**************************

Swallowed Keys

We locked up our wisdom into our bones

And swallowed the keys

They sank into our rivers of blood

And we forgot the maps

Because we had to forget the mysteries

To keep them safe.

We wove our hair into brooms

And swept over our paths

And then burned the earth with our rage

We didn’t teach our children

It was the only way to protect them,

we thought

But in them we planted seeds, seeds and keys

And told them stories and riddles and songs

With no roots, just tangled threads

That would take years to unwind

Just enough time

For the rains to fall again

And put out the fires

For the dams to break

For the rivers to flood

For the paths to be walked again

For the soil to breathe

And as the old bones crumble

Deep beneath the rubble

We find we’ve always had the keys

Our stories and our maps

Our paths are revealed to some

And the seeds grow again

The threads are unspun

And woven again.

~ Amara Bronwin Hollow Bones – excerpt from We’Moon 2012

******************************

 
We do not become writers,

dancers, musicians,

helpers,

peacemakers.

We came as such.

We are.

Some of us are still catching up to what we are.

We do not learn to love in this sense.

We came as Love.

We are Love.

Some of us are still catching up to who we truly are.

~ Clarissa Pinkola Estes 

****************************

Time to go into the dark

Where the night has eyes

To recognize its own.

There you can be sure

You are not beyond Love.

The dark will be your womb tonight.

The night will give you a horizon 

Further than you can see. 

~David Whyte

****************************

Put down the weight of your aloneness

and ease into
 the conversation.

The kettle is singing
 even as it pours you a drink

the cooking pots
 have left their arrogant aloofness

and
 seen the good in you at last.

All the birds and creatures of the world

are unutterably
 themselves.

Everything is waiting for you

~David Whyte 

****************************

It doesn't interest me if there is one God

Or many gods.

I want to know if you belong -- or feel abandoned;

If you know despair

Or can see it in others.

I want to know

If you are prepared to live in the world

With its harsh need to change you;

If you can look back with firm eyes

Saying "this is where I stand."

I want to know if you know how to melt

Into that fierce heat of living

Falling toward the center of your longing.

I want to know if you are willing

To live day by day

With the consequence of love

And the bitter unwanted passion

Of your sure defeat.

I have been told

In that fierce embrace

Even the gods

Speak of God.

~ David Whyte

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we have bigger houses but smaller families;

more conveniences, but less time;

we have more degrees, but less sense;

more knowledge, but less judgement;

more experts, but more problems;

more medicines, but less healthiness;

we've been all the way to the moon and back,

but have trouble crossing the street to meet the new neighbor.

we built more computers to hold more information to produce more copies than ever, but have less communication;

we have become long on quantity, but short on quality.

these are times of fast foods but slow digestion;

tall man, but short character;

steep profits but shallow relationships.

it's a time when there is much in the window,

but nothing in the room.

~ his holiness the 14th dalai lama

********************************** 

For a dancer or athlete,

internal impulses

result in movement through space;

for a yogi,

these impulses move instead

along internal lines of force,

reverberating within and

constantly renewing the container of the asana.

When we witness a yoga practitioner

skilled in this dynamic internal dance,

we sense a body in continuous,

subtle motion.

Too often, students interpret and practice asana as rigid stance, perhaps because our images of asanas

come from photographs, or

because some instructors teach asanas

as static sculptures.

But if we rely on such guides,

we may strive to obtain the external appearance of

an asana without ever gaining

the true internal

experience of it."

~ d.farhi ~

****************************************

The wind and I could come by and carry

you the last part of your journey,

if you became light enough,

by just letting go of a few more things

you are clinging to...

that still believe in gravity.

~from a year with Hafiz

****************************************

‎I was a speck of dust measured in molecules

Now I am a rising mountain peak, snow-capped

I was forgotten like coffee grains in an empty pot

Now I am a surging light leading a multitude

You erased my famine, unpicked my anger

Your energy charges my voice, it radiates my heart

Now I am alive with the ore of word pouring

From my lips like molten lava glittering with joy.

~ Rumi, as translated by Fatemeh Kavandi ~

****************************************

Just give me this:

A rinsing out, a cleansing free

Of all my smaller strivings

So I can be the class act God intended,

True to my purpose,

All my energy aligned behind my deepest intention.

