A Prayer for You

18-04-05

Reflecting on Springtime, and persistence. Here is Ada Limón's "Instructions on Not Giving Up." In-joy, my friends, and happy spring wherever you are.

Instructions on Not Giving Up

More than the fuchsia funnels breaking out

of the crabapple tree, more than the neighbor’s

almost obscene display of cherry limbs shoving

their cotton candy-colored blossoms to the slate

sky of Spring rains, it’s the greening of the trees

that really gets to me. When all the shock of white

and taffy, the world’s baubles and trinkets, leave

the pavement strewn with the confetti of aftermath,

the leaves come. Patient, plodding, a green skin

growing over whatever winter did to us, a return

to the strange idea of continuous living despite

the mess of us, the hurt, the empty. Fine then,

I’ll take it, the tree seems to say, a new slick leaf

unfurling like a fist to an open palm, I’ll take it all.

18-03-28

I keep coming back to this poem lately. Besides the obvious perfection of these words, I'm not quite sure why this poem continues to roll around inside of me. However, I am deeply grateful for the mystery at play within myself. Also, took this as a sign to post it. Perhaps you feel the same way? Here is "Respect" by Melissa Studdard. Thankyou Melissa, for this comforting and curious creation. Love and blessings to all.

Respect

Because her body is winter inside a cave

because someone built

fire there and forgot to put it out

because bedtime is a castle

she’s building inside herself

with a moat

and portcullis

and buckets full of mist

because when you let go

the reins

horses

tumble over cliffs and turn

into moths before hitting bottom

because their hooves leave streaks of midnight

in the sky

because stuffed rabbits

are better at keeping secrets

than stopping hands

because when the world got

shoved up inside her

she held it tight like a kegel ball

and wondered

at the struggle Atlas had

carrying such a tiny thing

on his back

18-03-21

Dreaming, sensing, spring in all its beauty and splendor. I love feeling into the spirit of the earth this time of year. I hope you enjoy William Carlos Williams' "Spring and All [By the road to the contagious hospital]." And, I hope you enjoy spring wherever you are. Love and blessing to you.

Spring and All [By the road to the contagious hospital]

By the road to the contagious hospital

under the surge of the blue

mottled clouds driven from the

northeast-a cold wind. Beyond, the

waste of broad, muddy fields

brown with dried weeds, standing and fallen

patches of standing water

the scattering of tall trees

All along the road the reddish

purplish, forked, upstanding, twiggy

stuff of bushes and small trees

with dead, brown leaves under them

leafless vines-

Lifeless in appearance, sluggish

dazed spring approaches-

They enter the new world naked,

cold, uncertain of all

save that they enter. All about them

the cold, familiar wind-

Now the grass, tomorrow

the stiff curl of wildcarrot leaf

One by one objects are defined-

It quickens: clarity, outline of leaf

But now the stark dignity of

entrance-Still, the profound change

has come upon them: rooted, they

grip down and begin to awaken

18-03-15

I am inspired by a recent prayer request for truth and honesty. Here is Kaveh Akbar's "What Seems Like Joy". So grateful for these vulnerable words. They are openings for us all. Blessings and love to you always.

What Seems Like Joy

how much history is enough history before we can agree

to flee our daycares to wash everything away and start over

leaving laptops to be lost in the wet along with housecats and Christ’s

own mother even a lobster climbs away from its shell a few

times a life but every time I open my eyes I find

I am still inside myself each epiphany dull and familiar

oh now I am barefoot oh now I am lighting the wrong end

of a cigarette I just want to be shaken new like a flag whipping

away its dust want to pull out each of my teeth

and replace them with jewels I’m told what seems like joy

is often joy that the soul lives in the throat plinking

like a copper bell I’ve been so young for so many years

it’s all starting to jumble together joy jeweling copper

its plink a throat sometimes I feel beautiful and near dying

like a feather on an arrow shot through a neck other times

I feel tasked only with my own soreness like a scab on the roof

of a mouth my father believed in gardens delighting

at burying each thing in its potential for growth some years

the soil was so hard the water seeped down slower than the green

seeped up still he’d say if you’re not happy in your own yard

you won’t be happy anywhere I’ve never had a yard but I’ve had apartments

where water pipes burst above my head where I’ve scrubbed

a lover’s blood from the kitchen tile such cleaning

takes so much time you expect there to be confetti at the end

what we’ll need in the next life toothpaste party hats

and animal bones every day people charge out of this world

squealing good-bye human behavior! so long acres

of germless chrome! it seems gaudy for them to be so cavalier

with their bliss while I’m still here lurching into my labor

hanging by my hair from the roof of a chapel churchlight thickening

around me or wandering into the woods to pull apart eggshells emptying

them in the dirt then sewing them back together to dry in the sun

18-03-07

Contemplating the phrase from this poem: "nothing can hurt you." Nothing can hurt me. I am feeling love instead. Do you want to join me? Here is "A Myth of Devotion" by Louise Glück. In-joy! In love!

A Myth of Devotion

When Hades decided he loved this girl

he built for her a duplicate of earth,

everything the same, down to the meadow,

but with a bed added.

Everything the same, including sunlight,

because it would be hard on a young girl

to go so quickly from bright light to utter darkness

Gradually, he thought, he’d introduce the night,

first as the shadows of fluttering leaves.

Then moon, then stars. Then no moon, no stars.

Let Persephone get used to it slowly.

In the end, he thought, she’d find it comforting.

A replica of earth

except there was love here.

Doesn’t everyone want love?

He waited many years,

building a world, watching

Persephone in the meadow.

Persephone, a smeller, a taster.

If you have one appetite, he thought,

you have them all.

Doesn’t everyone want to feel in the night

the beloved body, compass, polestar,

to hear the quiet breathing that says

I am alive, that means also

you are alive, because you hear me,

you are here with me. And when one turns,

the other turns—

That’s what he felt, the lord of darkness,

looking at the world he had

constructed for Persephone. It never crossed his mind

that there’d be no more smelling here,

certainly no more eating.

Guilt? Terror? The fear of love?

These things he couldn’t imagine;

no lover ever imagines them.

He dreams, he wonders what to call this place.

First he thinks: The New Hell. Then: The Garden.

In the end, he decides to name it

Persephone’s Girlhood.

A soft light rising above the level meadow,

behind the bed. He takes her in his arms.

He wants to say I love you, nothing can hurt you

but he thinks

this is a lie, so he says in the end

you’re dead, nothing can hurt you

which seems to him

a more promising beginning, more true.

18-02-23

Inspired and uplifted today by this poem by Cortney Lamar Charleston called “I’m Rooting for Everybody Black.” With love and blessing to everyone, in joy!

“I’m Rooting for Everybody Black”

—Issa Rae

Everybody Black is my hometown team. Everybody Black

dropped the hottest album of the year, easy. Everybody Black

is in this show, so I’m watching. Everybody Black is in this movie,

so I’m watching. Everybody Black wore it better, tell the truth.

Everybody Black’s new book was beautiful. How you don’t

know about Everybody Black?! Everybody Black mad

underrated. Everybody Black remind me of someone I know.

I love seeing Everybody Black succeed. I hope Everybody Black

get elected. Everybody Black deserves the promotion more than

anybody. I want Everybody Black to find somebody special.

Everybody Black is good peoples. Everybody Black been through

some things. Everybody Black don’t get the credit they’re due. I met

Everybody Black once and they were super chill and down-to-earth.

I believe in Everybody Black. There’s something about Everybody Black.

source

18-02-14

In honour of love, in every manifestation. For the ways we know love to be, and for unknown of love, which we are still in the process of accepting and trusting. Today, let's make it safe to surrender to love in all it's many forms. I hope you also enjoy this poem by Donika Kelly called "The moon rose over the bay. I had a lot of feelings."

The moon rose over the bay. I had a lot of feelings.

I am taken with the hot animal

of my skin, grateful to swing my limbs

and have them move as I intend, though

my knee, though my shoulder, though something

is torn or tearing. Today, a dozen squid, dead

on the harbor beach: one mostly buried,

one with skin empty as a shell and hollow

feeling, and, though the tentacles look soft,

I do not touch them. I imagine they

were startled to find themselves in the sun.

