08 March 2024

(Super)Natural Nurturers

for all the Beloved Ones
who nurture Others
(with and without Mothers)
as Mothers or Others
by having courageously
and care-fully faced
and embraced their experiences
of absence and abandonment
and appalling lack 
of nurturing and mothering
allowing the atrocious pain
to create a Pathway
into a deeper Compassion
and more ferocious Strength
to weather the elements
around and within
that can paralyze us
in affliction and addiction
and provide protection
and engage empowerment
through perpetual perseverance
and fierce faithfulness
like Mama Bears
with their Babies
cuddling them with Kindness
challenging them with Mindfulness
enveloping them in their
radiant and maternal Glow
developing their innate
capacities and capabilities
enabling them to grow
more fully into Themselves
and take courageous steps
into the Eternal Flow
and to overcome
those fear-full barriers
that seek to keep
their true Selves trapped
in caves of shame
rather than ride
the Waves of Wholeness
with Wonder and Wisdom
resisting the temptation
to exist by perpetuating
the cycles of blame
by ceasing and desisting
and insisting that they
have a unique
and essential place
and role in this World
advocating for the Belovedness
of all amazing Others
by bravely and beautifully
living out their Own...

Thanks.

#200wordprayers #InternationalWomensDay2024 

('Rising' © Giovannina Colalillo)



25 February 2024

Endless

into a world
where Hope waxes
and wanes
and Kindness taxes
and strains
to be shown
and fear rages
and rants and raves
in relentless waves
you write letters
of Love
onto the pages
of our hearts and lives
with Patience and Purpose
Faithfulness and Mindfulness
Compassion and Care
in endless ways
that remind us
that We are
not friendless
but We are
seen and known
and even when
Life veers us
into a hidden
and unbidden unknown
we are never
truly alone
you are there
always showing up
to cheer us
and show us
that Love
always befriends us
and mends us
and we can
always depend
on Love
because Love
is Endless...

Thank you, dear Kir.

(*With every trip around the Sun, you shine more brightly and beautifully...thanks for being YOU, dear Kir...and here's to many more of those trips along the journey of Life in Endless Love...Happiest of Birthday MONTHS to you! i Love you, bri :)

#118WordPrayerPoemToCelebrateThatYouAreHalfOf118 #HeresToManyManyMore 

(Kir showing up for dear Ian at Special O swimming :D )



14 February 2024

Beloveds (59)

for all the Beloveds
who've seen me
in the shadows
and the Sunlight
and embraced me
in the shallows
and the Starlight
and Graced me
with acceptance
and forbearance
and carried me
even when shame
almost buried me
in desperate dependency 
and grieved with me
over painful losses
unbelievable and unbearable
and believed in me
when i couldn't
believe in my Self
(which is often
still the case)
and dreamed with me
on floating continents
in disparate timezones
of incandescent Beaches
and desired Realities
just beyond reaches
yet silently connected
by Eternal Hopes
and perpetual Possibilities
in Transcendent Infinities
the faithful Faces
of Divine Presence
emanating Traces
of Revelatory Resonance
inhabiting the Spaces
in my holey Heart
reserved for those 
who've been brave
enough to impart
their well-lived Wisdom
with fearless familiarity
and Holy Hilarity
and limitless Love
that they've shared
with me like
they've known me
from the start
and grown me
not merely in part
but more wholly 
into my true Self
a dusty
and Stardusty Sojourner 
a wounded
and Wondrous Wanderer
a bruised
and Beautiful Beloved...

Thanks.

#180wordprayers #ToBeLovedAndToLoveIsToSeeAndBeTheFaceOfTheDivine #LoveIsWhereDistanceIsClosenessAndAbsenceIsPresence #TheGreatestTreasuresAreRarelySeenButAlwaysFelt #59andFeelin(Mostly)Fine #HappyVaLENTinesDay #WeAreDust #WeAreStardust



08 February 2024

'old Friends'

'As hard as it is to believe that the dry desolate desert can yield endless varieties of flowers, it is equally hard to imagine that our loneliness is hiding unknown beauty. The movement from loneliness to solitude, however, is the beginning of any spiritual life because it is a movement from the restless senses to the restful Spirit, from the outward-reaching cravings to the inward-reaching search, from the fearful clinging to the fearless play.' (Henri Nouwen, Reaching Out)

i first read these words at a formative time in my life decades ago, and they resonated almost immediately and deeply within me. They were both a powerful description of what my innermost Spirit and Self already knew and what my mind and heart were desiring without having words to articulate it.

i came across them again this morning, and discovered that same underlying resonance, but in a more nuanced and multi-dimensional way. It's not like solitude grows something within us that's overwhelmingly amazing enough to overpower and eliminate loneliness. i've been learning over many years that perhaps it's more like living with depression.

You're never fully 'healed' or 'cured' of depression. But as you explore, acknowledge and embrace it more and more as a unique part of your journey and Self - as it gradually becomes integrated into your life - you have chances to discover hidden Gifts that it helps to uncover within you (like deeper empathy and the ability to sit with others in deep pain, for example). You still have times when you experience loneliness and the grief that often accompanies it (like i awakened with this morning). But as you learn to sit with it and allow it simply to be rather than denying it or running from it, you can slowly grow into the realization that this 'desert' of suffering within you contains seeds of comfort and Hope (some of which take root and grow into expressions of new Life in Love).

