Maintain (3.20.04)

The Wisdom of Iris Murdoch

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Every human soul has seen perhaps even before their birth, pure forms such as justice, temperance, beauty and all the great moral qualities which we hold in honor. We are moved toward what is good by the faint memory of these forms, simple and calm and blessed, which we saw once in a pure, clear light, being pure ourselves.

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Human beings love each other in sex, in friendship, and when they are in love and cherish other beings. Human, animals, plants and even stones. The quest for happiness and the promotion of happiness is in all of this and the power of our imagination.


Note to self and you dear reader:

Something about these absolutely moves me to silence and contemplation today. And while I keep to myself out of arms lengths of those I would have hold me, I pray that light keeps me company in their stead.

haikus

What about tonight
and then what of tomorrow
Fresh sunrise for all!

Moon come to bed now
with me alone this evening
Promise you the Moon

All the trees I trust
Are urging me, Surrender
You will like the ride

To Pause, to Wonder
To Declare, to Surrender
To Dive in, Divine

All the birds agree
Offering advice on love
All they do is Love

The catalyst

I meet myself to indulge in a feast for my senses
revisiting the scent of a promised embrace
imagining the feel of being firmly caught up
by outstretched arms
and making sweet love against a standing stone that faces the sea

Sand between my toes
I will take to bed with me this night

And to think it has yet to happen

A grand dousing of possibility colored my fresh canvas this day
A watercolor wash rich in pure bright pigments of passion and vitality
Applied heavily in undulating brush strokes
Took my breath away
I look now like a spent native dancer
bejewelled and drenched in colors
that smudged all I touched

A grand dousing of possibility colored my fresh canvas this day
And to think it has yet to happen.

It is a lovely conversation that leaves me
closer and closer and closer
to the Beloved

The longest note of the year

I shall cry myself to sleep tonight I suspect
Moved by my own state of feeling complete vulnerability
Wondering if the last days hours have been
Real or Imagined

Real or Imagined
Still real.
Oh how easily I will open the door to those who knock
Inviting ecstasy in for a rendez-vous
Eternally spontaneous me always praying for the Divine Beloved to drop by for tea
And stay.

And with Uranus in orbit above me
A shimmering network of light dancing about her body
My hands reach to brush the electric tendrils
I am shocked
Ever so gently again and again
By electricity hungry for connection
A hunger I had misplaced in myself
And found again last night

And so I will begin to compose to the muse

The longest note of the year.

Refuse to fall down.

A Prayer

Refuse to fall down.
If you cannot refuse to fall down,refuse to stay down.
If you cannot refuse to stay down,
lift your heart toward heaven,
and like a hungry beggar,ask that it be filled,
and it will be filled.You may be pushed down.
You may be kept from rising.
But no one can keep youfrom lifting your hearttoward heaven - only you.
It is in the middle of miserythat so much becomes clear.
The one who says nothing goodcame of this,is not yet listening.

© Clarissa Pinkola Estes
From The Faithful GardnerPublished by HarperSanFrancisco, 1995

"We're like trees: our roots spread through the earth, anchoring us and helping us absorb water and minerals that keep us alive. But when a tree gets cut down and is disconnected from it's life force the earth, it slowly withers away and dies. Just as our spirits do when they are disconnected from our life force the earth." - Unknown