on this day of sharing with you an image depicting the astonishing light of your being, i also want to offer, dear anam caras, soul friends, deep bows and overflowing thanks for your astonishing light that rekindles my own when the weight of the world becomes so heavy and then i feel your beating heart and re-member all is well… ~ now some words dedicated to all the astonishing lights shining across the cosmos…. ~ If If you can keep your head when all about you Are losing theirs and blaming it on you, If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you, But make allowance for their doubting too; If you can wait and not be tired by waiting, Or being lied about, don’t deal in lies, Or being hated, don’t give way to hating, And yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise:
If you can dream—and not make dreams your master; If you can think—and not make thoughts your aim; If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster And treat those two impostors just the same; If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools, Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken, And stoop and build ’em up with worn-out tools:
If you can make one heap of all your winnings And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss, And lose, and start again at your beginnings And never breathe a word about your loss; If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew To serve your turn long after they are gone, And so hold on when there is nothing in you Except the Will which says to them: ‘Hold on!’
If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue, Or walk with Kings—nor lose the common touch, If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you, If all men count with you, but none too much; If you can fill the unforgiving minute With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run, Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it… [and, you must be an anam cara or a dog or both…] ~ Rudyard Kipling ~ ( except for the last line in brackets ) ~ thank you for shining brightly
on this international day of tolerance, these prophetic words, written over six decades ago, give such hope today as we witness and listen the last dying gasps of the old paradigm, the system of extractive capitalism and patriarchy, while witnessing and participating in the emerging new world of beloved community, partnership society, a new paradigm of synarchy, of governing in concert, all of us coming together and standing in love for love… ~ may each shock to our collective and personal nervous systems, jumpstart our one heart into taking courage and right action in alignment with the will of the whole guided by our one true nature of peace… ~ today as we walk along the path of liberation, may we commit to the transforming spirit and love of peace, to making every breath a moment of peace built on justice and guided by love… ~ may we all live these words of the prayer of st francis… ~ make us instruments of your peace, where there is hatred, let us sow love; where there is injury, pardon; where there is doubt, faith; where there is despair, hope; where there is darkness, light; where there is sadness, joy; grant that we may not so much seek to be consoled as to console; to be understood as to understand; to be loved as to love. for it is in giving that we receive; it is in pardoning that we are pardoned; and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life. ~
Though we cannot see you with outward eyes, We know our soul’s gaze is upon your face, Smiling back at us from within everything… ~ John O’Donohue ~ ~ awakening today in the land of my birth, such a current of liberation flows as my daughter and i prepare for the celebration of my mother’s earthly life now transmuted into eternal life… ~ a dream of many moons ago foreshadows this moment… i am driving my mother across the long bridge over the sound connecting mainland to the island when suddenly a tsunami appears and we are in the black swirling water… knowing my mother isn’t a strong swimmer, i search and search for her in the water and finally surrender to i’ve done the best i could and in that moment am transported into paradise and in the next to our beach cottage where my daughter is… i know i must call my siblings to let them know our mother is lost at sea, a call i do not want to make but i must… my daughter stands behind me as I make the call and i hear a rustling and turn around and there’s my mother standing with my daughter!!!!! what an amazing grace that my mother survived and how interesting that she wears my nightgown and hair and smile… ~ yes, she lives on forever in our one heart…
yes, i’m flying across the sky in sync with my mother as she makes the deep seasky journey through the realms… ~ breathing infinite gratitude deeply through our one heart, may we all be safe. may we all be loved. may we all be held. may all be well. may we feel the support encircling us with a thousand angel wings. may we rest gracefully in the beauty of this moment… ~ “I offer you peace. I offer you love. I offer you friendship. I see your beauty. I hear your need. I feel your feelings. My wisdom flows from the highest Source. I salute that Source in you. Let us work together. For unity and peace.” ~ Mahatma Gandhi ~ ~
today is known as World Kindness Day, like you, i see every day as world kindness day and love chanting/being lovingkindness every moment… ~ “The first step toward living a happy life is to treat every other human with kindness. There are several steps after that, but I can’t remember right now.” ~ Dalai Lama ~ ~ here are several ways to celebrate, add your own, let’s make this an ongoing list in progress… ~ *throw lovingkindness and appreciation like confetti *pick up the tab for the person behind you in line *share with friends the things you love about them *deliver flowers to hospital patients *hand a passerby on the street a dollar *tell everyone you meet, thank you spreading an attitude of gratitude *donate a copy of your favorite book to a library *adopt a rescue animal *volunteer in a local shelter or foodbank *welcome every stranger *pray for peace *be gentle with yourself *listen intently to everyone *be a smile, a hug, balm this moment…