I imagine the tide simply went out

without them. I imagine they cannot

feel the black flies charting the raised hills

of their eyes. I write my name in the sand:

Donika Kelly. I watch eighteen seagulls

skim the sandbar and lift low in the sky.

I pick up a pebble that looks like a green egg.

To the ditch lily I say I am in love.

To the Jeep parked haphazardly on the narrow

street I am in love. To the roses, white

petals rimmed brown, to the yellow lined

pavement, to the house trimmed in gold I am

in love. I shout with the rough calculus

of walking. Just let me find my way back,

let me move like a tide come in.

Source

18-02-07

GROUP PRAYER INVITATION

Please join our prayer group on Sunday, February 11, 2018 from 9:00 - 9:30 am EST.

We will pray together for 30 min. The topic is: unity consciousness.

If you are called participate, all you have to do is sit quietly and focus your attention on feeling one with all energies The overall vibrations are of compassion and self-love. Together, we amplify these frequencies for the world.

Please join me in prayer for our togetherness.

18-01-31

I love the sweetness and simplicity conveyed in this poem. I hope you enjoy it too. Here is "I Cannot Be Quiet an Hour" by Mary Ruefle. Love to you!

I Cannot Be Quiet an Hour

I begin

to talk to violets.

Tears fall into my soup

and I drink them.

Sooner or later

everyone donates something.

I carry wood, stone, and

hay in my head.

The eyes of the violets

grow very wide.

At the end of the day

I reglue the broken foot

of the china shepherd

who has put up with me.

Next door, in the house

of the clock-repairer,

a hundred clocks tick

at once. He and his wife

go about their business

sleeping peacefully at night.

18-01-24

A poem for you today called "What Seems Like Joy" by Kaveh Akbar. I love the truth and honesty. I love how each of us naturally has a unique persepctive we are urged to bring forth and share with the world. I love the call to release the old so as to venture into the unknown of a future we are always in the process of creating. Thank you for creating with me. I am so grateful for our togetherness.

What Seems Like Joy

how much history is enough history before we can agree

to flee our daycares to wash everything away and start over

leaving laptops to be lost in the wet along with housecats and Christ’s

own mother even a lobster climbs away from its shell a few

times a life but every time I open my eyes I find

I am still inside myself each epiphany dull and familiar

oh now I am barefoot oh now I am lighting the wrong end

of a cigarette I just want to be shaken new like a flag whipping

away its dust want to pull out each of my teeth

and replace them with jewels I’m told what seems like joy

is often joy that the soul lives in the throat plinking

like a copper bell I’ve been so young for so many years

it’s all starting to jumble together joy jeweling copper

its plink a throat sometimes I feel beautiful and near dying

like a feather on an arrow shot through a neck other times

I feel tasked only with my own soreness like a scab on the roof

of a mouth my father believed in gardens delighting

at burying each thing in its potential for growth some years

the soil was so hard the water seeped down slower than the green

seeped up still he’d say if you’re not happy in your own yard

you won’t be happy anywhere I’ve never had a yard but I’ve had apartments

where water pipes burst above my head where I’ve scrubbed

a lover’s blood from the kitchen tile such cleaning

takes so much time you expect there to be confetti at the end

what we’ll need in the next life toothpaste party hats

and animal bones every day people charge out of this world

squealing good-bye human behavior! so long acres

of germless chrome! it seems gaudy for them to be so cavalier

with their bliss while I’m still here lurching into my labor

hanging by my hair from the roof of a chapel churchlight thickening

around me or wandering into the woods to pull apart eggshells emptying

them in the dirt then sewing them back together to dry in the sun

18-01-08

A 'little prayer' for you today by Danez Smith. May all of 2018 be as elegant and profoud. Best wishes to you today and always. ♡

little prayer

let ruin end here

let him find honey

where there was once a slaughter

let him enter the lion’s cage

& find a field of lilacs

let this be the healing

& if not let it be

17-12-21

Happy holidays everyone! Much love to you and yours. I am so grateful for our toegetherness. See you again in the new year. ♡

17-12-14

GROUP PRAYER INVITATION

Please join our prayer group on Sunday, December 25, 2017 from 9:00 - 9:30 am EST.

We will pray together for 30 min. The topic is: oneness

Please join me in prayer for our togetherness.

17-12-05

Reflecting today on these powerful words of Rolling Thunder. Thank you for being here. Thank you for your loving presence.

“The most basic principle of all is that of not harming others, and that includes all people and all life and all things. It means not controlling or manipulating others, not trying to manage their affairs. It means not going off to some other land and killing people over there - not for religion or politics or military exercises or any other excuse. No being has the right to harm or control any other being. No individual or government has the right to force others to join or participate in any group or system or to force others to go to school, to church, or to war. Every being has the right to live her/his own life in her/his own way. Every being has an identity and a purpose. To live up to her/his purpose, every being has the power of self-control, and that’s where spiritual power begins. When some of these fundamental things are learned, the time will be right for more to be revealed and spiritual power will come again to this land."

-Rolling Thunder

17-11-22

Happy Thanksgiving weekend. To celebrate, here is "Slowly in Prayer" by Matthew Lippman. Much love to you this weekend and always.

Slowly in Prayer

To be thankful for the Starbucks lady, Lucy,

who is pissed at me for asking too many questions

about my damn phone app

is one thing.

To be thankful for my wife plastering my face to the bathroom floor

with pancake batter

for missing the bus

is another thing.

I tried to be thankful for my eyes this morning

even though one of them is filled with pus

and the other with marigold juice.

Marigold juice is the stuff that comes from the flower

when you put it between your palms and rub, slowly in prayer,

even though nothing comes out.

It’s the imagined juice of God,

the thing you can’t see when you are not being thankful.

I try to be thankful for the lack of energy that is my laziness

and my lonely best friend with no wife and children

knowing I am as lonely as he

with one wife and two daughters.

Sometimes we travel five minutes to the pier in Red Hook

and it takes hours in our loneliness to know, in our thankfulness,

that if we held hands it’d be a quiet romance for the ages.

I’ll admit, I’m thankful for Justin Timberlake

because he’s better than Beethoven

and my friend Aaron

who lived in the woods with an axe and never used it once.

I try hard to forget love,

to abandon love,

so that one day I will actually be able to love.

Until then, I am thankful that Lucy wanted to spit in my coffee,

or imagined that she did,

and thanked her profusely

for showing me which buttons to push

and how to do it, with just the right amount of pressure,

the whole tips of all my fingers dancing like stars

through the blackness

of a mocha latte, black.

17-11-01

GROUP PRAYER INVITATION

Please join our prayer group on Sunday, November 05, 2017 from 9:00 - 9:30 am EST.

We will pray together for 30 min. The topic is: peace

If you are called participate, all you have to do is sit quietly and focus your attention on a feeling of peace. The overall vibrations are of compassion and self-love. Together, we amplify these frequencies for the world.

Please join me in prayer for peace.

17-10-27

Thank you to Alex Manley for this poem called "Numinous." It feels like a window into my soul. Blessings to all, and love.

Numinous

When the pantheon crumbles, does gravity still work?

What happens to the arcing satellites? What do you do

when the high priests have hung up their mitres, when

the shepherd crooks have all gone straight, when the

curtain is torn, the covenant broke, the tithes spilled all

across the tiles? Which parishes do you frequent, whose

statutes do you study, whose name is on your lips when

you self-flagellate? To whom do you whisper your death

bed confession, alone in the dark, lying atop a certain hill,

bleeding on a certain throne of thorns? What do you do

when the sky opens? There are books about this, but

none written from experience. Like how a baby’s first word

isn’t really its first word, just the first one that’s understood.

The process of rapprochement happens slowly, then all

at once. Just like the apocalypse, which is unevenly

distributed, but speeding up. Here we go. Into the breach.

