I Wonder

I wonder...what is your story?

 

What were your moments of glory…

of the mundane…

of joy…

of sorrow…

of love…

of neglect…

of shame…

of courage…

 

How did you do navigating life's twists and turns...

navigating possibilities?

 

Did you seize them or by default let them seize you?

 

Where are the piles of ash that you rose triumphantly from?

Are there remnants of ash stubbornly still clinging to your shoes?

 

When you found that old door closed

 Is it true that there is always a window found opened wide?

 

I wonder...What is your story?

 

What are the revelations and epiphanies tucked away

  In your dresser drawers and in the folds of your heart?

 

 

Like the Tide to the Moon

Fall in love ...



No.

I shall rise in love

Like the tide to the moon

 Sweeping up

Facing toward

Releasing all that I am

Into that sweet gravitational pull

Yes. 

It is time for Humankind to rise in Love. 

High time I dare say,

High tide time.

Sister Love

I bare my soul and yet ... before you 

I know

That I am safe

(Photograph taken by Wendy Metcalfe)

  Though the winds of winter howl and cut

Though hungry animals  ~within and without~ prowl and hunt

I know

That I am safe

 

Though my hands, feet, and mind grow cold and numb

Though I willingly sold off sacred 

For a few shiny pieces of silver

And though I placed myself beyond the light of the sun

I know

That I am safe

 

Though thoughts circle and whisper words unkind

Though winter tears  blind

 

Warm sister love kisses upon them 

Encourage me to see again

And I know

That I am safe

Thank you

This Land, This Sky

A soil so red and ripe

A womb giving

birth to trees and grass

And all manner of rooted beings

A sky of ever-changing blue

Breathy with four winds

Giving flight to whispery winged creatures

Salty water

Oceanic baptismal

Surrounding, enveloping, restoring

Cut us and all of this

Will be what flows from our veins

For we are not merely affected by this place

Whether birthed here

Or lured by Siren call

The water in our blood

Rises and falls with the tides

Creating the lilt of voice

The iron red of 'soil and sand' fill our bones

Giving grit and weightiness

 To thoughts, words and actions

The landscape of this place

Is a part of you and I

We carry it: heart, mind, body and soul

Cut us and all of this

Will be what flows from our veins

Onoma

Today the giver of names

Came riding the wind

She called my onoma 

As a prayer it fell from her lips 

Laughing she dared to me to release myself into the wind.

"Let it touch you." 

"When it tugs at you, tug it back."

"It's sniffing you to see what kind of stuff you're made of. "

"Sniff it back."

"When it licks at your face and hands. Lick it back. Taste the wind. Swallow it."

"Engage girl. Don't run. Don't hide."

"Engage."

Today the giver of names
Came riding the wind
She called my onoma 
As a prayer it fell from her lips 

Today I Lift Up

Today I lift up and give thanks for the element Fire

Of Fire of sun and of Gaia`s core

Silently and Steadily

Bringing forth the change of Season

Of Fire of cellular burning brightly

Silently and Steadily

Birthing, dying, and regenerating

Renewing life daily in this body of mine

And in the bodies of my loved ones

Of Fire that burns in Touch and Hugs and Kisses

Silently and Steadily

Unifying me with the vulnerability of my humanness

Connection

Of Fire that radiates within my imagination

Silently and Steadily

Igniting `passion and activity`

Creation

Of Fire in the furnace and oven

Silently and Steadily

Enveloping me in a cocoon

A safe place

A place to `be broken and to heal`

A place to `break bread and share stories`

A place to `learn and grow,`

A place to `forgive and be forgiven`
A place to relearn what to love truly means

A place to just be.

I Bow Low

I bow low to God's creations
I bow to the cold of winter rising
To the lack of sun...the lack of flourishing life

I bow to the fox and all of wilderness
To their clever determination 
To live fully as long
As there is an ounce of breath in their bodies

I bow to the rose
That struggled to hold its bloom 
Through the late November chill
To the softness of fragrant petals
To the proud vigilance of its thorns

I bow low 

Lazy Sunday

Lazy Sunday pouring down over me

A preacher's blessing

Pancakes and hot coffee

Oh lazy Sunday

Do you know

You're exactly what I need

Oh lazy Sunday

Keep pouring your love down over me

Lazy Sunday flowing through my window

My curtains dancing

to my radio

Oh lazy Sunday

Do you know

You're the manna for my soul

Oh lazy Sunday

Keep pouring your love down over me

Keep pouring your love 

Down 

            Over

                      Me

All of our Eleventh Sons

If we are fortunate there will come a day

When after having gathered enough courage

We are able to answer the knock

That only the brave heart can hear.

The knock that heralds the beginning of a journey

To find all of our eleventh sons

The banished, the beaten and the sold off parts of our past.

 

Exiled and left unattended in our Goshens

Did we really brush off our hands and think, “That was that”

Did we really believe we were clever enough to move

All our eleventh sons beyond the reach of God’s potent dreams,

Of God’s saving grace, and redemption?

Did we really think the God who leaves the ninety-nine for the one

Could ever forget them and their colourful sacred wholeness?

 

If we are fortunate there will come a day

When after having gathered enough courage

We are able to answer the knock

That only the brave heart can hear…

 

 

Victoria By The Sea

She found herself on her knees

Digging in, she moved about the rich red sand
Her hands and a shell of a large weathered bar clam for tools
Her usual mind-chatter shut off and she was lost in the meditative flow
Of hands and body moving with raw elements of rock and ocean

Cupping a handful of soil, she brought it close to her face
She breathed in the strong smells of salt and unyielding infinity
Her mother and uncles grew up on the high cliffs just above where she now knelt
The hands of time opened and she realized a deep connection in that moment
Their knees may have knelt in play, in this same spot  before life revealed its complicated nature to them

Without a word she continued to work the sand before her
Willingly becoming a part of the whole
Her breath uniting with the music of the wind, waves, and gulls
Absorbing itself in the sand, seaweed and broken bits of  breathless crustaceans
Broken down matter and yet, matter that still gives, still sings life's song of re-creation

She remembered reading somewhere that we are all breathing the same air that Jesus breathed
That people on the other side of the world have breathed
The good, the bad, the beautiful, and the ugly
The same molecules are still circulating and we are all literally sharing them
It felt good knowing her mother's breath still lived on the wind

Sitting still within the miracle of that
She took three deep breaths

Breathing in the Past

Breathing in the Present

Breathing herself into the Future

Casting Stones

I can not know the fullness of another's past
Or how deeply their past has affected them...
I am not them

So a full understanding of how the cumulative effects of their past experiences has touched them...
Is beyond me

Unless, I too, have lived their life within their body, their heart, their soul how can I know for certain that I would not be making the same choices...
Or indeed perhaps worse ones

Who then would I be to cast the first stone?
Or any

As Woman Sleeps

As woman sleeps 

The Snowy owl comes

Watching over

Bringing the teachings of Winter moon

Bringing flowing rivers rich in dreams

A Fierce and Fearless Kind of Love

As she sifted through the debris of the past

She began to suspect that deep within the

Layers she had built up around her herself

There beat the heart of a great bear

A bear capable of a fierce and fearless kind of  loving.

In the Sweat Lodge

Gaia opened up her womb to me

Bending low

Returning

I sat with sisters and brothers

All of us, open-hearted wounded warriors

Praying

Singing
Drumming 

Drumming that awakened every cell 

Every cell dancing  
Becoming one with the drums

Beating in unisong

Beating in love

Responding to our Mother's call