Deep peace of the running wave to you. Deep peace of the flowing air to you. Deep peace of the quiet earth to you. Deep peace of the shining stars to you. Deep peace of the gentle night to you. Moon and stars pour their healing light on you… ~ “Empty yourself of everything. Let the mind rest at peace. The ten thousand things rise and fall while the Self watches their return. They grow and flourish and then return to the Source. Returning to the Source is stillness, which is the way of Nature. The way of Nature is unchanging.” ~Lao Tsu, Tao Te Ching ~ today is re-markable… on this final day of the potent portal of samhain fight before the moon in taurus waxed fully, i heard a bell and answered the call hearing my mother had taken her final breath as i have for the past twenty-four days, i began singing light into the darkness… ~ may you be filled with loving kindness may you be well may you be peaceful and at ease may you be happy ~ over and over again this chant repeats providing safe passage between the worlds… ~ may all our relatives be filled with lovingkindness may we all be well may we be peaceful and at ease may we be happy… ~
Exactly at the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month, 101 years ago, people across Europe suddenly stopped shooting guns at each other. Up until that moment, they were killing and taking bullets, falling and screaming, moaning and dying. Then they stopped, on schedule. It wasn’t that they’d gotten tired or come to their senses. Both before and after 11 o’clock they were simply following orders. The Armistice agreement that ended World War I had set 11 o’clock as quitting time. Each year, for a lot of years, there was a remembrance on November 11th. The U.S. Congress called Armistice Day a holiday to “perpetuate peace through good will and mutual understanding between nations,” a day “dedicated to the cause of world peace.” When churches rang their bells at 11:00, that’s what they meant. And they meant it right up until the war on Korea, the one the North Koreans all still remember with shudders of horror. And then Congress turned Armistice Day into Veterans Day, and veterans into props for marketing more wars and a permanent state of war preparations. ~ David Swanson ~ ~ join with me on the 11th at 11 to chime bells 11 times commemorating the 101st anniversary of WWI’s end following that with a wave of three minutes of silence dedicated to all who died and to all who lived… and then, may we rise up singing and dancing peace… ~ “The weary world is waiting for Peace forevermore So take away the gun From every mother’s son And put an end to war.” ~Al Jolson~ ~ let there be peace on earth and let it begin with me and thee… ~ namaste
in addition to being the eve of 11/11 when we celebrate both the most potent day for manifesting dreams and the 101st Armistice Day, a day of celebrating peace worldwide when the first world war ceased, it is also the day of sharing an image of our astonishing lightness of being… thankfully, a dreamtime image emerges, an image that has appeared at potent moments throughout my life to whisper words of wisdom, to paint the vast sky in rainbow colors of harmony, a guide that has been teaching me since i was a child of two… according to pythia, psychedelic rainbow serpent living in the deep waters of the heart of gaia, the great secret of life is to be perfectly still, slowing down to a standstill perfectly poised in peace, breathing into the belly and out through the crown resting more deeply with every breath in the stillpoint of creation where there’s only the dance of rainbow mystery calling us to join in moving in the rhythm of peace prevailing on earth and thank you for letting it begin with me and thee until we are one wave encircling the cosmos breathing and being peace in every cell and thought, word and deed… yes! may we take this moment as the moon waxes full to fill ourselves with loving kindness and peace…
you have no cause for anything but gratitude and joy… ~ Buddha ~ ~ today, as i celebrate my maternal grandmother’s 131st birthday, i re-member year before last her birthday coincided in such lovely synchrony with the Tibetan Buddhist celebration of the holy day of Lhabab Duchen, a festival of re-joy-sing in all acts of kindness for on this day Buddha descended from heaven to liberate his Mother and repay her many acts of kindness… this year, we need to put a one in front of the nine to get the proper date but who’s counting… will you join me this moment in the caravan of re-joy-sing of my grandmother who was a scattergood and joy-ner by performing acts of compassion joyously and scattering all of the acts of kindness and goodness you bestow and all the acts that have been bestowed upon you… today is a day to throw kindness around like confetti because we always need it, especially the unkind who need it the most… so, yes, let us breathe in deeply through the stone people, our ancestors, right down through the deep heart of the earth coming home ready to choose love over power, compassion over fear and construction over destruction centered in our one true self, the self organizing intelligence of the ever expanding cosmos…
let there be peace on earth and let it begin with me and thee… we live in times of crisis… times of danger and opportunity, times calling us to summon the courage to take on the response ability of being peace, of exploring the hard places in our heart and softening, of being water washing over the rigid and melting it into healing flow… for so many moons, i, like you, have been calling in wise leadership being catalyzed within our collective soul with a song of justice and true power… Psalm 15 Lord, who can be trusted with power, and who may act in your place? Those with a passion for justice, who speak the truth from their hearts; who have let go of selfish interests and grown beyond their own lives; who see the wretched as their family and the poor as their flesh and blood. They alone are impartial and worthy of the people’s trust. Their compassion lights up the whole earth, and their kindness endures forever. (The Psalms, translations by Stephen Mitchell) may we contemplate and utter this song again and again, infusing the cosmos with a passion for justice overflowing our one heart with truth and compassion… all over the planet there’s so much suffering, all over the planet there’s so much love… yes, our work is cut out for us… to summon every bit of courage and stand in love for love again and again… in so being, we create a world of peace grounded in justice and guided by love… will you join me in this moment, in every moment in a smile (start my internal love engine) of peace and breathe in deeply the boundless love all around us… informing us every moment is a teacher with a healing gift of grace for love is the most powerful medicine, the most powerful energy of all… once we let peace begin with me, we can generously share this eternally renewable energy source with everyone and everything… may we be bridge-builders, menders of brokenness, tenders of beauty in wounded places… in order to be whole, to be peace, we must accept every cell as the beloved, yes each of the trillions and trillions of threads of the web of life… shanti shanti shantihi
