The Place You Are Seeking Is Seeking You

This is the inspirational thought that has shown up on my radar twice within the last 72 hours. Often when we are searching for something - whether it be a job, a home, a partner, experiencing motherhood or fatherhood, freedom, wholeness - when we are looking for these things, we most often approach them in a unilateral direction. We set out as the thing we need is out there and static and somehow we need to "find" it.

What if we understood that when we set out to find anything, with our motive is pure and our intent is for progress, the very thing that we are seeking is also seeking us? Think about it. We set out to find a job that is a good fit for us and the skills and gifts we have to offer. Wouldn't it make sense that the job which could use those same qualities and aptitudes, the workplace that would be a good fit for us would also be served by having someone who is a good fit?

I have been praying with this idea and it has been a brilliant teacher. Thought I'd share some of the love!

Namaste

Motherly Advice

My dear sister-friend Lisa Redfern (talented singer-songwriter of the album pictured above: www.lisaredfern.com) shared this on Facebook today. She found it in a card that her mom had written to her in 1992. In the card her mom, Sandy, a beautiful teacher, artist and mother of 3 phenomenal kids, had listed "Life Advice" for my friend. I was so deeply touched by it, I requested permission to share her advice with you all. Its simplicity caught my breath, and especially since all these years later, it stills sings in such a universal language. Thank you Sandy for the legacy you left for all of us. You are cherished. And so are you, my dear Lisa.

Here is Sandy's sound advice in the nice round number of 10:

1) Begin each day with your favorite music
2) Don't postpone joy
3) Be kinder than necessary
4) Always be on time
5) Take good care of your loved ones
6) Whistle
7) Don't drive on bad tires
8) Learn to make something beautiful with your hands
9) Surprise a neighbor with a hot dish
10) Remember I love you.

***PLEASE NOTE: The wonderful CD design is by the brilliant Holly Strelow: http://www.n8creative.com/ Check both of these luscious, inspiring ladies (Holly and Lisa) out!

Forever Oneness

Forever Oneness,
who sings to us in silence,
who teaches us through each other.
Guide my steps with strength and wisdom.
May I see the lessons as I walk,
honor the Purpose of all things.
Help me touch with respect,
always speak from behind my eyes.
Let me observe, not judge.
May I cause no harm,
and leave music and beauty after my visit.
When I return to forever
may the circle be closed
and the spiral be broader.

~ Bee Lake ~

(an Aboriginal poet)

God Speaks to Each of Us As He Makes Us (for Carol Ann)

God speaks to each of us as he makes us,
then walks with us silently out of the night.

These are words we dimly hear:

You, sent out beyond your recall,
go to the limits of your longing.
Embody me.

Flare up like flame
and make big shadows I can move in.

Let everything happen to you: beauty and terror.
Just keep going. No feeling is final.
Don't let yourself lose me.

Nearby is the country they call life.
You will know it by its seriousness.

Give me your hand.

~ Rainer Maria Rilke
From Rilke's Book of Hours: Love Poems to God, translated by Anita Barrows and Joanna Macy

Endurance - A poem

Endurance

We are here to endure the beams of love.

~William Blake

Rays of kindness so intense

one glimpse could melt the thousand-

year ice of a cruel glare instantly,

beams so strong they hold up the whole

of celestial sky without strain or complaint

as though this is what they were made for,

and they were. And we are

here as mere witnesses to these flames,

here to withstand the sheer delight of it all.

And we will fail. For this sort of love leaves

no survivors.

© Heather Barron

Hope - poem

Hope

Old spirit, in and beyond me,
keep and extend me. Amid strangers,
friends, great trees and big seas breaking,
let love move me. Let me hear the whole music,
see clear, reach deep. Open me to find due words,
that I may shape them to ploughshares of my own making.
After such luck, however late, give me to give to
the oldest dance.... Then to good sleep,
and - if it happens - glad waking.

~ Philip Booth ~

(Lifelines: Selected Poems 1950-1999)

1.1.11

I just wanted to write this date somewhere. What a beautiful start to "the year of awesomeness" as King Fu Panda 2 has invited me to call it! My dear friends Jesse and Gabe Hascall birthed Sadie Delphine Hascall into this world this afternoon. She arrived blessedly early and perfectly on time - in HER time! She will get to write this date for the rest of her life. And it is a date I shall not soon forget for many reasons.

And it was a most wonderful end to the year with the arrival of a precious little boy. Avery joined Lisa-Jean Renton and Scott Redfern in Maine, making them proud parents. He arrived safely on December 27th (I believe).

And so it is. Life escorts us out of the old and gently dances us into the new. How beautiful.

Feeling full to overflowing with how much beauty is held within this world, and also desiring to celebrate Jesse and Gabe, and Lisa-Jean and Scott in their new role as parents, I am moved to share the following poem with them and with all parents (biological or not!). May you celebrate how far you have already traveled together. And may you remember to keep celebrating, always.

Rock Tea

At a hot springs in Sawtooth Mountains
8,000 feet above the level sea,
my two-year-old daughter enters the steamy shallows, and sings
I'm naked! I'm naked! And clings to herself
as if the pink body under her slender arms might slip away.
I do not want her to slip away, not ever,
but I know one day she will. I know
one day she will put on her snow boots
and take up the trail in earnest-and I will call out
I am happy for her, very happy, but sad too,
and hope I will see her again. From the pool's moony wash
she brings me her cupped hands. Rock tea, Papa, you like some?
I cup her hands in my own, and drink. It is delicious, I say,
more delicious than air itself, than life, may I have another?
And perhaps you will have one too? Perhaps, thank you,
In this way, gently over rock tea,
we celebrate how far we have traveled together.

~ Gary Gildner ~

(Cleaning a Rainbow)