Kissing the Earth

An aspiration and intention setting for this coming first week of February 2020. 

Inshallah it may come to pass.

As it was

As it is

As it shall be

Lost Words Blessing for Imbolc

The Lost Words Blessing

Enter the wild with care, my love
And speak the things you see
Let new names take and root and thrive and grow
And even as you travel far from heather, crag and river
May you like the little fisher, set the stream alight with glitter
May you enter now as otter without falter into water

Look to the sky with care, my love
And speak the things you see
Let new names take and root and thrive and grow
And even as you journey on past dying stars exploding
Like the gilded one in flight, leave your little gifts of light
And in the dead of night my darling, find the gleaming eye of starling
Like the little aviator, sing your heart to all dark matter

Walk through the world with care, my love
And sing the things you see
Let new names take and root and thrive and grow
And even as you stumble through machair sands eroding
Let the fern unfurl your grieving, let the heron still your breathing
Let the selkie swim you deeper, oh my little silver-seeker
Even as the hour grows bleaker, be the singer and the speaker
And in city and in forest, let the larks become your chorus
And when every hope is gone, let the raven call you home

Fierce Aloneness

Fierce aloneness freezes my eyes shut,
         darkness pervades like a dampened heavy cloak
My shoulders fall forward
   the void of all voids
beckons me into her deep embrace
  This cannot be my fate
       Not now
         Not today

I fear falling and falling forever
Gripped by this place
I shout for HELP reaching my hands into the nothing

hands meet mine
   the most tender loving hands
that guide me, I know not how

I begin to place delicate tremulous steps before me
  the fear ebbing away
    my body unfurls like a flower in the spring sun.

Every Year With Out Fail

... why?

JOMO

I found a new word today - Jomo - and I love it. More and more I am switching off from the hustle and bustle of life. Resisting the need to have a smart phone. No kindle. No fast food. Maybe it is a response too winter tickling the back of my legs. It is not here yet although it's tendrils are reaching out. It is the time of year when winter teachers begin to arrive. A deep slowing calls. Warmth and sunshine become that bit more precious and appreciated. The cave and the desire to hibernate call loudly. And Jomo is the watch word of the season.

Narrative Theology

And I said to him
Are there answers to all of this?
And she said
The answer is in a story
and the story is being told.

And I said
But there is so much pain
And he answered
Pain will happen.

Then I said
Will I ever find meaning?
And she said
You will find meaning
Where you give meaning.

The answer is in story
And the story isn’t finished.

The question is not where but now
there question’s never finished
or exhausted
and the answers in the asking
not the answer
the answer’s in the breathing of the question
in the love of holding onto
what was never whispered never seen
but what we dreamed of in the morning
then forgot while venus hid

the answer’s in the living not the knowing
the answer’s in the telling of the story
in half forgotten memory
and all unfinished stories

the answer’s in the showing time of senses
the answer’s in the question
in the learning
in the fading page of writing
in the letter sent to lovers
in the paying for the other
the answer is the generous

is the truthing

the absolutely truthful anger

and forgiving is the giving of what you don’t deserve
it’s what I’ll serve because you’re hungry
even though you may not know it

the answer’s in the living and the dying
in the trying for redemption on an empty hill of crosses
it’s the shoring up of hope and the gathering of losses
it’s the looking for companions in the hills and in the glens
it’s the waking up and walking up and starting up again
the answer’s in the living
and the trying.

And I said to the wise one,
what is the answer to all this
And they said the answer’s in the story
and the story’s just unfolding.

- Padraig O'Tuama -

from hymns to swear by, released March 17, 2010
I changed the gender in a few places to bring balance.

I am clearing a space

I am clearing a space
here, where the trees stand back.
I am making a circle so open
the moon will fall in love
and stroke these grasses with her silver. 

I am setting stones in the four directions,
stones that have called my name
from mountaintops and riverbeds, canyons and mesas.
Here I will stand with my hands empty,
mind gaping under the moon. 