17-10-20

I love how this poem calls in the light! Here is "May Perpetual Light Shine" by Patricia Spears Jones. Let's ponder the stars embracing together. Let's embrace each other energetically, and feel connected by our love. ☆ ♡

May Perpetual Light Shine

We have encountered storms

Perfect in their drench and wreck

Each of us bears an ornament of grief

A ring, a notebook, a ticket torn, scar

It is how humans know their kind—

What is known as love, what can become

the heart’s food stored away for some future

Famine

Love remains a jewel in the hand, guarded

Shared fragments of earth & air drift & despair.

We ponder what patterns matter other than moons and tides:

musical beats—rumba or waltz or cha cha cha

cosmic waves like batons furiously twirling

colors proclaiming sparkle of darkness

as those we love begin to delight

in the stars embracing

17-10-04

GROUP PRAYER INVITATION

Please join our prayer group on Sunday, October 08, 2017 from 9:00 - 9:30 am EST.

We will pray together for 30 min. The topic is: freedom to be you.

If you are called participate, all you have to do is sit quietly and focus your attention on a feeling of freedom. The overall vibrations are of compassion and self-love. Together, we amplify these frequencies for the world.

Please join me in prayer as we explore freedom.

17-09-27

I love this poem by JP Howard called "praise poets and their pens". I love the soft and subtle things that soothe us, and invite us to more love. Sending my prayers and blessings to you today and always.

praise poets and their pens

dedicated to my 30/30 crew

praise daily poems in my inbox

how they make me laugh in one stanza,

then break my heart the next

praise how poets hold onto our first loves,

and scent of mama, now gone

praise how we nurture our child self,

gently wrap her around stanzas,

baby girl is resilient

praise our spunk and our sadness,

let our writing heal

at home, at work, in cafés, even in the ICU

praise how we hold our memories up to light,

gentle and cupped in palm of hands

praise our rough and sexy poems,

sometimes that’s all we need

fiyah in the sheets

praise bebop and jazz

how my foot taps when i

speak your poems out loud

praise power of music and mama

who played Nancy Wilson all night long,

crying behind a closed door.

praise how i wrote a new poem this week,

while my sick child laid on my lap,

because everyone needs to heal, especially mamas.

17-09-20

GROUP PRAYER INVITATION

Please join our prayer group on Sunday, September 24, 2017 from 9:00 - 9:30 am EST.

We will pray together for 30 min. The topic is: joy.

If you are called participate, all you have to do is sit quietly and focus your attention on a feeling of joy. The overall vibrations are of compassion and self-love. Together, we amplify these frequencies for the world.

Please join me in prayer as we channel joy.

17-09-12

Immense love and appreciation for this poem by Alice Oswald. I also see myself as a variation of invisibility, visibility. The light makes me real. You make me real. Thank you for being here. Thank you for our togetherness. (Even if we can't really fully understand our connectedness most times, I feel it, and I am so grateful.)

Full Moon

Good God!

What did I dream last night?

I dreamt I was the moon.

I woke and found myself still asleep.

It was like this: my face misted up from inside

And I came and went at will through a little peephole.

I had no voice, no mouth, nothing to express my trouble,

except my shadows leaning downhill, not quite parallel.

Something needs to be said to describe my moonlight.

Almost frost but softer, almost ash but wholer.

Made almost of water, which has strictly speaking

No feature, but a kind of counter-light, call it insight.

Like in woods, when they jostle their hooded shapes,

Their heads congealed together, having murdered each other,

There are moon-beings, sound-beings, such as deer and half-deer

Passing through there, whose eyes can pierce through things.

I was like that: visible invisible visible invisible.

There's no material as variable as moonlight.

I was climbing, clinging to the underneath of my bones, thinking:

Good God! Who have I been last night?

17-09-07

GROUP PRAYER INVITATION

Please join our prayer group on Sunday, September 10, 2017 from 9:00 - 9:30 am EST.

We will pray together for 30 min. The topic is: balance.

If you are called participate, all you have to do is sit quietly and focus your attention on balance. The overall vibrations are of compassion and self-love. Together, we amplify these frequencies for the world.

Please join me in prayer as we open to more balance in our lives.

17-08-31

Please find below a poem by Rumi called "This World Which Is Made Of Our Love For Emptiness." Today I pray we are free of who we think we are so that we may open to the possibilities of emptiness. Sending love, prayers, and blessings to you.

This World Which Is Made of Our Love for Emptiness

Praise to the emptiness that blanks out existence. Existence:
This place made from our love for that emptiness!

Yet somehow comes emptiness,
this existence goes.

Praise to that happening, over and over!
For years I pulled my own existence out of emptiness.

Then one swoop, one swing of the arm,
that work is over.

Free of who I was, free of presence, free of dangerous fear, hope, free of mountainous wanting.

The here-and-now mountain is a tiny piece of a piece of straw
blown off into emptiness.

These words I'm saying so much begin to lose meaning:
Existence, emptiness, mountain, straw:

Words and what they try to say swept
out the window, down the slant of the roof.

17-08-23

GROUP PRAYER INVITATION

Please join our prayer group on Sunday, August 27, 2017 from 9:00 - 9:30 am EST.

We will pray together for 30 min. The topic is: acceptance.

If you are called participate, all you have to do is sit quietly and focus your attention on accepting self and others. The overall vibrations are of compassion and self love. Together, we amplify these frequencies for the world.

Please join me in prayer as we channel acceptance of self and others.

17-08-16

In honour of summer flowers. Here is "Zinnias" by Tyler Mills. I hope you have a chance to enjoy summer blooms wherever you are. I send you my love, always.

Zinnias

My father’s mother grew a garden of zinnias

to divide the house from the woods:

pop art tops in every color—cream,

peach, royal purple, and even envy

(white-green, I knew, and when the pale

petals opened in early August,

I thought they’d blush like an heirloom

tomato, heir-loom, how strings of wine-dyed

wool lay over the frame of an idea,

how my cheeks look in the mirror

after a run, always the wrong

time of day, thunder rolling around the stadium

of trees, or the sun striking the boughs

with light over and over as though to plead

the green right out of the leaves,

or so it seems to me,

too sensitive, she would say, her love

scientific)—the sunburst petals

a full spectrum except for the sea

returning to you, blue, blue,

the color appearing in language only

when we could know it like a cluster of stars

in the arms of another galaxy

while ours spirals around a black hole,

and now they grow in space, in the satellite

where we live out an idea of permanence

among galactic debris, acquiring stars,

losing vision, the skin touching nothing,

the heads little suns you watch die

on the stem if you want the bloom back.

17-08-09

GROUP PRAYER INVITATION

Please join our prayer group on Sunday, August 13, 2017 from 9:00 - 9:30 am EST.

We will pray together for 30 min. The topic is: compassion.

If you are called participate, all you have to do is sit quietly and focus your attention on compassion for self and others. Together, we amplify these frequencies for the world.

Please join me in prayer as we channel compassion.

17-08-04

Thinking of strength of will, and endurance. Here is Gwendolyn Brook's poem called "my dreams, my works, must wait till after hell".

my dreams, my works, must wait till after hell

I hold my honey and I store my bread

In little jars and cabinets of my will.

I label clearly, and each latch and lid

I bid, Be firm till I return from hell.

I am very hungry. I am incomplete.

And none can tell when I may dine again.

No man can give me any word but Wait,

The puny light. I keep eyes pointed in;

Hoping that, when the devil days of my hurt

Drag out to their last dregs and I resume

On such legs as are left me, in such heart

As I can manage, remember to go home,

My taste will not have turned insensitive

To honey and bread old purity could love.

17-07-26

GROUP PRAYER INVITATION

Please join our prayer group on Sunday, July 30, 2017 from 9:00 - 9:30 am EST.

We will pray together for 30 min. The topic is: trust.

If you are called participate, all you have to do is sit quietly and focus your attention on what it feels like to trust self and others. The overall vibrations are of compassion and self-love. Together, we amplify these frequencies for the world.

Please join me in prayer as we open to more trusting relationships.

17-07-19

Senses and song and innocence and love. Thank you to Moira Egan for this beautiful reflection called "Notes On A Potion". Blessings to you.

