holiday in haiku

will the rain become
snow, falling softly in time
for christmas morning?

my little one asks
she'd have it no other way
it's top on her list

this morning she sang
in choir with hands and fingers
silent night in signs

we offered standing
ovations with feathery
fingers, light as snow

silver bells and colored lights
pale beside the glow of this quiet song

to you dear reader, deep gratitude

Thanks-for-giving

A morning walk with
soft sunlight on green grasses
a lake of living

Lover singing in
the foreground of the day
happiness contagious

Tom calling early
sweet gratitude for that call
on this Wednesday

Silly am I for
discerning the calls today
are more love filled

Spacious is mood
Tender the blue with creamed clouds
Dancing like they do

When might we walk again?
When might we rest in the grasses?
To watch the sky a while?

Possibility: Possibility is all that can be. There is possibility beyond what seems reasonable, predictable, comfortable, or attainable.

Responsibility: Being responsible leaves people at the source of their lives, at choice, and able to act effectively.

Integrity & Well-Being: Integrity and Well-Being are the foundation to having a life or business that works. Fundamental to integrity are completion and authenticity. Fundamental to well-being is self-care.

Essence: People have a pure, essential nature. Operating from this place, people create extraordinary relationships and unprecedented results in their lives.

Love: Love is what exists naturally within and between people. Removing the barriers to the experience of this love profoundly alters the quality of people's lives.

It's been a melt in your mouth
kind of day and I'd take a second helping.

Haiku

Evening alone
Moon rapidly growing ripe
Blueberries in season

Poised to pick berries
Come the cool morning
I'll pluck down the moon

What dreams come this night
I'll net like butterflies
And extend two palms

Palms that hold nectar
Palms to rest upon a while
Palms to take flight from

A drumsound rises on the air, it's throb my heart

You dance inside my chest where no one sees you

But sometimes I do, and that sight becomes this art

There are no separating distances here

This is love's sanctuaryThis is how the soul looks

Rub your eyes and look again at love, with love

~ Rumi

noctural wanderings

embracing graceful
abilities to again
pen haiku as breath

and when I think slow
will it blossom again?
i can only hope so

at the park today
children amassed woodchip piles
boys against the girls

something is brewing
can you feel it in the air?
conspires, keeps me up

old friend wrote today
"lovely to hear from me"
oh that they replied!

sleeping strongly advised
why the resistance?
i might miss something!

love keeps me company
it's sleeping in the other room
seven years of it

what kind of day comes
tomorrow? i suppose one
as precious as today

i walk in circles with myself
knowing that for all of spring's blossoms that may birth fruit
where butterflies or bees stopped to bless them
there are moons that must wax and wane
before the harvest time

and the moon will not be rushed

what is
is

and i do not question it
i simply live it

or try to
to the best of my
capacity

what is it that matters most?

i.
that i was transparent like clear water
simply in the flow of the water
never resisting
the great rocks of what is before me
that i must simply navigate through
where i can't go through the rocks
though i may soften their edges
over time and with persistence
both fierce and gentle

ii.
my human moments
are like the stray shards
chipped and flying all ways
as the sculptor cuts away
at the stone
committed to revealing
the essence and form within
till i am but a pile of shards and dust

iii.
i am
somewhere in the nowhere
all and no-thing
i am not the shards and remnants
nor am i the stone the sculptor begins with
i look forward to the day
i am but a pile of dust and shards
add water
once again i am fresh clay

can you love this the rest of the days?

Excerpt from a Letter from Mira:

As we sow seeds of love this spring, let's embrace and love all that arises.

LOOK AT LOVE
how it tangles
with the one fallen in love

look at spirit
how it fuses with earth
giving it new life

why are you so busy
with this or that or good or bad
pay attention to how things blend

why talk about all
the known and the unknown
see how unknown merges into the known

why think separately
of this life and the next
when one is born from the last

look at your heart and tongue
one feels but deaf and dumb
the other speaks in words and signs

look at water and fire
earth and wind
enemies and friends all at once

the wolf and the lamb
the lion and the deer
far away yet together

look at the unity of this
spring and winter
manifested in the equinox

you too must mingle my friends
since the earth and the sky
are mingled just for you and me

be like sugarcane
sweet yet silent
don't get mixed up with bitter words

my beloved grows
right out of my own heart
how much more union can there be.-

RUMI

ghazal number 2381,
translated March 9, 1992
by Nader Khalili.

Note from the Universe

If you could live this life over, Deborah, would you still want there to be the same challenges?
Loaded question, huh?

Yeah, you cherry-picked each and every one. And you knew exactly what you were doing.
In awe of you -

The Universe

Without Why

Well, without why
the world becomes easier to navigate
doing what one does
for no other reason
than one chooses to

No Why.

