rise up singing kissed by sun

river dancing always dreaming magic to come

trusting the rhythm of eternal ebb and flow…

Poetic PEACE Pilgrimage – Year 5 – Day 68 – 2/22/2018

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on this day of the 22nd, a day vibrating at the frequency of grace, i turn to the familiar tale of hamsa or humso, beautiful swan embodying grace while chanting so hum, i am that… light and love…

once upon a time, little swan was resting in a pool in dreamtime… she looked up and saw a swirling black hole, the biggest one ever… in that moment, dragonfly appeared in the sky and swan inquired about the black hole to which dragonfly told her it is the doorway to the great beyond and to enter you must ask permission and earn the right…

little swan wasn’t sure she wanted to enter the black hole so she asked dragonfly what’s necessary to cross the portal and dragonfly told her she must accept whatever comes just as it is presenced without editing one iota of great spirit’s design…

little swan looked down at her ugly duckling body and replied that she’d graciously accept great spirit’s design and would not resist the currents of the black hole… she affirmed she would surrender to divine flow trusting in the present moment… her answer pleased dragonfly who began to spin a spell of magic engulfing little swan in a whirpool in the center of the pond…

when swan reappeared days later, she was transformed into a beautiful being of grace… dragonfly was shocked and wanted to know what had happened to which swan replied that she learned how to surrender to the power of great mystery, to surrender to the grace of the rhythm of the universe…

may we all let go and undam flow…

Poetic PEACE Pilgrimage – Year 5 – Day 67 – 2/21/2018

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Happy 60th Birthday, Peace Symbol!

 “Children of today easily identify it. They may not know its original meaning, but they know it stands for good things – be nice to friends, be kind to animals, no fighting. This is a marvelous achievement for Gerald Holtom’s simple design. Peoples around the world have marched with it, worn it, displayed it during combat, held it high on banners, and been arrested in its name. Ask any man, woman or child, ‘What one thing would everyone in the world want more than anything else?’ The answer would surely be world peace.’”

Ken Kolsbun, Peace: The Biography of a Symbol

on this day of walking into the unknown through a field of  impermanence, a day when peace is so called for, it is a beautiful synchrony that it’s the re-birthday of peace…

Gerald Holtom, an artist and conscientious objector, created the Peace Symbol on February 21,1958. According to Christopher Driver, author of The Disarmers: A Study in Protest, Holtom created the design and then brought it to an organizer of a local British peace group. After several revisions, it was unveiled publicly on Good Friday of that year, by anti-nuclear demonstrators — the British Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND) — who marched 50 miles from London’s Trafalgar Square to the weapons factory at Aldermaston. It was the first Ban-the-Bomb March.

When Gerald Holtom, a British designer and former World War II conscientious objector, sat down at his drawing board fifty-nine years ago, he was in almost total despair. He later told the editor of Peace News: ‘I was in despair. Deep despair. I drew myself: the representative of an individual in despair, with hands palm outstretched outwards and downwards in the manner of Goya’s peasant before the firing squad. I formalized the drawing into a line and put a circle round it symbolizing Earth.”

Welcome “International Peace Symbol Day.”  May we continue hoisting peace proudly everywhere weaving the remedy for despair…  Peace Out!

Poetic PEACE Pilgrimage – Year 5 – Day 66 – 2/20/2018

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i have arrived, i am home in the eternal now, this present moment…

 to live simply and wholeheartedly in a willow tree who offers her branches freely as resting space for great mystery to breathe us sacredly…

here, in this home of flow, this openhearted place of welcome, perch and listen for the hum, vibrational tune of whispering wind, spirit waves of spiraling notes… singing of love and devotion across the many splendored vast wild ocean of ever changing being… always different, always the same…

in this place of deep repose, i hear waters falling home, singing of a secret joy deep within, always present in the moment, listen to source and tune within to the music of the spheres, haunting melody animating all, cosmic harmony ringing out a call…

in this moment, our one heart’s a tree providing belonging space for you and for me to sing our soul song of mystery… many voices, one frequency… multiversed universiddhi…  shanti, shanti, shantihi…

Poetic PEACE Pilgrimage – Year 5 – Day 65 – 2/19/2018

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THE INNER IS FOUNDATION OF THE OUTER
THE STILL IS MASTER OF THE RESTLESS
THE SAGE TRAVELS ALL DAY
YET NEVER LEAVES HIS INNER TREASURE.