Notes On A Potion

Top Note: Attar of Roses

No one ever thought to bring me blush

roses before. How can this color, so luscious,

seem so innocent? Buttered-ivory dipped in primrose,

and they open, slow as a honeycomb.

Or the tentative blossoming of trust.

Middle Note: Sandalwood

In the dusk I stumble over roots

and shadows. He insists, in a whisper,

that we press on. Then he takes my hand

and teaches me the names of the flowers

in the dark of the deepest heartwood.

Base Note: Ambergris

The fluke breaks the surface smooth as grace,

or amniotic song. Salt, sweet, water,

there are things I have grown used to

needing, but never grow used to: his arms

warm around me, the long migration home.

17-07-13

GROUP PRAYER INVITATION

Please join our prayer group on Sunday, July 16, 2017 from 9:00 - 9:30 am EST.

We will pray together for 30 min. The topic is: relaxation.

If you are called participate, all you have to do is sit quietly and focus your attention on relaxing body and mind. The overall vibrations are of compassion and self love. Together, we amplify these frequencies for the world.

Please join me in prayer as we rest and relax.

17-07-06

I love the contemplation of prayer in this poem by Ellery Akers called "The Word That Is a Prayer." I am praying for you. ♡ We are in this together.

The Word That Is a Prayer

One thing you know when you say it:

all over the earth people are saying it with you;

a child blurting it out as the seizures take her,

a woman reciting it on a cot in a hospital.

What if you take a cab through the Tenderloin:

at a street light, a man in a wool cap,

yarn unraveling across his face, knocks at the window;

he says, Please.

By the time you hear what he’s saying,

the light changes, the cab pulls away,

and you don’t go back, though you know

someone just prayed to you the way you pray.

Please: a word so short

it could get lost in the air

as it floats up to God like the feather it is,

knocking and knocking, and finally

falling back to earth as rain,

as pellets of ice, soaking a black branch,

collecting in drains, leaching into the ground,

and you walk in that weather every day.

17-06-28

GROUP PRAYER INVITATION

Please join our prayer group on Sunday, July 02, 2017 from 9:00 - 9:30 am EST.

We will pray together for 30 min. The topic is: forgiveness.

If you are called participate, all you have to do is sit quietly and focus your attention on forgiving self and others. The overall vibrations are of compassion and self love. Together, we amplify these frequencies for the world.

Please join me in prayer as we channel energies of forgiveness.

17-06-21

We are all one. One air. One love. One energy. Kim Addonizio says it all with this poem called "Quantum." In-joy!

Quantum

You know how hard it is sometimes just to walk on the streets downtown, how everything enters you

the way the scientists describe it—photons streaming through bodies, caroming off the air, the impenetrable brick

of buildings an illusion—sometimes you can feel how porous you are, how permeable, and the man lurching in circles

on the sidewalk, cutting the space around him with a tin can and saying Uhh! Uhhhh! Uhh! over and over

is part of it, and the one in gold chains leaning against the glass of the luggage store is, and the one who steps toward you

from his doorway, meaning to ask something apparently simple, like What’s the time, something you know

you can no longer answer; he’s part of it, the body of the world which is also yours and which keeps insisting

you recognize it. And the trouble is, you do, but it’s happening here, among the crowds and exhaust smells,

and you taste every greasy scrap of paper, the globbed spit you step over, your tongue is as thick with dirt

as though you’ve fallen on your hands and knees to lick the oil-scummed street, as sour as if you've been drinking

the piss of those men passing their bottle in the little park with its cement benches and broken fountain. And it’s no better

when you descend the steps to the Metro and some girl’s wailing off-key about her heart—your heart—

over the awful buzzing of the strings, and you hurry through the turnstile, fumbling out the money that’s passed

from how many hands into yours, getting rid of all your change except one quarter you’re sure she sees

lying blind in your pocket as you get into a car and the doors seal themselves behind you. But still it isn’t over.

Because later, when you’re home, looking out your window at the ocean, at the calm of the horizon line,

and the apple in your hand glows in that golden light that happens in the afternoon, suffusing you with something

you’re sure is close to peace, you think of the boy bagging groceries at Safeway, of how his face was flattened

in a way that was familiar—bootheel of a botched chromosome—and you remember his canceled blue eyes,

and his hands, flaking, rash-reddened, that lifted each thing and caressed it before placing it carefully

in your sack, and the monotonous song he muttered, paper or plastic, paper or plastic, his mouth slack,

a teardrop of drool at the corner; and you know he’s a part of it too, raising the fruit to your lips you look out

at the immense and meaningless blue and know you’re inside it, you realize you’re eating him now.

17-06-14

GROUP PRAYER INVITATION

Please join our prayer group on Sunday, June 18, 2017 from 9:00 - 9:30 am EST.

We will pray together for 30 min. The topic is: self-love.

If you are called participate, all you have to do is sit quietly and focus your attention on unconditional love. Together, we amplify these frequencies for the world.

Please join me in prayer as we love, love, love.

I am eternally grateful to you. Thank you for our togetherness.

17-06-06

In honour of spring-turning-to-summer trees, grass, flowers, sunshine, rain, and rock, I am so happy and honoured to share this wondrous planet with you. I hope you enjoy the beauty of your environment wherever you may be. Here is "Monadnock in Early Spring" by Amy Lowell.

Monadnock in Early Spring

Cloud-topped and splendid, dominating all

The little lesser hills which compass thee,

Thou standest, bright with April’s buoyancy,

Yet holding Winter in some shaded wall

Of stern, steep rock; and startled by the call

Of Spring, thy trees flush with expectancy

And cast a cloud of crimson, silently,

Above thy snowy crevices where fall

Pale shrivelled oak leaves, while the snow beneath

Melts at their phantom touch. Another year

Is quick with import. Such each year has been.

Unmoved thou watchest all, and all bequeath

Some jewel to thy diadem of power,

Thou pledge of greater majesty unseen.

17-05-31

Today, I bring you D.H. Lawrence's poem called "Cruelty and Love". I love the intimacy with the earth. I love the simple beauty of nature. Today I pray we all have a chance to be in nature today, open, intimate, and sharing in each other. Blessings to you, and love.

Cruelty and Love

What large, dark hands are those at the window

Lifted, grasping the golden light

Which weaves its way through the creeper leaves

To my heart's delight?

Ah, only the leaves! But in the west,

In the west I see a redness come

Over the evening's burning breast —

— 'Tis the wound of love goes home!

The woodbine creeps abroad

Calling low to her lover:

The sun-lit flirt who all the day

Has poised above her lips in play

And stolen kisses, shallow and gay

Of pollen, now has gone away

— She woos the moth with her sweet, low word,

And when above her his broad wings hover

Then her bright breast she will uncover

And yield her honey-drop to her lover.

Into the yellow, evening glow

Saunters a man from the farm below,

Leans, and looks in at the low-built shed

Where hangs the swallow's marriage bed.

The bird lies warm against the wall.

She glances quick her startled eyes

Towards him, then she turns away

Her small head, making warm display

Of red upon the throat. His terrors sway

Her out of the nest's warm, busy ball,

Whose plaintive cry is heard as she flies

In one blue stoop from out the sties

Into the evening's empty hall.

Oh, water-hen, beside the rushes

Hide your quaint, unfading blushes,

Still your quick tail, and lie as dead,

Till the distance folds over his ominous tread.

The rabbit presses back her ears,

Turns back her liquid, anguished eyes

And crouches low: then with wild spring

Spurts from the terror of his oncoming

To be choked back, the wire ring

Her frantic effort throttling:

Piteous brown ball of quivering fears!

Ah soon in his large, hard hands she dies,

And swings all loose to the swing of his walk.

Yet calm and kindly are his eyes

And ready to open in brown surprise

Should I not answer to his talk

Or should he my tears surmise.

