the first One (for Kir)

for dear Kir...

the first One

(in this Realm)

who saw me

as i am

(not as i

pretended to be)

and met me

where i am

(not as i

intended to be)

and Loved me

simply for being

Who i am

and has reminded

me each day

Whose i am

and has encouraged

me even more

to be Myself

and has expanded

my senses to 

lower my defenses

and has extended

this empowering Love

to each Creature

in all Creation

that she encounters

with brilliant Beauty

and radiant Grace

and faithful Fascination

recognizing with celebration 

the innate Belovedness

in each Face

embracing each stranger

as cherished Friend

and believing in

them (and their

Creator) as naturally 

as breathing with

Joy beyond conceiving

in unmistakable laughter

that seemingly appears

from the Hereafter

in resounding Waves

from Cosmic shores

yet as intimate

as a whisper

in the ear

from the dear

One we've adored

for sixty years

(and many more)...

Thanks.

#160WordsFor60Years #HappyBirthdayDearKir #StillLaughingAndSmilingAndRadiantlyShiningAfterAllTheseYears #HeresToManyMoreForTheOneThatWeAdore

Love Is

traveling with hurting Beloveds

until their journey ends

endeavoring to see enemies

more courageously as friends

engaging the unbearable ones

and staying present persistently

acknowledging the forgotten ones

and uplifting them consistently 

plunging into the voids

that we avoid religiously

facing all the fears

that we deny prodigiously 

embracing our diversity as 

who We are indigenously

more than beautiful roses

and romantic poses

and unrealistic scenarios

our idealistic culture imposes

Love is sweet laboring

that surges and thunders

in torrential rushes 

of all emotions 

in perpetual motion

unearthing the pains

and Joys and Wonders

involved in birthing

a new Way

of Being

Love is diving 

into the darkness

supposedly submerging all 

signs of Hope

to discover and uncover

an emerging Light

setting it free

and letting it shine

as a Beacon enlightening 

a new Way

of Seeing

Love is releasing

our unceasing needs

to be needed

so that the seeds

of liberating mutuality

might take root

and grow up into

expressions of boundless Beauty

and endless Connection

and glorious Protection

for each other

and All Beloveds

to engage in

a new Way

of Living

for All

and Giving

to All

and Knowing

that All

in All

is All

We Are.

#HappyValentinesDay2025 #200WordsAttemptingToDescribeTheIndescribable #200HopesForHopeAndHealingForAllPeopleAndOurPlanet #ChristAndKaurAndCobainFTW

('The Hearts of Lovers' © Ivan Guaderrama)

60 Years On (and On...)

Some unmerited serendipities

awakening my sensibilities

to celebrate (semi)maturities

entering my Sixties...

Hilarities that free

my buried sense

of harried humour

to endure absurdity

Similarities that reveal

Drifts that avail

Shifts that unveil

Gifts that Heal

Originalities from Creations

Beloved to me

saturating my Being

with Inspiring Affirmations

Family and Friends

embodying Eternity by

showing me Love

that never ends...

#60WordsFor60Years #HeresToTheBigSixOhAndBeyond #YesEltonAndBernieIDoHaveAWishToBeLivingSixtyYearsOn #AndIStillLoveYourSongSingularAndPlural

(Lil' me, celebrating atypically, as usual... ;) )

the Surprising Arising

Can You hear

the Creation groaning

the Earth moaning

the Spirit loaning

Her endless empathies

to those victimized

by fear-based vanities

and greed-driven insanities

especially our Siblings

Sisters and Brothers

and our Force-full

and fragile Mother?

Can You see

the sparks flying

the flames skying

the Spirit sighing

with all Beloveds

leaving their treasures

and pleasures behind

grieving their losses

as Nature tosses

their precious memories

and trusted protectivities

into dusted infernalities?

Can You feel

the Winds whirring

the distinctions blurring

the Spirit stirring

in the Beloveds

risking all dangers

the First Responders

and Ordinary Heroes 

who Inspire us

to ponder all

we might offer

before we expire

channeling all Light

emanating from Mangers

and Transcendent Lovers

serving all Others

not as strangers

but as Neighbours?

Can We sense

amidst all that

is apparently demising

there is Something

formatively and transformatively

and transparently Surprising

that is Surging

and imminently Arising

urging Us to

sense the Spirit

empowering the Love

that towers above

and showers over

all fearful embers

and tearfully remembers

our needs for

Comfort and Hope

(especially as We

approach the end

of our rope)

and enables Us

to Be Creatively

the Beloved Community

we are Innately?

