God's Presence

Prayer is not the moment when 

God and humans are in relationship, 

for that is always.

Prayer is taking initiative 

to intentionally respond to God's presence.

Give Light...

Give light, 

and the darkness will disappear of itself.

Cast All Your Votes for Dancing

I know the voice of depression
Still calls to you.
I know those habits that can ruin your life
Still send their invitations.

But you are with the Friend now
And look so much stronger.
You can stay that way
And even bloom!

Keep squeezing drops of the Sun
From your prayers and work and music
And from your companions' beautiful laughter.

Keep squeezing drops of the Sun
From the sacred hands and glance of your Beloved
And, my dear, from the most insignificant movements
Of your own holy body.

Learn to recognize the counterfeit coins
That may buy you just a moment of pleasure,
But then drag you for days
Like a broken man
Behind a farting camel.

You are with the Friend now.
Learn what actions of yours delight Him,
What actions of yours bring freedom and Love.

Whenever you say God's name, dear pilgrim,
My ears wish my head was missing
So they could finally kiss each other
And applaud all your nourishing wisdom!

O keep squeezing drops of the Sun
From your prayers and work and music
And from your companions' beautiful laughter

And from the most insignificant movements
Of your own holy body.
Now, sweet one, be wise.
Cast all your votes for Dancing!

Hafiz

I don't know the name of the photographer of this image. If it is yours, please contact me and I'll give you credit.

Thanks to Kelly Morrison for passing along this poem to us.

The Task of Humanity

A human being is part of the whole, called by us “universe,”
limited in time and space. He experiences himself,
his thoughts and feelings as something separated from the rest
– a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness.
This delusion is a prison,
restricting us to our personal desires
and to affection for a few persons close to us.

Our task must be to free ourselves from our prison
by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all humanity
and the whole of nature in its beauty.

– Albert Einstein -

“You are not accidental. Existence needs you. Without you something will be missing in existence and nobody can replace it. That’s what gives you dignity, that the whole existence will miss you. The stars and sun and moon, the trees and birds and earth—everything in the universe will feel a small place is vacant which cannot be filled by anybody except you. This gives you a tremendous joy, a fulfillment that you are related to existence, and existence cares for you. Once you are clean and clear, you can see tremendous love falling on you from all directions.”

Osho “God is Dead: Now Zen is the Only Living Truth, Ch. 1

Painting by Christina Acosta
"Mother Earth and Her Moon -- Meditation on a Star"
http://www.cristinaacosta.com/.docs/pg/10105

Honest Living

You don't have to work for a living. You can create for a life. We have gotten our notion of livelihood terribly crosswired. Many of us believe that an honest living is one in which we struggle and toil at something we hate, and the reward for our hardship is money. This is not so. It is but a sick belief system that we have reinforced by agreement. There is another way.

Buckminster Fuller noted that "human beings are the only creatures on the planet who tell time and believe they have to earn a living." Jesus taught the same truth in a metaphor: "Behold the lilies of the field. They do not toil and neither do the sow. Yet I tell you that Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these." The Master went on, "will your heavenly Father not take even better care of you, who are his Children?"

From Alan Cohen, "I Had it All the Time" p. 250

Image entitled "Lilies of the Field #3"
by Jane Halliwell Green who can be contacted at
www.paintpencil.com

When the world wearies and society ceases to satisfy, there is always the garden...

The Liberation of Commitment

The irony of commitment is that it's deeply liberating - in work, in
play, in love. The act frees you from the tyranny of your internal
critic, from the fear that likes to dress itself up and parade around
as rational hesitation. To commit is to remove your head as the
barrier to your life.

--- Anne Morriss, Starbucks customer from New York City.
She describes herself as an "organization builder,
restless American citizen, optimist."

Another marker on the way...

The hardest times have been when it looks as though nothing is happening, or, worse, when it looks as though something is definitely wrong in my life. "It's not working," I say to myself...I have to keep reminding myself that nothing is wasted time. I may not understand what is happening, but I can begin to appreciate that the impasse is another marker on the way.
From "Plain and Simple - A woman's journey to the Amish" by Sue Bender

Get Back Up

Here is a video clip from a young man, Nick Vujicic, who was born with no arms or legs and now travels the world sharing an inspiring message of hope.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MslbhDZoniY

"We Alone" by Alice Walker

We alone can devalue gold
by not caring
if it falls or rises
in the marketplace.
Wherever there is gold
there is a chain, you know,
and if your chain is gold
so much the worse for you.






Feathers, shells,
and sea-shaped stones
are all as rare.

This could be our revolution:
To love what is plentiful
as much as
what is scarce.


From: Anything We Love Can Be Saved by Alice Walker

“By keeping the green bough within our hearts – the singing bird will come.” (Arabic proverb)

Image: Tree, Bird, Heart go to http://www.frenchtoastgirl.com/

...How the Light Gets In

Ring the bell that still can ring
Forget your perfect offering
There is a crack in everything
That’s how the light gets in.

Leonard Cohen

Image sent in to: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/in_depth/photo_gallery/3077437.stm
by Dougie Johnston

"Wild Geese" by Mary Oliver

You do not have to be good.
You do not have to walk on your knees for a hundred miles repenting.
You only have to let the soft animal of your body love what it loves….
Whoever you are, no matter how lonely,
The world offers itself to your imagination,
Calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting –
Over and over announcing your place
In the family of things.

For Our World

We need to stop.

Just stop.

Stop for a moment…

Before anybody

Says or does anything

That may hurt anyone else.

We need to be silent.

Just silent.

Silent for a moment…

Before we forever lose

The blessing of songs

That grow in our hearts.

We need to notice.

Just notice.

Notice for a moment…

Before the future slips away

Into ashes and dust of humility.

Stop, be silent, and notice…

In so many ways, we are the same.

Our differences are unique treasures.

We have, we are, a mosaic of gifts

To nurture, to offer, to accept.

We need to be.

Just be.

Be for a moment…

Kind and gentle, innocent and trusting,

Like children and lambs,

Never judging or vengeful

Like the judging and vengeful.

And now, let us pray,

Differently, yet together,

Before there is no earth, no life,

No chance for peace.


By Mattie J.T. Stepanek

His picture follows:

"We each must become like fishermen...

"We each must become like fishermen, and go out onto the dark ocean of
mind, and let your nets down into that sea.

"And what you're after is not some behemoth that will tear through your
nets, foul them, and drag you and your little boat into the abyss. Nor are
what we looking for a bunch of sardines, that can slip through your net
and disappear, ideas like 'have you ever noticed that your little finger
exactly fits your nostril' and stuff like that.

"What we are looking for are middle-sized ideas that are not so small that
they are trivial, and not so large that they are incomprehensible, but
middle-sized ideas that we can wrestle into our boat and take back to the
folks on shore, and have fish dinner.

"And everyone of us, this is what we should be looking for. It's not for
your elucidation, it's not part of your self-directed psychotherapy; you are
an explorer, and you represent our species.

"And the greatest good you can do is to bring back a new idea, because
our world is endangered by the absence of good ideas. Our world is in
crisis because of the absence of consciousness.

"And so, to whatever degree, any one of us can bring back a small piece
of the picture, and contribute it to the building of the new paradigm.
Then we participate in the redemption of the human spirit."

- Terence McKenna

Image by Julie Paschkis - http://www.juliepaschkis.com/