And just this:

A quieting down,

A clearing away of internal ruckus,

So I can hear the huge stillness in my heart

And feel

How I pulse with all creation,

Part and parcel of Your great singing ocean.

And this too:

A willingness to notice and forgive the myriad times

I fall short,

Forgetting who I am,

What I really belong to.

So I can start over,

Fresh and clean,

Like sweet sheets billowing in the summer sun,

My heart pierced with gratitude.

~  Belleruth Naparstek

****************************************

****************************************

May we reveal our abundance without shame.

May we peel back our sleeping wintery layers

Like snakeskins, like the silk chrysalis,

Like clothing cast off during love.

May we unravel with abandon like lover’s knots

Before knitting ourselves back to the heart.

May we settle into our own rhythms as tides do—

Within the borders of the moon’s calling…

May the milky fingers of the moon

Reach down nightly to cherish and unveil us.

May we turn our bodies generously in its light

Like tranquil fish glinting underwater.

Like precious stones….

~ Lisa Colt

****************************************

Put the palms your hands together

Close to your body, thumbs touching your chest

Then bow your head to the tree

Whose body bears these words.

 In the deep pool under the cedar

A salmon rises to a mayfly and ripples spread

In widening O’s like the years

Etched into heartwood as it grows.

What have the years written into your body?

What patterns emerged as you passed through fire?

Put your palms together, lifeline to lifeline.

Bow your heard to the history you bear.

~ Judith Barrington

****************************************

My body, you are an animal

Whose appropriate behavior

Is concentration and discipline.

An effort of an athlete, a saint, and of a yogi.

 Well trained

You may become for me

A Gate

Through which I will leave myself and a gate

Through which I will enter myself.

A plumb line to the center of the earth

And a cosmic ship to Jupiter.

 My body, you are an animal

For whom ambition is right

Splendid possibilities are open to us.

~unknown

****************************************

Still the body

Still the mind

Still the voice inside

In silence

Feel the stillness Move

~ Kabir

****************************************

You keep waiting for something to happen,

the thing that lifts you out of yourself,

catapults you into doing all the things you’ve put off

the great things you’re meant to do in your life,

but somehow never quite get to.

You keep waiting for the planets to shift

the new moon to bring news,

the universe to align, something to give.

Meanwhile, the piles of papers, the laundry, the dishes, the job—

it all stacks up while you keep hoping

for some miracle to blast down upon you,

scattering the piles to the winds.

Sometimes you lie in bed, terrified of your life.

Sometimes you laugh at the privilege of waking.

But all the while, life goes on it its messy way.

And then you turn forty. Or fifty. Or sixty…

and some part of you realizes you are not alone

and you find signs of this in the animal kingdom –

when a snake sheds its skin its eyes glaze over,

it slinks under a rock, not wanting to be touched,

and when caterpillar turns to butterfly

if the pupa is brushed, it will die—

and when the bird taps its beak hungrily against the egg

It’s because the thing is too small, too small,

and it needs to break out.

And midlife walks you into that wisdom

that this is what transformation looks like—

the mess of it, the tapping at the walls of your life,

the yearning and writhing and pushing,

until one day, one day

you emerge from the wreck

embracing both the immense dawn

and the dusk of the body,

glistening, beautiful

just as you are.

~ Leza Lowitz

***************************************************

I wish you deep tunnels without fear.

I wish you children's laughter.

I wish you moonlit crisp skies.

I wish you real eyes.

I wish you tears, i wish you clean.

I wish you angels in conference around your bed, holding you.

I wish you abalone dreams.

I wish you peace.

I wish you doves in your kitchen.

Moonlight in your bathroom.

Candles when your eyes close and dawn when they open.

I wish you so many arms across your shoulders.

So many mouths kissing your ears that you smile from the inconvenience.

I wish you water, oh i wish you water

Through your feet flowing like a stream.

And I wish you hammocks, and melon on your eyelids.

Strawberries in your mouth, and fingers,held in your own hand all day.

~ Ruth Foreman

***************************************************

Quietness

Inside this new love, die.
Your way begins on the other side.

Become the sky.
Take an axe to the prison wall.

Escape.

Walk out like somebody suddenly born into color.