I hear his hand on the latch, and rise from my chair

Watching the door open: he flashes bare

His strong teeth in a smile, and flashes his eyes

In a smile like triumph upon me; then careless-wise

He flings the rabbit soft on the table board

And comes towards me: ah, the uplifted sword

Of his hand against my bosom, and oh, the broad

Blade of his hand that raises my face to applaud

His coming: he raises up my face to him

And caresses my mouth with his fingers, which still smell grim

Of the rabbit's fur! God, I am caught in a snare!

I know not what fine wire is round my throat,

I only know I let him finger there

My pulse of life, letting him nose like a stoat

Who sniffs with joy before he drinks the blood:

And down his mouth comes to my mouth, and down

His dark bright eyes descend like a fiery hood

Upon my mind: his mouth meets mine, and a flood

Of sweet fire sweeps across me, so I drown

Within him, die, and find death good.

17-05-24

GROUP PRAYER INVITATION

Please join our prayer group on Sunday, May 28, 2017 from 9:00 - 9:30 am EST.

We will pray together for 30 min. The topic is: harmony.

If you are called participate, all you have to do is sit quietly and focus your attention on harmony. The overall vibrations are of compassion and self-love. Together, we amplify these frequencies for the world.

Please join me in prayer as we channel harmony.

17-05-16

I love this poem by Tracy K. Smith called "Don't You Wonder, Sometimes?" I agree, Bowie will never die. None of us will ever die, really. We live on and on and on, always being something like star dust. Enjoy, and may the cosmic elements be with you.

Don't You Wonder, Sometimes?

After dark, stars glisten like ice, and the distance they span

Hides something elemental. Not God, exactly. More like

Some thin-hipped glittering Bowie-being—a Starman

Or cosmic ace hovering, swaying, aching to make us see.

And what would we do, you and I, if we could know for sure

That someone was there squinting through the dust,

Saying nothing is lost, that everything lives on waiting only

To be wanted back badly enough? Would you go then,

Even for a few nights, into that other life where you

And that first she loved, blind to the future once, and happy?

Would I put on my coat and return to the kitchen where my

Mother and father sit waiting, dinner keeping warm on the stove?

Bowie will never die. Nothing will come for him in his sleep

Or charging through his veins. And he’ll never grow old,

Just like the woman you lost, who will always be dark-haired

And flush-faced, running toward an electronic screen

That clocks the minutes, the miles left to go. Just like the life

In which I’m forever a child looking out my window at the night sky

Thinking one day I’ll touch the world with bare hands

Even if it burns.

He leaves no tracks. Slips past, quick as a cat. That’s Bowie

For you: the Pope of Pop, coy as Christ. Like a play

Within a play, he’s trademarked twice. The hours

Plink past like water from a window A/C. We sweat it out,

Teach ourselves to wait. Silently, lazily, collapse happens.

But not for Bowie. He cocks his head, grins that wicked grin.

Time never stops, but does it end? And how many lives

Before take-off, before we find ourselves

Beyond ourselves, all glam-glow, all twinkle and gold?

The future isn’t what it used to be. Even Bowie thirsts

For something good and cold. Jets blink across the sky

Like migratory souls.

Bowie is among us. Right here

In New York City. In a baseball cap

And expensive jeans. Ducking into

A deli. Flashing all those teeth

At the doorman on his way back up.

Or he’s hailing a taxi on Lafayette

As the sky clouds over at dusk.

He’s in no rush. Doesn’t feel

The way you’d think he feels.

Doesn’t strut or gloat. Tells jokes.

I’ve lived here all these years

And never seen him. Like not knowing

A comet from a shooting star.

But I’ll bet he burns bright,

Dragging a tail of white-hot matter

The way some of us track tissue

Back from the toilet stall. He’s got

The whole world under his foot,

And we are small alongside,

Though there are occasions

When a man his size can meet

Your eyes for just a blip of time

And send a thought like SHINE

SHINE SHINE SHINE SHINE

Straight to your mind. Bowie,

I want to believe you. Want to feel

Your will like the wind before rain.

The kind everything simply obeys,

Swept up in that hypnotic dance

As if something with the power to do so

Had looked its way and said:

Go ahead.

17-05-10

GROUP PRAYER INVITATION

Please join our prayer group on Sunday, May 14, 2017 from 9:00 - 9:30 am EST.

We will pray together for 30 min. The topic is: possibility.

If you are called participate, all you have to do is sit quietly and focus your attention on infinite possibility. The overall vibrations are of compassion and self-love. Together, we amplify these frequencies for the world.

Please join me in prayer as we channel possibility and potential.

I am eternally grateful to you. Thank you for our togetherness.

17-05-04

Please find below a poem by Eileen Myles called "A Little Bit". I love the contemplation of remembering. Thinking of you, and sending love.

A Little Bit

It’s a little bit

true that the

hole in my jacket

pocket

the breast pocket

yeah all relaxed

has a hole &

pens keep

slipping through

one’s in the lining

but this one

perched

now it’s a writing

bird

silly black out there

wants to

tell its

song. Miguel’s

book was

in the air &

I was on

a train

my feet are cold

and you wouldn’t

be in the

air so

long it doesn’t happen

like this

there’s no climate

in a plane

and I was in one

but not on

earth

my mother

is gone

each thing I do

is a little

bit wrong. I’m willing

to apologize

but they never

help it’s

just pointing

out the hole

& people

forget but I

won’t forget

you

17-04-30

GROUP PRAYER INVITATION

Please join our prayer group on Sunday, April 30, 2017 from 9:00 - 9:30 am EST.

We will pray together for 30 min. The topic is: love for all energies.

If you are called participate, all you have to do is sit quietly and focus your attention on being reborn into unconditional love. The overall vibrations are of compassion and self love. Together, we amplify these frequencies for the world.

Please join me in prayer as we channel love.

I am eternally grateful to you. Thank you for our togetherness.

17-04-27

To celebrate fun and whimsy, and also a serious commitment to obscuring our incessant need for meaning, today I enclose for you a poem by Hugo Ball called "Karawane." Hope you enjoy! ♡

Karawane

jolifanto bambla o falli bambla

großiga m’pfa habla horem

egiga goramen

higo bloiko russula huju

hollaka hollala

anlogo bung

blago bung blago bung

bosso fataka

ü üü ü

schampa wulla wussa olobo

hej tatta gorem

eschige zunbada

wulubu ssubudu uluwu ssubudu

–umf

kusa gauma

ba–umf

17-04-19

Thinking, dreaming about sleep - how we heal and learn to love more and know greater compassion for self and others - all while we are turned off, resting and recharging in another dimension. It made me think of this poem by Hart Crane called "The Harbor Dawn". Here's to the sweetest dreams of alternate expressions of self, and our ultimate togetherness. I love you.

The Harbor Dawn

Insistently through sleep - a tide of voices -

They meet you listening midway in your dream,

The long, tired sounds, fog-insulated noises:

Gongs in white surplices, beshrouded wails,

Far strum of fog horns...signals dispersed in veils.

And then a truck will lumber past the wharves

As winch engines begin throbbing on some deck;

Or a drunken stevedore's howl and thud below

Comes echoing alley-upward through dim snow.

And it they take your sleep away sometimes

They give it back again. Soft sleeves of sound

Attend the darkling harbor, the pillowed bay;

Somewhere out there in blankness steam

Spills into steam, and wanders, washed away

- Flurried by keen fifings, eddied

Among distant chiming buoys - adrift. The sky,

Cool feathery fold, suspends, distills

This wavering slumber...Slowly -

Immemorially the window, the half-covered chair

Ask nothing but this sheath of pallid air.

And you beside me, blessèd now while sirens

Sing to us, stealthily weave us into day -

Serenely now, before day claims our eyes

Your cool arms murmurously about me lay.

While myriad snowy hands are clustering at the panes -

your hands within my hands are deeds;

my tongue upon your throat - singing

arms close; eyes wide, undoubtful

dark

drink the dawn -

a forest shudders in your hair!

The window goes blond slowly. Frostily clears.

From Cyclopean towers across Manhattan waters

- Tow - three bright window-eyes aglitter, disk

The sun, released - aloft with cold gulls hither.