Know Why?

When I don't need to know why then I know I am on to something!

Bliss my companion

meditation on a fait accompli

fait accompli \fay-tah-kom-PLEE; fet-ah-\, noun;plural faits accomplis \same or -PLEEZ\: An accomplished and presumably irreversible deed or fact.

Fait accompli comes from the French, literally meaning "accomplished fact": fait, from Latin factum, "a thing done," from factus, past participle of facere, "to make or do" + accompli, past participle of accomplir, from Latin ad- + complere, "to fill up, to complete," from com- + plere, "to fill."

Are there any really?

Namaste

So many souls
Today will pause
To reflect
On the 364 unbirthdays and the one birthday
That makes up their personal year

I see no point in being detailed
Simple is my focus
Anyday

to love, to love, to love

12.31.06

Dances of Universal Peace: Letter from Mira

Dear Ones,

Many warm blessings during the holy nights and the upcoming Epiphany, the emerging of the light from the core of the earth, spilling up and over upon the earth's surface and all her inhabitants.

May we all be enriched by the upcoming seeds we choose to plant individuallyand together.May we all be touched by Samuel Lewis' words below:

and Hu Haqq to all!

To the Life we plant and cultivate,

Mira

Now the way of the Sufis is to lull the devil to sleep rather than rouse himto wakefulness because of opposition. So there are just two modes of action:either opposition to unrighteousness or cultivation of righteousness.

Opposition to unrighteousness is like pulling weeds from a garden where oneis not so sure they may not grow again. Cultivating righteousness is theimplanting of flowers or trees which will choke out the weeds by themselves.

As opposition to unrighteousness sometimes leads to self righteousness, the cultivating of the heart qualities is often the superior way, and the path of the saint is generally preferable to that of the prophet or master.

Murshid Samuel L. Lewis
The Book of Peace


P.S Oh to dance is to pray is to love is to be the light that we are. Deborah

Rainer Maria Rilke

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

These are the 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 it's seriousness.
Give me your hand.

Rainer Maria Rilke (1875-1926)
The Book of a Monastic Life
Translated by Anita Barrows and Joanna Macy

morning meditation to a beloved

Beloved,

from a dream
I can't remember
do I wake
pondering and knowing
I would drink in
the scent of your skin
were you near
were you here
before the day begins
before we set
about to tasks
we lovingly will begin or complete
tasks both sacred and mundane

for we have loved
one another
before all else
setting the tone
lighting the stage
for a dance
an adventure
without why and therefore
all things possible is our guide
and our deep minds speak well to each other
and our hearts practice silence
that god and goddess keep company with us
another day, another night


I wake overflowing
with a desire to love, to love, to love
to love all that crosses my path
to cherish those that meet my gaze

let me pour myself like honey
into your open mouth
and i will caress you
from the inside out


a good theme for any day

When someone else says it well

Dawn creeps in
crystal clear
intrepid
yet
calm

endings
become
beginnings

savor this juncture
for the road ahead
is long
and arduous

but in this moment
all things
are possible

'97 Judy Anne

Solstice

deep in the forest
the liqueur in trees slows
the ground blanketed with pine needles gently throbs
birds though still declaring joy
their last choruses buoy my heart
darkness need not chill me
winter light insulates me on grey mornings
the slice of light seeks always the soul
a soul in contemplation
a soul in silence
a soul in chaos
a soul in love
a soul open

committed to being lived through

Full Moon Meditation

My deepest place of center is resisting sleep
Pushing away the very notion of rest
I howl at she who would have me for her lover this night
And cast aside anything that comes between the light of she and my skin
And through the veil of fog
Still she glows the white of fresh fallen snow
With watery edges that caress a soul into song
Eclipsing my concerns
That the timbre of my voice not please her
That the curve of my breast bone not invite her
To plunge into my heart space
Consume all that I am
Leaving me as whole as I have ever felt
Since last she was full before me

oh what inspires me this instant?

INTENTION
Live with intention.
Walk to the edge.
Continue to learn.
Play with abandon.
Choose with no regret.
LAUGH.
Do what you love.
Live as if this is all there is.

m.a. hershey

The Work of Byron Katie

Four Questions
1. Is it true?
2. Can you absolutely know that it's true?
3. How do you react when you believe that thought?
4. Who would you be without the thought?

And remember to turn it around.

For it always comes back to...

I seek the gap again
between edges of memories
where no words suffice
And what to say to Beloveds
who also feel you breathe

To say naught is best
then all remains understood
for Winter gifts us Spring

Tanka

the moon light betwixt
weave of branches bare
half an orb away
she who would come to his bed
only to leave by morning