I know there is another way to live.
When I find it, the angels
will cry out in rapture,
each cell of my body
will be a rose, a star. 

If something seized my life tonight,
if a sudden wind swept through me,
changing everything,
I would not resist.

I am ready for whatever comes. But I think it will be
something small, an animal
padding out from the shadows,
or a word spoken so softly
I hear it inside. 

It is dark out here, and cold.
The moon is stone.
I am alone with my longing.
Nothing is happening
but the next breath. 

Morgan Farley

Things Always Change

We travel at different speeds
I'm slow
You are laughter and burning energy
I listen deeply seeing shadows
You sleep long into the night
We meet each other in moments
Filled with expectation and yearning
We part with unmet needs
Hopeful of a future together
Filled with sunshine and flowers blooming
In brilliant colours
The shadows remain
And yet they to fade
As the days unfold and familiarity gently
Leans into the small corners of out lives
Music fills the air carrying lilting
Tones of resonant vibration

Fellow Traveller

Trees are Tree-mendous

I came across this imagine this morning. It visualises ways to work spiritually and energetically with trees. I love trees. And now I have more ways to communicate and connected with our one-legged friends.

Decentering

In the second half of 2018 there is much happening in the anti-fracking movement and the extinction rebellion group. It is part a response to the recently published IPCC report indicating the small timeframe left to redress climate change. People who otherwise would not typically be active environmentalists are being called into action. It's amazing to see.

At this time I am also reminded that humans are not at the centre of anything.

I do think we have a very inflated self obsessed sense of ourselves. By this I mean, everything is filtered through a very human-centric lens. It's hard not to do this. Nevertheless, our self-reflexivity does offer other options.

When it is suggested we are guardians or stewards of Earth and therefore must act to protect her. I want to suggest an alternative position, that we are instead temporary guests. Each one of us is passing through. Here for a short time.

From this view point;
What if, we de-center our self-importance?
Become more humble.
Become more grateful, caring and appreciative of all other forms of life.
What if, no one needs saving from no-thing?
What if, we do not need to shift human consciousness?

From an open hearted trusting place there is the potential that consciousness, will shift us. That potentiality is always present. Unfortunately too often fear gets before love. No judgement. It's very hard to sometimes even recognise fear is trumping love. Fear, scarcity, loss, hate, deprivation, trauma, anxiety are peddled every second of the day from the moment we are born. That is why we have an epidemic of mental disease and chronic tiredness. Learning how to meet and hold painful and fear-based energies, emotions, experiences is a life's work.

Recognising that light comes out of darkness and darkness comes out of light allows us to appreciate that polarities by definition are inseparable. To deny one is to deny them both simultaneously. You cannot know joy without knowing sorrow. When we truly see and feel the interconnectedness of all things we recognise that everything is ok. This is not to dismiss suffering. It is to recognise it does not exist in isolation. And to hold suffering we need to come into relationship with all of life.

Then being human is transformed from this very diminished place of consumer, careerist, capitalist into a dancing co-creator. Life is not a linear industrial machine striving for productivity, efficiency and an optimalism. Life is a cyclical relationship of reciprocity, generosity and creativity. Change, movement and dynamism are continuous as life seeks further and deeper expression of itself.

All of which takes me to the words of Jalaluddin Rumi.

"This being human is a guest house. Every morning a new arrival. A joy, a depression, a meanness, some momentary awareness comes as an unexpected visitor. Welcome and entertain them all! Even if they’re a crowd of sorrows, who violently sweep your house empty of its furniture, still, treat each guest honorably. He may be clearing you out for some new delight. The dark thought, the shame, the malice, meet them at the door laughing, and invite them in. Be grateful for whoever comes, because each has been sent as a guide from beyond" (translated by Coleman Barks).

You don't need permission, just go be you.

Cash is King @ The Saatchi Gallery

A brilliantly imaginative exhibition at the Saatchi Gallery. 

Cash is King; the art of defacing money. 

Each banknote is a mini piece of graffiti.