Maybe.......

Yes.

#200wordprayers #MindfulMondays #LosAngelesFires2025 #ItTakesAVillageAndTheVillageIsArisingAboveTheFlamesAndBeyondTheFears 

('The World is on Fire' © Clarion Alley)

Sighs and Cries (for LA)

in the relentless burning

may there be 

less restless churning

and perpetual pain

and more Transformational Rain

in the overwhelming whirling

may there be

less havoc swirling

with whipping winds

and more Whispering Wind

in the never-ending howling

may there be

a Hallowing Hush

a Restorative Rush

that ushers in Healing

with every gust

that aids destruction

may we Breathe

a Sigh for Protection 

for Beloved Creation(s)

a Cry for Peace

that storming

and warming

will desist

and cease...

Amen.

#80wordprayers #LosAngelesFires2025 #ComfortForAllWhoHaveLostAll #ProtectionForAllFirstRespondersCareProvidersGoodNeighbors #MayPeacePrevailOverTheHowlingWindsAndSwirlingFlames 
www.redcross.org/donate/

('Prayer for Rain and Healing' © JJ Brighton)

STOP (and slip into the Gaps)

Trying to will myself out of this 'brain fog' amidst continued bronchial congestion/fatigue, i attempted to write a 'poem' for New Year's. And i finished it....only to discover that i had written one for Epiphany in 2021 with the same title and essentially the same theme (with a lot of the same words/images). i chuckled at it...then almost chucked it...but instead adjusted the title and edited some of the imagery to post the poetical remains of the attempt yesterday as my way of describing 'wheezing' and 'wishing' my way into the new year. Not exactly the stuff of 'high inspiration'.

This discovery saddened me but didn't surprise me, since i've felt for quite some time that i've become an increasingly repetitive 'broken record' in my writing. But i'm also wondering if the illness (the 4th 'bug' i've had in the past 5 months, including my first case of COVID) is a manifestation of a deeper, underlying fatigue of feeling caught in a neverending cycle of crises & challenges in our world and my community and life in general (especially over the past 5 years or so). That sense of feeling stuck appears to be manifesting itself in my Body (in the form of a bug that renders me mostly listless) and my Psyche and Spirit (in the form of a general sense of mindless malaise). And it is heightened in the knowledge that so many more Beloveds are suffering so much extremely and viscerally than i am (which has only led me to continue staying focused on and connected with those Beloveds, to the detriment of my own health). And since the best (read: only) way for my Body to recover is by simply resting, i'm wondering if this illness is a way my Body is trying to communicate with my Psyche and Spirit as if to say it's time to stop writing/speaking/articulating/achieving my way out of this sense of distress and exhaustion, and start simply listening to the Silence in rest and reflection.

So, for once, i'm attempting to listen to my Body...and give It (and those increasingly repetitive words) a rest.

i'll still be working with Words (Living and spoken and written) as a part of my vocation (including an attempt to cobble some meaningful, less repetitive ones together for this Sunday). But my hope (maybe a 'resolution'?) for 2025 is that i would learn to follow an old Ouaker adage (at least i think it's from the Quaker tradition...feel free to chime in if i'm misguided on this)...namely, that in the midst of living life in as centered and healthy way as possible, i would write/speak only when and if it would 'improve upon the Silence'.

Here's to a 2025 where Wisdom and Inspiration emerges from that deepest, most essential and sacred Silence in ways that center our Spirits and still all the incessant white noise of oppression, injustice and violence. 

i appreciate ALL of you...your Infinite patience and persistent encouragement in friendship and kinship are precious and cherished Gifts in our world and my life...and i Love you all...b.

P.S...i'm also thankful that in the midst of a 'fog', sometimes a spark of piercing Light breaks through from ages past to bring some clarity and remind me of what is essential amidst all of the ephemeral and peripheral stuff that has seemed to keep me distracted and unable to center my Self and focus my attention. And this came to me in the form of these miraculously Wise words from the inimitable Annie Dillard...