The fog leans one last moment not he sill.

Under the mistletoe of dreams, a star -

As though to join us at some distant hill -

Turns in the waking west and goes to sleep.

17-04-12

Dear Friends. I wanted to take a moment and welcome new visitors to this website.

I am so grateful for your presence, and to be able to provide a prayer platform that is free of religious affiliation.

This website is for anyone who is called to participate. It is for everyone, regardless of faith or cultural background.

This service is devoted to freedom of expression. It exists and persists to honour each individual's unique perception of spirit.

Thank you for being you. Thank you for coming here.

17-04-06

I love the call to action at the end of this poem. Our togetherness is all the matters. I hope you enjoy "Facing the End" by Hsieh Ling-yün (translated by David Hinton).

Facing the End

Nothing of Kung Sheng's life was handed down,

and Li Yeh's extinction was absolutely complete.

Old Hsi fathomed the inner pattern, Master Huo

the inevitable nature of things - and both paid.

Cypress endures thick and green in cold frost

and mushrooms quickly tatter and fray in wind:

content that death comes always in its season,

I'm happy whether life lasts long or stops short,

though I still regret my resolve for our people

didn't end amoung those mountain cliffs of home.

Giving mind up without that utter awakening:

this is the fear that haunted me all these years,

and now my lone hope turns to some future life

where friend and foe share that mind together.

17-04-03

Today I pray we may be guided by these words of Rabindranath Tagore. Here is the poem "Give Me Strength". I wish you all a lovely day. As always, thank you for visiting aprayerforyou.ca. Love and blessings. ♡

Give Me Strength

This is my prayer to thee, my lord---strike,

strike at the root of penury in my heart.

Give me the strength lightly to bear my joys and sorrows.

Give me the strength to make my love fruitful in service.

Give me the strength never to disown the poor or bend my knees before insolent might.

Give me the strength to raise my mind high above daily trifles.

And give me the strength to surrender my strength to thy will with love.

17-03-31

For those of us searching, and finding love within. Here is Don McKay's poem called "Philosopher's Stone". Sending my love and prayers to you today and always.

Philosopher's Stone

- and when, after I've wasted a lifetime looking,

picking over eskers, browsing beaches, rock shops, slag,

when, after I've up and quit, you suddenly

adopt me, winking from the gravel roadside

or the rip-rap of the trail or the

jewels of the rich;

when you renounce your wilderness and move in,

living in my pocket as its sage, as my third,

uncanny testicle, the wise one,

the one who will teach me to desire

only whatever happens;

when you happen in my hand as nothing

supercooled to glass, as the grey

water smooth rock that slew Goliath or the stone

no one could cast; when you come

inscribed by glaciers, lichened, mossed,

packed with former lives inside of you like a dense

mass grave;

when you cleave,

when you fold,

when you gather sense as omphalos, inukshut,

cromlech, when you rift in the stress

of intolerable time;

when you find me as the moon

found Li Po in his drunken boat,

when you speak to my heart of its heaviness, of the soft

facts of erosion, when you whisper in that

tongueless tongue it turns out,

though it can't be,

we both know -

17-03-22

I am beyond love when I read these words by Derek Walcott. He conjures inexplicable beauty and generosity. I am so grateful - thank you for gracing us with your art. Here is "Love After Love".

Love After Love

The time will come

when, with elation

you will greet yourself arriving

at your own door, in your own mirror

and each will smile at the other's welcome,

and say, sit here. Eat.

You will love again the stranger who was your self.

Give wine. Give bread. Give back your heart

to itself, to the stranger who has loved you

all your life, whom you ignored

for another, who knows you by heart.

Take down the love letters from the bookshelf,

the photographs, the desperate notes,

peel your own image from the mirror.

Sit. Feast on your life.

17-03-17

An Irish Blessing for you today. ♡ You are in my prayers.

May you be poor in misfortune, rich in blessings,
Slow to make enemies, quick to make friends,
But rich or poor, quick or slow,
May you know nothing but happiness
From this day forward.

17-03-14

I love these words from the Dalai Lama:

"My religion is very simple. My religion is kindness."

Wishing you kindness throughout your day! ♡

17-03-09

GROUP PRAYER INVITATION - REMINDER

Please join our prayer group on Sunday 12, March , 2017 from 9:00 - 9:30 am EST.

We will pray together for 30 min. The topic is: re-birth.

Please join me in prayer as we channel the energies of re-birth.

I am eternally grateful to you. Thank you for our togetherness.

17-03-03

I am called to share this lively and wondrous poem by Mary Oliver called "Spirit Likes to Dress Up." Let's dress up in love today, and pretend we are angels. Let's play dress up until we believe we already are. Love to you all always.

Spirit Likes To Dress Up

The spirit

likes to dress up like this:

ten fingers,

ten toes,

shoulders, and all the rest

at night

in the black branches

in the morning

in the blue branches

of the world.

It could float, of course,

but would rather

plumb rough mattter.

Airy and shapeless thing,

it needs

the metaphor of the body,

lime and appetite,

the oceanic fluids;

it needs the body's world,

instinct

and imagination

and the dark hug of time

sweetness

and tangibility

to be understood,

to be more than pure light

that burns

where no one is --

so it enters us --

in the morning

shines from brute comfort

like a stitch of lightning;

and at night

lights up the deep and wondrous

drownings of the body

like a star.

17-03-01

Wishing you all a splendid day full of love and happiness. Please find below "Hope is the thing with feathers..." by Emily Dickinson. I am reminded of how I love birds and the feeling of spring,which I think is forecasted in these words and sent straight to my heart. :)Enjoy! Much love to you!

Hope is the thing with feathers

Hope is the thing with feathers

That perches in the soul,

And sings the tune without the words,

And never stops at all,

And sweetest in the gale is heard;

And sore must be the storm

That could abash the little bird

That kept so many warm.

I've heard it in the chillest land,

And on the strangest sea;

Yet, never, in extremity,

It asked a crumb of me.

17-02-27

Thank you so much for your participation in our Group Prayer yesterday. It is always my great honour and pleasure to connect 'in love' with you. I am so grateful for your presence. I offer you these sweet words from Helen Steiner Rice. The poem is called "Help Yourself to Happiness". Today, I pray for kindness, for all beings, and the infinite love of our togetherness. Blessings to you.

Help Yourself to Happiness

Everybody, everywhere seeks happiness, it’s true,

But finding it and keeping it seem difficult to do.

Difficult because we think that happiness is found

Only in the places where wealth and fame abound.And so we go on searching in palaces of pleasure

Seeking recognition and monetary treasure,

Unaware that happiness is just a state of mind

Within the reach of everyone who takes time to be kind.

For in making others happy we will be happy, too.

For the happiness you give away returns to shine on you.

17-02-24

I am honoured to share with you a poem by Wislawa Szymborska called "Utopia". I love the imagery that pours forth from her words. I am so humbled by the overflowing power and force of imagination. Today. I feel so grateful to be a creative being. And, I am forever grateful to you for being there for us all. Together, we are creation. ♡ Our togetherness is heaven on earth.

*A gentle reminder of our Group Prayer on this Sunday, February 26 at 9:00 am. Looking forward to connecting with you in prayer.

Utopia

Island where all becomes clear.

Solid ground beneath your feet.

The only roads are those that offer access.

Bushes bend beneath the weight of proofs.

The Tree of Valid Supposition grows here

with branches disentangled since time immemorial.

The Tree of Understanding, dazzlingly straight and simple,

sprouts by the spring called Now I Get It.

The thicker the woods, the vaster the vista:

the Valley of Obviously.

If any doubts arise, the wind dispels them instantly.

Echoes stir unsummoned

and eagerly explain all the secrets of the worlds.

On the right a cave where Meaning lies.

On the left the Lake of Deep Conviction.

Truth breaks from the bottom and bobs to the surface.

Unshakable Confidence towers over the valley.

Its peak offers an excellent view of the Essence of Things.

For all its charms, the island is uninhabited,

and the faint footprints scattered on its beaches

turn without exception to the sea.

