Let Your Arrogance Go

Words by 14^th century mystic poet Kabir:

…you know the sprout is hidden inside the seed.

We are all struggling; none of us has gone far.

Let your arrogance go, and look around inside.

The blue sky opens out farther and farther,

The daily sense of failure goes away,

The damage I have to myself fades,

A million suns come forward with light,

When I sit firmly in that world.

(translated by Robert Bly. As listed in Coming to Our Senses, Jan Kabat-Zinn, p.481)

Interdependence

When sauteing some sausage one day, I began to connect all the aspects that brought me there to that moment.  The industry, the artistry, the sacrifice, the learning from countless people in irretrievable ways.  Someone invented the stove I was cooking on, others manufactured it, still another hooked it up.  Someone prepared the sausage for the market, and others grew the peppers and onions.  Miles were driven to bring these ingredients to me, from fields, through factories, onto grocery shelves and then home. 

Someone figured out that rice can be boiled with a hint of saffron to create a desired taste which I easily prepare.  How many failed cooking attempts were there before the combination was known?  How much time spent till I could find its beauty in 25 minutes?  How many people fell ill -- even died -- of trichanosis, until we learned that sausage had to be cooked, and made it possible for me to safely prepare it for my family?  How many others risked their lives to create the technology of streamlining propane into cooking stoves?

The pots, the cutting board, the counter, the lights, the utensils..each gifts of knowledge and skill that have come into the abundance of my life.  And what about the sun, without which none of this and none of us would survive.  How about the earth, the rain, the wind, the air....

Our lives are plentiful beyond imagining and linked beyond detection.  May we honor the interdependent miracle of the the moments we have on earth.

Ego says...

Ego says that my thoughts are the most important.

                Soul waits for me to reconsider.

Ego says I am on my own and must fend for myself.

                Soul waits for me to reawaken connections.

Ego says I must be who I am.

                Soul agrees.

Ego asks, “who am I?”

                Soul replies, “ Loved”

Hope

I was sent this marvelous poem today:

Hope

 It hovers in dark corners
 before the lights are turned on,
 it shakes sleep from its eyes
 and drops from mushroom gills,
 it explodes in the starry heads
 of dandelions turned sages,
 it sticks to the wings of green angels
 that sail from the tops of maples.

 It sprouts in each occluded eye
 of the many-eyed potato,
 it lives in each earthworm segment
 surviving cruelty,
 it is the motion that runs the tail of a dog,
 it is the mouth that inflates the lungs
 of the child that has just been born.

 It is the singular gift
 we cannot destroy in ourselves,
 the argument that refutes death,
 the genius that invents the future,
 all we know of God.

 It is the serum which makes us swear
 not to betray one another;
 it is in this poem, trying to speak.

 ~ Lisel Mueller ~
 (Alive Together: New and Selected Poems)

Break the Spell

There have been times in my life when I have vascillated between disgust at what I have become and nauseous about all that I have...It's an ego game I've played, laced with ambition and shame...

A bore, really, when considering the universe. 

There are many such psychic prisons that I've known; feeling, somehow that there's no way out of self deprecation.  But truly, you know, there is a way out.  Through the heart in gratitude.  Through the mind, in humility.  Through the senses, in releasing the "drama of me" into the presence of wholeness.

When feeling that you are no good, just trust that you are wrong, and find a way to be kind or acknowledge beauty.  You may not feel immediately better, but you'll have begun to break the spell.

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.