IT'S TIME TO TAKE A BREATH

Lady Banks in Bloom

Spring is a time when trust unfurls

From heights and depths we cannot touch.

Trees wave, they bend and bow 

As starlit eyes and ancient dreams

Push from the earth as we knew they would, 

Hungry for light.

Snapdragons waken, pansies plump in the just-so-warmth,

Their winter sallow turning bright.

Bearded Iris rise and tremble, steady then salute. 

Earth sheds her worries and so should we. 

We've done it again, each sprout declares (and so should we)

Flinging pink then purple then green.

Do more, love more, be more should we.

"I trust you, earth." the poet says.  "I trust you, God," say I."

It's time to take a breath. 

 

SOME DAYS ARE STORMY (IN VERSE)

Verse #1 for Today

What do you need? God asked.

To be understood, valued and loved.

Yes, God said, anything else?

Not just by You (a plea).

That too, God replied.

But how? she wondered.

Trust yourself?

Trust your intuitions?

Protect yourself?

"Yes those, but more:  Keep Me beside you."

Verse #2 for Today

If there is a time for everything 

Then there is a time for letting go.

Thoughts into memories, memories into thoughts.

Some are treasures that turn the tide

Rushing to cut off my heart, my breath. 

Things I let go return to have their say, 

And deep without warning I need to write.

Not all, just this, these words.

Verse #3 for Today

She never needed perfect,

She only needed love. 

Verse #4 for Today

Immutable is the Word

Knowing what I cannot know.

Acting when I cannot act.

Giving when I cannot give.

 
 

LET'S SHARE . . . by Nina Naomi

 

Let's Share . . . 

by Nina Naomi

Not what you do for a living,

But what you have learned from the past.

Not the year I was born,

But my thrill in being alive.

Not if I'm Aries, you're Leo.

But what is the core of our sorrows.

If you've lied to yourself and regret it .

Or been lied to and now are on guard.

 

Can you can sit with grief (mine or yours)

And not try to hide it or fix it?

Can you dance with joy (yours or mine)

And not be self-conscious or shamed?

Tell me your day fills with beauty

As the simplest pleasures fill mine.

 

Let's not care where we live

Or what money we make.

Let's not tell who we know,

Where we travel,

Or any of that, let's just not. 

 

But if we can share despair when (and not if) it comes?

Stand in the center together

When all else falls away?

 

If we know that 

Alone with ourselves we are whole,

And could be the same with eachother,

Then will we know we are faithful,

And can each give our trust in return.

 

 

 

 

 

 

A SAINT'S PRAYER FOR US

Teresa of Avila (1515-1582)

 Saint Teresa, Spanish mystic, prays for us:

May today there be peace within.

May you trust that you are exactly where you are meant to be.

May you not forget the infinite possibilities that are born of faith

in yourself and others.

May you use the gifts that you have received,

and pass on the love that has been given to you.

May you be content with yourself just the way you are.

Let this knowledge settle into your bones,

and allow your soul the freedom to sing, dance, praise and love.

It is there for each and every one of us. 

Thank you, Teresa, for praying for us; for sending your prayer across the ages to each one who reads it; for speaking directly to me. I have read every line slowly.  I will trust that I am where I am meant to be.  Word by word, what you wish for me is what I wish for myself.  To know the love of God in my very bones, so that they are never dry.  How did you know? 

With appreciation, Nina Naomi

 

 

 

"GOD UNBOUNDED NET UNFURLED" BY NINA NAOMI

 

Faith is the water that buoys the soul. 

Rising, rocking

Heart-held, fear-felled. 

 

Faith is the thing with wings 

That lifts me from the mud and sets me loose. 

That lets us fly. 

No more this, no more that,

Just God unbounded net unfurled. 

 

Faith is the memory of all we believe.

All we trust. 

For you, for us.  

Our lovers perhaps, ourselves, our God.  

Faith makes a nest for love. 

 

Faith can be borrowed when all is ruined,

Until your own returns.  

Faith can sleep and then awaken like a moth.   

It will take hold of you, gently, and say in your ear 

"I am here.  I am here."  

 

 

TRUST THE TIMING OF YOUR LIFE. TRUST YOUR JOURNEY.

flow 19 Days of Mindfulness

So many life-quotes.  I like this one.  Do you?  It doesn't fit the really really bad things that happen. The things that stun us. But it fits the healing from them.  It fits going forward.  All those good days that out-number the bad.  All the kindness and love that continues in our lives.  