As if all you can do here is leave

and plunge, never to return, into the depths.

Into unfathomable life.

17-02-21

GROUP PRAYER INVITATION - REMINDER

Please join our prayer group on Sunday, February 26, 2017 from 9:00 - 9:30 am EST.

We will pray together for 30 min. The topic is: infinite love.

If you are called participate, all you have to do is sit quietly and focus your attention on never-ending love. The overall vibrations are of compassion and self love. Together, we amplify these frequencies for the world.

Please join me in prayer as we connect to infinite love.

I am eternally grateful to you. Thank you for our togetherness.

17-02-16

Here is to a day of many "heart transactions." Please find below a quote from Srila B. R. Sridhara Maharaja. May you connect with your heart, and know that you are connecting with all. Love to you.

“It is the land of love, sweetness, charm, and beauty - all are synonymous. It is heart-capturing. Our real existence is neither in our knowledge nor our power, but in our heart. Really, our proper identification is with our heart. So, in which direction our heart is moving, that is the all-important factor in our life. It is a heart-transaction.”

- Srila B. R. Sridhara Maharaja

17-02-14

I love that love is everywhere, never-ending, and available to us at all times. Thank you for your presence to love. Thank you for being love. Blessings, and infinite love to you today and always. Here is one of my favourite love poems called "[i carry your heart with me(i carry it in]" by e.e. cummings. ♡

[i carry your heart with me(i carry it in]

i carry your heart with me(i carry it in

my heart)i am never without it(anywhere

i go you go,my dear;and whatever is done

by only me is your doing,my darling)

i fear

no fate(for you are my fate,my sweet)i want

no world(for beautiful you are my world,my true)

and it’s you are whatever a moon has always meant

and whatever a sun will always sing is you

here is the deepest secret nobody knows

(here is the root of the root and the bud of the bud

and the sky of the sky of a tree called life;which grows

higher than soul can hope or mind can hide)

and this is the wonder that's keeping the stars apart

i carry your heart(i carry it in my heart)

17-02-13

If you happen to be contemplating who you are today, may this poem give you pause and comfort. Here is Jan Zwicky's poem called "Theories of Personal Identity". Enjoy!

Theories of Personal Identity

The photograph;

the past life;

the long lost

black sheep who's become

the shoe that fits.

The ghost town,

a.k.a. the rummage bin,

that old sweet song.

The suitcase; the hotel

room; the surprise

box lunch; the plain

brown wrapper. The umbrella

someone opened in the house.

The alphabet, or perhaps

I mean a river, or a well.

The skeleton in the closet.

The writing on the wall.

The telltale heart.

17-02-11

This poem might be my all time favourite. I love softness. I love tenderness. I love God. I love you. I am honoured to share "Absolutely Clear" by Shams al-Din Hafiz Shirazi.

Absolutely Clear

Don't surrender your loneliness
So quickly.
Let it cut more deep.

Let it ferment and season you
As few human
Or even divine ingredients can.

Something missing in my heart tonight
Has made my eyes so soft,
My voice
So tender,

My need of God
Absolutely
Clear.

17-02-09

Today I bring you this profound awareness from Manuel Cordova Rios. Prayer falls into this category of being beyond words. I love that the energy of love is undefinable and limitless. I love that our expression is infinite.

“You must realize my friend, that the deeper we go into this, both written and spoken words of formal language become less and less adequate as a medium of expression.”

-Manuel Cordova Rios

17-02-07

I love the simplicity of these words, and the grace of profound truth. I find I am right in the heart of the matter, but I am not sure what that is or how I got there. Here is The Three Oddest Words by Wislawa Szymborska. Enjoy!

The Three Oddest Words

When I pronounce the word Future,

the first syllable already belongs to the past.

When I pronounce the word Silence,

I destroy it.

When I pronounce the word Nothing,

I make something no non-being can hold.

17-02-03

I humbly offer you these words of wisdom today from the Bhagavad-Gita. I love the reminder to look upon all things as equal. Even within ourselves and our own behaviour, can we treat the good and bad with the same love? That's what I pray for today and always. Much love to you. ♡

“The Supreme Personality of Godhead said: O son of Pandu, he who does not hate illumination, attachment, and delusion when they are present or long for them when they disappear; who is unwavering and undisturbed through all these reactions of the material qualities, remaining neutral and transcendental, knowing that the modes alone are active; who is situated in the self and regards alike happiness and distress; who looks upon a lump of earth, a stone, and a piece of gold with an equal eye; who is equal toward the desirable and the undesirable: who is steady, situated equally well in praise and blame, honour, and dishonour; who treats alike both friend and enemy; and who has renounced all material activities - such a person is said to have transcended the modes of nature.”

17-02-01

As I was preparing for work this morning, a little book of prayers popped off my shelf and onto the floor in front of me. It was a gift from my parents on my First Communion. On the back inside cover, in my little kid handwriting is the following prayer. I couldn't help but share it with you, and it is my prayer that we all take some time today to celebrate and love the child within. Much love to you always.

Prayer to My Guardian Angel

Angel of God,

My Guardian dear

To Whom His love commits me here

Ever this day

Be at my side

To light and guard

To rule and guide

Amen.

17-01-30

Thank you to all who participated in our group prayer yesterday. It was a beautiful connection. ♡ I bring you a quote from Plotinus for your contemplation. It is my prayer today that we experiment with love. Here's to our evolution, my Friends!

"Faith begins as an experiment and ends as an experience."

- Plotinus

17-01-27

GROUP PRAYER INVITATION - REMINDER

Please join our prayer group on Sunday, January 15, 2017 from 9:00 - 9:30 am EST.

We will pray together for 30 min. The topic is: inner strength.

If you are called participate, all you have to do is sit quietly and focus your attention on your inner strength. The overall vibrations are of compassion and self love. Together, we amplify these frequencies for the world.

Please join me in prayer as we connect to our inner strength.

I am eternally grateful to you. Thank you for our togetherness.

17-01-25

Today I bring you a poem by Richard Brautigan called "Karma Repair Kit: Items 1- 4." I love how simple the prescription is. I love how it is so open-ended. We do not know what surprises await us. We do not know when our prayers will be answered. In the meantime, we take care of ourselves, and listen to the silence within. Blessings to you today and always.

Karma Repair Kit: Items 1 - 4

1. Get enough food to eat, and eat it.

2. Find a place to sleep where it is quiet, and sleep there.

3. Reduce intellectual and emotional noise until you arrive at the silence of yourself, and listen to it.

17-01-23

GROUP PRAYER INVITATION

Please join our prayer group on Sunday, January 29, 2017 from 9:00 - 9:30 am EST.

We will pray together for 30 min. The topic is: inner strength.

Please join me in prayer as we connect with our inner strength.

I am eternally grateful to you. Thank you for our togetherness.

17-01-20

Dear Friends. How fortunate are we to have each other? How blessed are we to have an infinite capacity to love? Who or what can you love today? How can you stretch yourself into more love and acceptance? Today, I am taking a great deal of inspiration from these words by Mahatma Gandhi. Will you join with me in unity and love?

I offer you peace.

I offer you Love.

I offer you Friendship.

I see your Beauty.

I hear your need.

I feel your feelings.

My wisdom flows from the Highest Source.

I salute that Source in you.

Let us work together for unity and love.

17-01-18

For your contemplation today - this beautiful and love-filled day/gift of our infinite existence. With love always.♡

"Would you like to save the world from the degradation and destruction it seems destined for? Then step away from shallow mass movements and quietly go to work on your own self-awareness. If you want to awaken all of humanity, then awaken all of yourself. If you want to eliminate the suffering in the world, then eliminate all that is dark and negative in yourself. Truly, the greatest gift you have to give is that of your own self-transformation."

~Lao Tzu

17-01-16

Thank you to all for your energy and love during our group prayer on Sunday morning! Absolutely wonderful to be with you all! To celebrate this Monday morning, I bring you a beautiful poem by Rumi called "This We Have Now". Thankfully, we have each other always. Let's be there for one another today. Let's be like God. I love you, and bless the God the you are.