In other words, our sadness can actually be revealed as a source of our salvation.

Or like Nouwen said elsewhere (echoing the words of the ancient prophet Isaiah, and the life of the ancient rabbi Jesus), our wounds can become a source of healing for our Selves and others and our world.

Or as my Beloved favourite songwriter Bruce Cockburn once wrote (echoing another brilliant musical poet, Paul Simon)...

Sometimes the Road leads through dark places
Sometimes the darkness is your friend

So for all of us who've entered into this day with that familiar ache of disconnection and longing...may we be reminded that while 'the waiting is the hardest part' (thanks, TP), there are Gifts of Wonder that can emerge our of our waiting...including the astonishing Revelation that the Darkness we wish to flee might actually be one of the 'old Friends' we've looking and longing for all along.


#ThoughtfulThursdays #DesertRockFacesCanRevealSmilingJoyfulFaces #BarrennessCanUnveilBelovedness




06 February 2024

Exits as Entries

for the steps taken
into the Unknown
the dark corners
that don't trap Us
but Transform Us
the dim garages
that surprise Us
as subterranean Sources
of Sacred Sparks
that illuminate connections
and ignite passions
like heavenly headlights
and ecstatic engines
the distant barrages
of disparate situations
and stormy separations
attempting to deafen
the rolling Thunder
of blissful Breaths
and powerful Pulses
swirling like Surf
twirling in Rhythm
like Magnificent Waves
of Infinite Wonder
on moonlit Beaches
the desolate days
beyond the reaches
of healing Haze
where gloomy infamy
shades a perennial
and sensational blooming
of incandescent Beauty 
and Grace-full Dignity
in Transcendent Humanity
trancing and Dancing
with Resplendent Divinity
the dead ends
that end up
being poetical portals
into new Beginnings
where exits 
are revealed
to be entries
engendering Possibilities 
and tendering Hope
for nascent Realities
flowing Eternally...

Thanks.

#140wordprayers #DistanceAsADoorwayToCloseness #AbsenceAsAPathwayOfPresence #DespairAsAGatewayToHope #LanguishingAsACausewayToLove #ClosingsAsAWayToOpenings



20 January 2024

ice

it's truly Magical 
when it cools
a raging fever
or keeps
our sustenance fresh
or creates
caverns of protection
but cruelly maniacal 
when it turns
safe passageways
into ferocious flumes
and chaps
not only lips
but hides
and cracks
wills and heads
and traps
innocent peoples
in dangerous dungeons
of gratuitous gloom
inducing Sanity
(and even Life)
to slip away
so for all
its brilliant Beauty
(amidst impenetrable acuity)
when it accumulates
over a sequence
of neverending days
of frustrating frigidity
that makes
our paths
seemingly impassible
and causes
our ways
to perpetuate
some sense
of Peace
to become
seemingly impossible
exacerbating our wailing
and flailing futility
after no relief
from our grief
feeling buried beneath
its harrowing gaze
may some Mystical
and Healing Haze
(emanating and reverberating
and radiating Warmth
from Humble Hearts)
break through
the solidity
of space
and the rigidity
of face
with the Infinity
of Grace
that thaws Us
and causes 
all that is 
frozen in fear
petrified in pain
within Us
to melt away
softening up
the fallow Soil
of our Selves
with hallowing rays
that mend
our tender wounds
and render anew
the vibrant Vitality
and delicate Divinity
of our Humanity...

Let It Be.

#200wordprayers #Icepocalypse2024 #SnowIsSensational #RainIsRevelational #ButIceInvokesInstabilityInsustainabilityAndInsanity #MeltTheIceWithTheWarmthOfLove

('Melt My Frozen Heart' © Ivana Simulnovic)



15 January 2024

Stick (MLK Day 2024)

on this Day
where most
(if not All)
of Us
are feeling stuck
in the muck
of distrust
and despair
where misogyny
and misery
hold more sway
than Mutuality
and Mystery
and vitriolic violence
seems to override
Sacred Silence
may we side
with Brother Martin
who decided
to Stick
with Love
even in
the face
of death
and provided
real Hope
for generations
of huddled
and hallowed masses
yearning with each
Blesséd Breath
for Freedom
for All
of Us
surrendering the part
of Our pride
that traps Us
in a cell
of self-interest
and preservation
(subjecting Some
fellow Beloveds
to interments
and plantations
and reservations)
engendering the Heart
that is beating
with Healing Rhythms
reminding Us
that We
are stuck
intrinsically together
as One Mosaic
of Magnificence
and Majesty
One Dance
of Divinity
and Destiny
One Garment
of Grace
and Glory
remembering the start
of Our Story
Our innate Innocence
and Radiance
and no matter
how or why
We find Ourselves
stuck in systems
that dissipate some
and elevate others
and cause Us
to stick it
to our Siblings
and Sisters
and Brothers
(and not just
the Man)
Equality and Justice
will always Flow
deep below
the sordid surface
of hatred
and dividedness
to Us
(and Hopefully
through Us)
and Love
will always Stick
with Us...

Let It Be So.

#220wordprayers #MLKDay2024 #HateIsHeavyButLoveIsLight #WeAreTheBelovedCommunity #HeresToLessPostingOfTheQuotesAndMoreLivingOfTheWords

('MLK Love' © Oliver Jeffers)