~Lao Tzu ~

i dream of being with a sound healer who attunes us to the frequency of grace naming the truth that suffering is grace, suffering takes us right into grace where our heart breaks wide open overflowing with lovingkindness and compassion…

on awakening, i prepare to embark upon an adventure to a shore i cannot see, a shore vibrating at the frequency of grace, calling me into the field of lovingkindness…

as i go on re-treat, i’ll carry you with me and we’ll…

embrace feeling the love, the gratitude, the acknowledgement that is being showered upon us by all those who have had a connection, a contact, a friendship, an interaction or relationship with us in any way at any time… we’ll embrace acknowledging every kind deed and action
we have ever offered to anyone, quietly,
from the kindness and compassion of our heart…we’ll remember all the times we’ve laughed, giggled, chuckled, smiled and shared a precious moment with another…

we’ll honor each and every time we enriched someone’s life by our conscious actions, examples, commitments,
dedication and big love…

we’ll gather every precious memory of our most unique life and fill ourselves with gratitude and joy for all we’ve experienced…

we’ll realeyes we are seen and appreciated as the magnificent beings we are, making a difference in this world… we are special persons
who touch the lives of others and they are made better by our lovingkindness, gracefilled, compassionate presence…
deep bows…

Poetic PEACE Pilgrimage – Year 5 – Day 64 – 2/18/2018

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Mockingbirds don’t do one thing but make music for us to enjoy… they don’t do one thing but sing their hearts out for us….

~ Harper Lee ~

for this segment of showing the astonishing light of being, i turn to the mockingbird, astonishing light being of joyful song… two years ago on this very date, i learned of the unexpected death of the mockingbird whisperer, Nellie Harper Lee; today, let us offer metta, lovingkindness for all mockingbird whisperers singing us home…

may we all feel the pure innocence and love of  mockingbird in this moment and live as simply and wholeheartedly as freespirit, as mockingbird…

 in this moment, we are mockingbird re-joy-singer visiting the divine inner child, the wise one who knows she’s here to sing, to sing her soul song of joy in a field of peace seeded with justice and guided by love…

thousandfold thanks for our being this deepening re-joy-sing journey of coming home to our one cosmic heart…

namaste

Poetic PEACE Pilgrimage – Year 5 – Day 63 – 2/17/2018

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many moons ago, i posted this quotation which shares the heart of a way of being as we saunter along the poetic peace pilgrimage by way of the caravan of re-joy-sing,,,  a friend and talented artista had the perfect setting for it and  it is the perfect image for when we travel to  sacred spaces where inner hurricanes blow through the soulscape…

we’ve all been through these moments of pain and suffering which are as much a part of the fabic of our lives as ease and ecstasy… i’ve been through enough of these critical junctures to have learned a thing or two about getting through gracefully by befriending, and inviting the bird’s song of  lovingkindness…

so, today, let us settle into this space and be curious about this gift wrapped seemingly so unattractively… as we sit with it and begin to unwrap it, we notice light is beginning to shine through… yes, as we release the pain and  deadness, hope springs alive for the re-weaving of the web of creation….

Hurricane

It didn’t behave
like anything you had
ever imagined. The wind
tore at the trees, the rain
fell for days slant and hard.
The back of the hand
to everything. I watched
the trees bow and their leaves fall
and crawl back into the earth.
As though, that was that.
This was one hurricane
I lived through, the other one
was of a different sort, and
lasted longer. Then
I felt my own leaves giving up and
falling. The back of the hand to
everything. But listen now to what happened
to the actual trees;
toward the end of that summer they
pushed new leaves from their stubbed limbs.
It was the wrong season, yes,
but they couldn’t stop. They
looked like telephone poles and didn’t
care. And after the leaves came
blossoms. For some things
there are no wrong seasons.
Which is what I dream of for me.

~ Mary Oliver ~

blessings…

Poetic PEACE Pilgrimage – Year 5 – Day 62 – 2/16/2018

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Happy Losar!

i love celebrating this buddhist festival of the new year and i love that this is the year of the earth dog or wolf so we will be blessed with much needed grounding energy and wisdom teachings from our faithful companions who are loyal to a fault and gods and goddesses of unconditional love and compassion…

new year’s is an auspicious moment to imagine the world anew, a world of peace, home of the pure at heart…

It has no membership, save those who know they belong.

It has no rivals because it is non competitive.

It has no ambition – it seeks only to serve.

It knows no boundaries, for nationalisms are unloving.

It is not of itself because it seeks to enrich all groups and religions.

It acknowledges all great teachers of all the ages who have shown the truth of love.