Do it now.
You’re covered with thick cloud.
Slide out the side.

Die,
and be quiet. Quietness is the surest sign
that you’ve died.

Your old life was a frantic running
from silence.

The speechless full moon
comes out now.

~ Rumi

***************************************************

May I be the doctor and the medicine

And may I be the nurse

For all sick beings in the world

Until everyone is healed.

May a rain of food and drink descend

To clear away the pain of thrist and hunger

And during the con of famine

May I myself turn into food and drink.

May I become an inexhaustible treasure

For those who are poor and destitute;

May I turn into all things they could need 

And may these items be placed close to them.

May all who say bad things to me

Or cause me any other harm,

And those who mock and insult me,

Have the fortune to fully awaken.

May I be a protector for those who seek one

And a lamp for those desiring light;

May I be a bed for all who wish to rest

And a slave for all who want a slave.

May I be a wishing jewel, a magic vase,

Powerful mantras, and great medicine;

May I become a wish-fulfilling tree

And a cow of plenty for the world.

Just like space

And all the great elements: air, fire, water, and earth,

May I always support the life of all the boundless creatures.

And until they pass away from pain

May I also be the source of Life

For all the realms of varied being

That reach unto the end of time and space.

~Shanti Deva

***************************************************  

Rest Here.

Relax into who you really are.

You are magnificence itself.
 

Let go of resistance to everything,

And what remains is the perfect flow 

Of effortless Life.

What you are unwilling to feel

Remains as tension,

Becomes gnawing,
Grows into addiction.

Restore the capacity to feel fully,

To allow the experience without flinching,

And the addiction, the gnawing, the tension,

Dissolve.

Rest here and things are simple.

~ Arjuna (from the epic, Bhagavad Gita) 

*************************************************** 

Let yourself be silently drawn to what you love.

~ Rumi

*************************************************** 

Be strong then,

and enter into your own body.

There you have a solid place for your feet.

Think about it carefully!

Don’t go off somewhere else!

Just throw away all thoughts of imaginary things, 

And stand firm in that which you are.

~ Kabir

*************************************************** 

Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and right doing,

there is a field.  I’ll meet you there.

 When the soul lies down in that grass,

the world is too full to talk about.

Ideas, language, even the phrase each other

Doesn’t make any sense.

~ Rumi

*************************************************** 

The One you are looking for Is the One who is looking.

~ St. Francis of Assisi 

*************************************************** 

Be patient toward all that is unresolved in your heart

Try to love the questions themselves.

Do not now seek the answers, which cannot be given

Because you would not be able to live them.

And the point is to live everything.

Live the Questions.

Perhaps you will then gradually, without noticing it,

Live along some distant day into the answers.

~ Rainer Maria Rilke 

*************************************************** 

It must be built by following your instinct,

as a seal finds its breathing hole in the ice,

by letting yourself go into moments that pull

like a magnet to North.

You listen quietly until you know the moment, its song,

while it pulls a place in you and like the seal

you may find an Eskimo spear poised to strike you as you listen.

Then, you visit your breathing place where some moments

come, are lived quickly, and go.

Others visit for years and are still not over.

You must visit daily so the path remains visible

as the doubts of others try to entice you

to be their breathing place, try to make you forget

the place you have struggled to find.

~ Mary Oliver 

 *************************************************** 

Awareness cleaned my mind

To a polished mirroring.

The presence came near, and I knew

that was everything,

and I nothing.

~ Lalla

*************************************************** 

The moment you have in your heart

This extraordinary thing called love

and feel the depth,

the delight,

the ecstasy of it,

you will discover that for you

the world is transformed.

~ Krishnamurti

*************************************************** 

I long for You

so much

I follow barefoot in

Your frozen tracks that are high

in the mountains

that I know are years old. 

I long for you so much

I have begun to travel where I have never been before. 

There is no one in this world

who is not looking

for God.

Everyone is trudging along

with as much dignity, courage and style as they possibly can.

~ Hafiz

*************************************************** 

All the yogas,

whatever their source and character,

have only one aim:

To save you from the clamity of separate existence,

of being a meaningless dot in a vast and beautiful picture.

~ Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj

*************************************************** 

It is only with the heart that one can see rightly;

what is essential is essential in invisible to the eye.

