An offering by the poet Hafiz

There is
A madman inside of you
Who is always running for office --
Why vote him in,
For he never keeps the accounts straight.
He gets all kinds of crooked deals
Happening all over town
That will just give you a big headache
And glue to your kisser
A gigantic
Confused
Frown.

-- translation by Daniel Ladinski

A House Blessing

(On the occasion of a house blessing for a habitat for humanity house.)

Source of All Being, Creator of All Things (known by many names)

We open our hearts to your blessings

May this home and this family: (name) 

Ever know health and joy, love and peace.

May every room and corner know your healing presence and patterns of grace.

May light and gladness, peace and companionship dwell in this home.

May the hospitality of this family increase hospitality in the world.

We thank you for this dwelling place and for the sacred life that fills it.

Blessings Be.  Amen.

A Parenting Opportunity

You have to say goodbye --
    to truly detach from old ways of relating.

Else you cling,
                intrude,
                     stumble,
                          embarrass.

You become a secret service person
    looking round the edges...
      never far yet out of range
          unless need or danger enters.

It is anonymous work.

No, really, you won't get credit for it.  That's not the point.

What is the point?
     the privilege to love.
         the delight in life made manifest.
              the witness of a new world emerging.

What a privilege.  What a gift.  What an opportunity for growth.

blessings be.

The Grace of Friendship

"If  the body is in pain," Thomas Moore points out, "one of the first things to look for is infection; if the soul is in pain, we might look for lack of friendship."  (from Soul Mates)

What is true about all the friendships we invite in our lives is that something within us is touched and challenged. We are given the opportunity to know ourselves better, having a mirror of a different angle than we could reflect.  In friendships, a new way of being presents itself and somehow merges into our understanding of life and our way of being in it.  We find we are not alone and that  indeed, somehow, we belong.  

In a friendship that is open to learning, one has no claim on the other. Each celebrates and encourages authentic response. This kind of friendship naturally lasts for life; not because it is supposed to, but because it embraces presence, the touch of the eternal.   With steady intention, a friendship easily lasts beyond a life, for in death a person dies, but not necessarily the regard, or even the relationship.

I've found that when I am surprised into a new perspective by a long-standing friend, my world is expanded, and I am persuaded into joy. This moment is often accompanied with laughter—the cleansing kind, the belly laugh that clears those energy blocks in an instant and gives one hope for what may come in the next moment.

When we are grounded in self and secure in our companionship, we can be open to surprise. When we know that however we field our days our friends will stay with us, we are free to respond without defensiveness or judgment. When we are free from the constraints of pretense, expectation, or possessiveness, we have a friendship that can bring out our stunning selves.

It is friendship that allows time its course without affecting the connection. Friendships need to be nurtured, but they also need to be trusted in order to last through the changes and turbulence that comes with life.

There are friends who can pick up conversations years after they were begun as if no time had passed at all. These are the friends that agree with a rhythm of relating that soothes the soul and reminds us of a piece of home, a calmness of heart that welcomes happiness.

Ralph Waldo Emerson surmised that "A friend may well be reckoned the masterpiece of Nature."

I am grateful for friends who have given me glimpses of the grace of friendship and for their generosity in helping me believe I was worthy of a good friend. 

May we endeavor to do this for each other. 

Human Being

What it is, is a journey of consciousness
    A flow of realization and discovery
         A participation of presence and manifestation
                A co-creation of joy and wonder.

All the rest is mirage and a chasing after wind.

Thrive

A colleague wrote on her e-mail signature the word "thrive".  Simply...thrive.  What a wonderful farewell.  Much more succinct than "live long and prosper" (thank you Spock), and not as easily misunderstood.  When we thrive we are in the zone of our whole being.  We are fully alive.  There is no comparison, nor waiting for more, nor tyranny of "should".  When we thrive we are dwelling in the wisdom of joy and gratitude.  Whatever is, is enough...and we are willling to enter the next moment.

From that simple charge from a colleague, I created an affirmation that sometimes helps to ground me.

I choose to be awake.
I choose to be fully present in love.
I choose to say "yes" to my life.
I choose to thrive.

That's Love

I was in a women’s self-defense class, clad in knee pads and elbow cushions, hidden behind a full helmet with a face cage.  We students looked ready for a roller derby, anxious and hesitant; though our soon-to-be physical contact with our teacher, the aggressor, was in no way a sport.  Our attire was light compared to that of our instructor, who donned pads and protections over most of her body in preparation for our forceful defense to simulated attacks.

As I stood on the sideline, nervously awaiting my turn, I watched our leader offer her skill, focus, body and determination to give us the chance to learn how to claim our space, our worth, our freedom to be.  She lumbered around, bite plate intact, commanding an outfit resembling the Michelin tire man, receiving blows, shouts, head butts and shoves to give us confidence, awareness, insight and options.

Our teacher/aggressor came to this work as a forensic nurse.  Having witnessed the result of violent crimes towards hundreds of women, ages 6 months to 96 years, she gathered her hard-earned wisdom to help transform society,  person by person.  This nurse, whose heart could have fully hardened from the world she observed in her days, opened herself to teach, to face reality and practice hope.

That’s love.

When we gather our vulnerability, our pain, our fear and yet choose to give, to share and affirm others, we manifest love.  When we teach because we have learned, when we embrace because we have needed holding, when we welcome our days because they are before us, we are practicing love.

That’s not something I expected to learn that evening.  But the lesson was there, and a blessing to behold.