For Zoey

Zoey, sweet beloved
Whose thoughtfulness
Overflows,
Graceful in manner,
Elegant in spirit.

Grow up and
Spread your light,
Be a conqueror yet benevolent,
Strong in mind,
And always kind.

Much, much love,
Tita N.

Transforming

Most of us need to be reminded that we are good, that we are lovable, that we belong. If we knew just how powerfully our thoughts, words, and actions affected the hearts of those around us, we’d reach out and join hands again and again.

Our relationships have the potential to be a sacred refuge, a place of healing, and awakening. With each person we meet, we can learn to look behind the mask and see the one who longs to love and be loved. We can remember to say our blessings out loud.

―Tara Brach

Lightly

It’s dark because you are trying too hard.
Lightly child, lightly.
Learn to do everything lightly.
Yes, feel lightly even though you’re feeling deeply.
Just lightly let things happen and lightly cope with them.

Lightly, lightly – it’s the best advice ever given me.
When it comes to dying even. Nothing ponderous, or portentous, or emphatic.
No rhetoric, no tremolos, no self conscious persona putting on its celebrated imitation of Christ or Little Nell.

And of course, no theology, no metaphysics.
Just the fact of dying and the fact of the clear light.

So throw away your baggage and go forward.
There are quicksands all about you, sucking at your feet,
trying to suck you down into fear and self-pity and despair.
That’s why you must walk so lightly.

Lightly my darling,
on tiptoes and no luggage,
not even a sponge bag,
completely unencumbered.


Aldous Huxley, Island

Ephemerae

No one discovers

just where we've been, 

when we're caught up again

into our own sphere (where we must

return, indeed, to evolve our destinies)

--but we have changed, a little. 

Denise Levertov,  Sojourns in the Parallel World

Desert Places

They cannot scare me with their empty spaces

Between stars—on stars where no human race is.

I have it in me so much nearer home

To scare myself with my own desert places. 

― Robert Frost

how to feel blessed all the time

When life is sweet, 

say thank you and celebrate. 

And when life is bitter, 

say thank you 

and grow.

 Shauna Niequist

real strength

I've come to know, 

the better I feel about myself, 

the less I feel the need to show off.

~Indigo Girl

to be like water...

Water does not resist. Water flows. When you plunge your hand into it, all you feel is a caress. Water is not a solid wall, it will not stop you.

But water always goes where it wants to go, and nothing in the end can stand against it. Water is patient. Dripping water wears away a stone. Remember that, my child.

Remember you are half water. If you can’t go through an obstacle, go around it. Water does.

—Margaret Atwood, from "The Penelopiad."

Who Am I?

My head knocks against the stars.
My feet are on the hilltops.
My finger-tips are in the valleys and shores of universal life.
Down in the sounding foam of primal things I reach my hands and play with pebbles of destiny.

I have been to hell and back many times.
I know all about heaven, for I have talked with God.
I dabble in the blood and guts of the terrible.

I know the passionate seizure of beauty
And the marvelous rebellion of man at all signs reading “Keep Off.”

My name is Truth and I am the most elusive captive in the universe.


-- Carl Sandburg, “Chicago Poems”