~ The Fox to the Little Prince - Antoine de Saint-Exupery

 *************************************************** 

When you love,

give it everything you've got

and when you've reached your limit,

give it more

and forget the pain of it

because as you face your death, it's only the love which will count.

All the rest,

the accomplishments and struggles, the fights,

will be forgotten in your reflection

and if you have loved well, then it will have been worth it

and the joy of it will last you through to the end,

but if you have not death will always come too soon

and be too terrible to face.

~ Elizabeth Kubler-Ross 

*************************************************** 

Love exists for Love’s sake and nothing else. 

It is spontaneous and spreads delight.

Everything is permeated by Love. 

Love can conquer anything. 

Selfless, pure, unalloyed Love leads us to God. 

Selfish and constricted Love binds us to the world. 

Unable to comprehend the pure and sacred nature of Love,

We are prey to endless worries because of our attachment

to worldly objects. 

Our primary duty is to understand the truth about the Love principle. 

Once one understands the nature of Love, they will not go astray.

~ Sai Baba

*************************************************** 

The person who,

being really on the Way,

falls upon hard times in the world,

will not,

as a consequence,

turn to that friend who offers her refuge and comfort

and encourage their old self to survive.

Rather, she will seek out someone who will

faithfully and inexorably help her to risk herself,

so that she may endure the difficulty and

pass courageously through it. 

Only to the extent that a person exposes herself over

and over again to annihilation,

can that which is indestructible

be found within them. 

In this daring lies the dignity and

the spirit of true awakening.

~ Karlfried van Durkheim 

 *************************************************** 

When the mind is still,

tranquil,

not seeking any

answer or solution even,

neither resisting or avoiding,

it is only then

there can be a regeneration,

because

only then

is the mind capable of perceiving

what is true,

and it is the truth that liberates,

not our effort to be free.

~ Krishnamurti 

*************************************************** 

If we could read the secret history of our enemies,

we should find in 

each man's life

sorrow and suffering

enough to disarm all 
hostility.

~ Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

*************************************************** 

The Mystery does not get clearer

by repeating the question,

nor is it bought

with going to amazing places.

Until you’ve kept your eyes

And your wandering still for fifty years,

You don’t begin to cross over from confusion.

~ Rumi

***************************************************  

Come, come, whoever you are

Wanderer, fire worshipper, lover of leaving.

This is not a caravan of despair.

It does not matter that you have

Broken your vows a thousand times.

Still come, and yet again, come...

~ Rumi

***************************************************  

‎

"You are a great mystery of

Many multidimensional energies.

Accept it, and move with every energy,

With deep sensitivity, with awareness,

With love, with understanding.

Move with it!

Then every desire becomes a vehicle to go beyond it.

Then every energy becomes a help.

And then this very world is nirvana,

This very body is a temple –

A holy temple, a holy place."

~ Osho

*************************************************** 

“When you plant lettuce,

If it does not grow well,

 you don't blame the lettuce.

You look for reasons it is not doing well.

 It may need fertilizer, or more water, or less sun.

You never blame the lettuce.

Yet if we have problems with our friends or family,

We blame the other person.

But if we know how to take care of them,

They will grow well, like the lettuce.

Blaming has no positive effect at all,

Nor does trying to persuade using reason and argument.

That is my experience.

No blame, no reasoning, no argument, just understanding.

If you understand, and you show that you understand,

You can love, and the situation will change”

~ Thich Nhat Hanh

*************************************************** 

‎"As a single footstep will not make a path on the earth,

So a single thought will not make a pathway in the mind.

To make a deep physical path, we walk again and again.

To make a deep mental path, we must think over and over

The kind of thoughts we wish to dominate our lives."

~ Henry David Thoreau

***************************************************  

"The basic foundation of humanity is

Compassion and love.

This is why, if even a few individuals simply

Try to create mental peace and happiness

Within themselves and act responsibly and

Kind-heartedly towards others,

They will have a positive influence in their community."

~ Dalai Lama

***************************************************  

We either make ourselves miserable

Or we make ourselves happy.

The work is the same.

~ Carlos Castenada

***************************************************  

Copyright © 2013, by Britt B Steele. All rights reserved.