Those who participate, practice the truth of love in all their being.

There is no walk of life or nationality that is a barrier.

Those who are, know.

It seeks not to teach, but to be, and by being, enriched.

It recognizes that the way we are may be the way of those around us because we are that way.

It recognizes the whole planet as a being of which we are a part.

It recognizes that the time has come for the supreme transmutation, the ultimate alchemical act of conscious change of the ego in to a voluntary return to the whole.

It does not proclaim itself with a loud voice, but in the subtle realms of loving.

It salutes all those in the past who have blazoned the path, but have paid the price.

It admits no hierarchy or structure, for no one is greater than another.

Its members shall know each other by their deeds and being, and by their eyes and by no other outward sign, save the fraternal embrace.

Each one will dedicate their life to the silent loving of their neighbour and environment, and the planet, will carry out their task, however exalted or humble.

It recognizes the supremacy of the great idea, which may only be accomplished if the human race practices the supremacy of love.

It has no reward to offer, either here or in the hereafter, save that of the ineffable joy of being and loving.

Each shall seek to advance the cause of understanding, doing good by stealth and teaching only by example.

They shall heal their neighbour, their community, our planet and living beings in whatever form they take.

They shall know no fear and feel no shame and their witness shall prevail over all odds.

It has no secret, no arcanum, no initiation, save that of true understanding of the power of love and that, if we want it to be so, the world will change, but only if we change.

All who belong, belong; they belong to the Church of Love. ~The Cathar Creed~

may we all be transported to this pure land of being by naming, chanting and being

filled with loving kindness

well

peaceful and at ease

and happy…

may we be filled with lovingkindness

may we be well

may we be peaceful and at ease

may we be happy…

Poetic PEACE Pilgrimage – Year 5 – Day 61 – 2/15/2018

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IN THE DARK TIMES WILL THERE ALSO BE SINGING? YES, THERE WILL ALSO BE SINGING. ABOUT THE DARK TIMES.
– BERTOLDT BRECHT –

a song for this dark day as we re-member the lives tragically cut short…

The Sound of Silence

Hello darkness, my old friend
I’ve come to talk with you again
Because a vision softly creeping
Left its seeds while I was sleeping
And the vision that was planted in my brain
Still remains
Within the sound of silence
In restless dreams I walked alone
Narrow streets of cobblestone
‘Neath the halo of a street lamp
I turned my collar to the cold and damp
When my eyes were stabbed by the flash of a neon light
That split the night
And touched the sound of silence
And in the naked light I saw
Ten thousand people, maybe more
People talking without speaking
People hearing without listening
People writing songs that voices never share
And no one dared
Disturb the sound of silence
Fools, said I, you do not know
Silence like a cancer grows
Hear my words that I might teach you
Take my arms that I might reach you
But my words, like silent raindrops fell
And echoed in the wells of silence
And the people bowed and prayed
To the neon god they made
And the sign flashed out its warning
In the words that it was forming
And the sign said, the words of the prophets are written on the subway walls
And tenement halls
And whispered in the sounds of silence
~Paul Simon~
under this dark moon, may we plant fields filled with loving kindness…

Poetic PEACE Pilgrimage – Year 5 – Day 60 – 2/14/2018

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Dedicated to St Valentine, Patron Saint of Pilgrims

every moment is valentine’s, a celebration of love… every pilgrimage is journeying along the path with heart… every pilgrim is a poet on a journey deeper into the heart, a saunterer – a holy lander, spiraling ever more profoundly into the ground of being where…

every breath is a naming prayer

every step a walking meditation

bringing us home to our one cosmic heart, an ocean of devotion

~

dreams often inspire a flow of contemplation which inspire words and deeds… i’m in a classroom sharing with the openhearted children of the earth, sharing a heart mudra to the tune of “this little light of mine…” where you join your thumbs together for the base of the heart temple and your index fingers together for the spire which you place on your third eye to open the flow of divine light to shine through the heart as lovingkindness and compassion and then you move your hands, the heart temple of light, down to the belly, the center of being, the stillpoint, the watery womb of creation and with this movement, this simple action, our inner light, the eternal flame flows soundlessly throughout the all that is in ever widening waves, one with the tides of interbeing, the sheltering arms of the tree of life…

~

as we meet this moment fully, we are loving kindness and compassion, joy dancing in swirling and whirling circles of peace passing all understanding, one with divine flow…

~

may we be filled with loving kindness

may we be well

may we be peaceful and at ease

may we be happy

~