When your edges are frayed, what do you do?  I find help everywhere.  An otherwise unmemorable movie had a the line,  "Don't destroy something good." That advice came just when I needed to hear it.  When the doors and windows are open, the weather is perfect and the dragonflies are spinning, don't let the past destroy the present, it said to me.  Don't let fears for the future color the now. Prayer helps me and maybe you too.  I find God easily, sometimes in a tangible enveloping way, quieting my mind and heart. Breathing slows when I remember God.  Somewhat like meditation I expect. 

Illustrator: Otje van der Leiij

There's a Zen adage: 

"You should sit in meditation for twenty minutes every day--unless you're too busy; then you should sit for an hour."

That resonates with me. A teacher of Warrior Mind Training for the U.S. military, Ilene Gregorian,  says, "Your own thoughts are able to take you down quicker than any enemy."  Isn't that the truth! And when we let that happen we may let the beauty of life pass by unnoticed.  Turning off our thoughts can be like turning off the the TV just to hear the birds.  Or the rain. Or our children's voices as they play. 

When we trust the timing of our lives, trust our journeys, experts say we brood less; we cope with fear, stress and depression better.  We create a kind of spam-filter in our heads.  If the sun is shining, literally or figuratively, we notice.  

Another life-quote I like is this one: 
 

The trouble is you think you have time.  

This quote is attributed to Buddha in Jack Kornfield's Buddha's Little Instruction Book.  I think this thought fits with trusting the timing of our lives and trusting our journey.  It also fits, for me, with trusting God to help and guide me.  This is not a carpe diem, seize the day kind of idea.  It doesn't mean have as much fun as possible.  It means that because of life's brevity we want to appreciate it, recognize what's important, not put off the good until later, live with kindness and love for ourselves and others now.  

Tonight my spouse and I are choosing togetherness.  The couch and a movie.  We just decided.  That's a good choice. We know how lucky we are to have each other. We're promising ourselves to stay in the moment, to turn off our phones, to log out, to be present.  And not destroy something good.  Mr. Wiggles will hang out with us too.  So simple.  I bet you have a good idea for your evening too!
 

   

  

SIMPLIFY YOUR LIFE BY SHEDDING WORRIES

I was in a church recently where a prayer card was handed out.  The prayer was by Thomas Merton (1915-1968)--American Catholic, mystic, Trappist monk.  Merton's prayer begins,

My Lord God, I have no idea where I am going.   

I do not see the road ahead of me.  

I cannot know for certain where it will end. 

Do we not all feel like this sometimes?  No idea where we're going.  No idea where our path will end.  What can we do when we feel like this?  Each of us may have a different answer.  Merton was a Christian so turned to God.  He says to his God,

"I know. . . you will lead me by the right road 

though I may know nothing about it.  

Therefore I will trust you always 

though I may seem to be lost. . . ."

This prayer helps me.  Some problems seem insurmountable don't they? We all have them.  Toxic people.  Deception or disloyalty.  Illness, aging, death.  Loss or fear of loss.  Even the young can fear growing older without the accomplishments they expected. A job, a spouse, a house, children, financial independence--each can seem out of reach.  Life has never been easy.

Would our lives be simpler, better, if we shed our worries about what we cannot change?  Experts seem to think so.  First to tackle is the PAST.  William Faulkner says "The Past is not Dead.  It's not even Past."

He is not talking about good things in our past, that is clear. But those things we wish had never happened.  

Because the past is immutable, we cannot wish actions or words away, hurt we either caused or endured.  Trauma fades, but something that devastates us fades imperfectly and not on our timetable.  We can only try to understand and fashion a narrative we can move forward with.  And as always, keep close company with those who understand and value us, whether one or many. A person, a pet, or even a memory. 

My own prayer is shorter than Merton's.  I simply ask God to help and guide me.  Or, the anonymous prayer "God be in my heart, and in my thinking."  That's it. No specifics.  No hamstringing God.  I don't have to define the problem, or fashion the solution. All I have to know is that I need help.

Of course this isn't foolproof.  Sometimes I ask too late, or with a hidden agenda.  But the gain from shedding worries about things we cannot change is immeasurable. We might call it the Peace of God.