“I was standing lost, sunk, my hands in my pockets, gazing toward Tinker Mountain and feeling the earth reel down. All at once, I saw what looked like a Martian spaceship whirling towards me in the air. It flashed borrowed light like a propeller. Its forward motion greatly outran its fall. As I watched, transfixed, it rose, just before it would have touched a thistle, and hovered pirouetting in one spot, then twirled on and finally came to rest. I found it in the grass; it was a maple key…Hullo. I threw it into the wind and it flew off again, bristling with animate purpose, not like a thing dropped or windblown, pushed by the witless winds of convection currents hauling round the world’s rondure where they must, but like a creature muscled and vigorous, or a creature spread thin to that other wind, the wind of the spirit that bloweth where it listeth, lighting, and raising up, and easing down. O maple key, I thought, I must confess I thought, O welcome, cheers!

And the bell under my ribs rang a true note, a flourish of blended horns, clarion, sweet, and making a long dim sense... Now when I sway to a fitful wind, alone and listing, I will think, maple key. When I see a photograph of earth from outer space, the planet so startlingly painterly and hung, I will think, maple key. When I shake your hand or meet your eyes, I will think two maple keys. If I am maple key falling, at least I can twirl.

Thomas Merton wrote, 'There is always a temptation to diddle around in the contemplative life, making itsy-bitsy statues.' There is always an enormous temptation in all of life to diddle around making itsy-bitsy friends and meals and journeys for itsy-bitsy years on end. It’s so self-conscious, so apparently moral, simple to step aside from the gaps where the creeks and winds pour down, saying, I never merited this grace, quite rightly, and then to sulk along the rest of your days on the edge of rage. I won’t have it. The world is wilder than that in all directions, more dangerous and bitter, more extravagant and bright. We are making hay when we should be making whoopee; we are raising tomatoes when we should be raising Cain, or Lazarus.

Ezekiel excoriates false prophets who have 'not gone up into the gaps.' The gaps are the thing. The gaps are the spirit’s one home, the altitudes and latitudes so dazzlingly spare and clean that the spirit can discover itself for the first time like a once blind man unbound. The gaps are the cliffs in the rock where you cower to see the back parts of God; they are the fissures between mountains and cells the wind lances through, the icy narrowing fjords splitting the cliffs of mystery. Go up into the gaps. If you can find them; they shift and vanish too. Stalk the gaps. Squeak into a gap in the soil, turn, and unlock - more than a maple - a universe. This is how you spend the afternoon, and tomorrow morning, and tomorrow afternoon. Spend the afternoon. You can’t take it with you.” (from 'Pilgrim at Tinker Creek')

(Sculpture © Albert György, on Lake Geneva, Switzerland)

the Way Ahead (New Year 2025)

Like the perpetual viruses

pervading our physical health

or the incessant infections

invading our communal Humanity

when we're feeling the

dead weight of dread

compounded by unbounded uncertainty

bearing down upon our

fragile sense of security

wearing down our increasingly

wobbly sense of sanity

it's hard to clearly

envision a Way Ahead

when the approaching weather

outside is frightful and 

inside is downright freezing

and the encroaching powers

are stealth and squeezing

and our collective Breathing

is gasping and wheezing

its way to exhaustion...

Yet within each

sigh of acquiescence

(from the Cosmos

or our Conscience) 

is subtle evidence

that the Wind

is Eternally Breezing

and within each

drop of condensation

(from the Skies

or our Eyes)

is tangible demonstration

that the Flow

is Perpetually Unceasing

and within each

flicker of illumination

(from the Stars

or our Scars)

is visible revelation

that the Light

is Determinedly Increasing...

So maybe

the Way

Ahead is

already revealing

its Self

to Us

and if

so then

the Way

to Be

more fully

set Free

from the

despair that

accosts and

exhausts Us

is to

Be Present

to what

Is innately

within Us

and right

before Us

knowing that

the Love

that made

Us is

with Us

and within

Us and

among Us

and always

for Us

and calls

Us to

reclaim Our

Divine Identity

and rejoin

that Hopeful 

Chorus that

proclaims Hallelujah

and We

Shall Overcome

Some Day

through each

way We

reach out

to each

Beloved One

in need

with Love

genuinely expressed

in deed

the Way

of Life

that came

to Us

as One

of Us

in Simplicity

and Humility

so that

It might

freely Flow

through Us...

Let It Be.

#280wordprayers #HappyNewYear2025 #LetUsBeAnEpiphanyOfSpiritPeaceHopeAndLove #PayAttentionToThePartOfMeAtTheCenterOfTheHeartOfMe

('Beloved Community' © Rupa Sanbui)