This We Have Now

This we have now

is not imagination.

This is not

grief or joy.

Not a judging state,

or an elation,

or sadness.

Those come and go.

This is the presence that doesn't.

17-01-13

Hello Friends. I have been receiving many prayer requests for health and finances lately and I just want you to know I am holding you all in love and light. Please join us this Sunday for our group prayer. The information is below. The frequency for prayer topic is receiving love, however, you can tune in with the prayer request that serves you best. Our togetherness is soothing and comforting; the vibration of receiving love is uplifting and energizing. Please join us in love!

GROUP PRAYER INVITATION - REMINDER

Please join our prayer group on Sunday, January 15, 2017 from 9:00 - 9:30 am EST.

We will pray together for 30 min. The topic is: receiving love.

If you are called participate, all you have to do is sit quietly and focus your attention on receiving love. The overall vibrations are of compassion and self love. Together, we amplify these frequencies for the world.

Please join me in prayer as we are the energy of love.

I am eternally grateful to you. Thank you for our togetherness.

17-01-09

A poem by Hafiz for you today called "Tired of Speaking Sweetly." For me, this poem is a call to soul action. It is a reminder of why we are here - to love ourselves and each other. I hope you enjoy. I will not be posting prayers for the next two days, but I will return on Thursday with updates. In the meantime, keep sending your prayers. I will be praying for you, and loving you. ♡

Tired of Speaking Sweetly

Love wants to reach out and manhandle us,

Break all our teacup talk of God.

If you had the courage and

Could give the Beloved His choice, some nights,

He would just drag you around the room

By your hair,

Ripping from your grip all those toys in the world

That bring you no joy.

Love sometimes gets tired of speaking sweetly

And wants to rip to shreds

All your erroneous notions of truth

That make you fight within yourself, dear one,

And with others,

Causing the world to weep

On too many fine days.

God wants to manhandle us,

Lock us inside of a tiny room with Himself

And practice His dropkick.

The Beloved sometimes wants

To do us a great favor:

Hold us upside down

And shake all the nonsense out.

But when we hear

He is in such a "playful drunken mood"

Most everyone I know

Quickly packs their bags and hightails it

Out of town.

17-01-05

GROUP PRAYER INVITATION

Please join our prayer group on Sunday, January 15, 2017 from 9:00 - 9:30 am EST.

We will pray together for 30 min. The topic is: receiving love.

Please join me in prayer as we are the energy of love.

I am eternally grateful to you. Thank you for our togetherness.

17-01-03

Today I bring you a poem called "Anthem" by Leonard Cohen. May he rest in peace. It got me to thinking about an anthem for 2017 that is all about letting the light in. Will you join me in this refrain? Loving you with all of my light!

Anthem

The birds they sang

at the break of day

Start again

I heard them say

Don't dwell on what

has passed away

or what is yet to be.

Ah the wars they will

be fought again

The holy dove

She will be caught again

bought and sold

and bought again

the dove is never free.

Ring the bells that still can ring

Forget your perfect offering

There is a crack in everything

That's how the light gets in.

We asked for signs

the signs were sent:

the birth betrayed

the marriage spent

Yeah the widowhood

of every government --

signs for all to see.

I can't run no more

with that lawless crowd

while the killers in high places

say their prayers out loud.

But they've summoned, they've summoned up

a thundercloud

and they're going to hear from me.

Ring the bells that still can ring .

You can add up the parts

but you won't have the sum

You can strike up the march,

there is no drum

Every heart, every heart

to love will come

but like a refugee.

Ring the bells that still can ring

Forget your perfect offering

There is a crack, a crack in everything

That's how the light gets in.

Ring the bells that still can ring

Forget your perfect offering

There is a crack, a crack in everything

That's how the light gets in.

17-01-02

Hello my Dear Friends! I am so happy to be "new" together. Thank you so much for being with me on this journey into love and compassion and forgiveness, and thank you for coming to this website and sharing yourselves with me and with all of our readers. We are the change! I am so grateful for you and for our collective surrender. Thank you! I love you! ♡

16-12-30

As we enter into a new year, let us allow this poem to be our invitation to go deeper - deeper into love and deeper into who we really are. Best wishes to all. Here is "The Invitation" by Oriah Mountain Dreamer.

The Invitation

It doesn't interest me what you do for a living.

I want to know what you ache for,

And if you dare to dream of meeting

Your heart's longing.

It doesn't interest me how old you are.

I want to know if you will risk looking like a fool

For love, for your dream,

For the adventure of being alive.

It doesn't interest me what planets are squaring your moon.

I want to know if you have touched the center of your own sorrow,

If you have been opened by life's betrayals,

Or have become shriveled and closed from fear of further pain.

I want to know if you can sit with pain,

Mine or your own,

Without moving

To hide it or fade it or fix it.

I want to know if you can be with joy,

Mine or your own,

If you can dance with wildness and let the ecstasy fill you to the tips of your fingers and toes

Without cautioning us to be careful, realistic, to remember the limitations of being human.

It doesn't interest me if the story you are telling me is true.

I want to know if you can disappoint another to be true to yourself,

If you can bear the accusation of betrayal and not betray your own soul.

I want to know if you can be faithless and therefore be trustworthy.

I want to know if you can see beauty

Even when it is not pretty every day,

And if you can source your own life

From its presence.

I want to know if you can live with failure,

Yours and mine,

And still stand on the edge of a lake and shout to the silver of the full moon,

“Yes!"

It doesn't interest me to know where you live or how much money you have.

I want to know if you can get up after the night of grief and despair,

Weary and bruised to the bone,

And do what needs to be done for the children.

It doesn't interest me who you are, how you came to be here.

I want to know if you will stand

In the center of the fire with me

And not shrink back.

It doesn't interest me where or what or with whom you have studied.

I want to know what sustains you

From the inside

When all else falls away.

I want to know if you can be alone

With yourself,

And if you truly like the company you keep

In the empty moments.

16-12-28

I love this poem called "Human Family" by Maya Angelou. As we enter into a new cycle and a new year, perhaps we can focus on how we are more the same than we are different. Perhaps difference dissolves and unity takes it's place. For at the core, we are all love. That love, which is the same inside each and everyone of us, is all that matters. Blessings to you today and always. ♡

Human Family

I note the obvious differences

in the human family.

Some of us are serious,

some thrive on comedy.

Some declare their lives are lived

as true profundity,

and others claim they really live

the real reality.

The variety of our skin tones

can confuse, bemuse, delight,

brown and pink and beige and purple,

tan and blue and white.

I've sailed upon the seven seas

and stopped in every land,

I've seen the wonders of the world

not yet one common man.

I know ten thousand women

called Jane and Mary Jane,

but I've not seen any two

who really were the same.

Mirror twins are different

although their features jibe,

and lovers think quite different thoughts

while lying side by side.

We love and lose in China,

we weep on England's moors,

and laugh and moan in Guinea,

and thrive on Spanish shores.

We seek success in Finland,

are born and die in Maine.

In minor ways we differ,

in major we're the same.

I note the obvious differences

between each sort and type,

but we are more alike, my friends,

than we are unalike.

We are more alike, my friends,

than we are unalike.

We are more alike, my friends,

than we are unalike.

16-12-27

GROUP PRAYER INVITATION

Please join our prayer group on Sunday, January 01, 2017 from 12:00 - 12:20 EST.

We will pray together for 20 min. The topic is: acceptance.

If you are called participate, all you have to do is sit quietly and focus your attention on accepting yourself and all energies. The overall vibrations are of compassion and self love. Together, we amplify these frequencies for the world.

Please join me in prayer as we become the energy of acceptance.

I am eternally grateful to you. Thank you for our togetherness.

*After this last holiday prayer session, we will go back to Sunday mornings at 9:00 am.

16-12-26

Thank you to everyone for our prayer session yesterday. It felt so beautiful to be connected. I love you all so much!

In the honour of love and of our God connection, today I bring you this poem by Hafiz called "I Have Learned So Much" (Translated by Daniel Ladinsky ). I am no longer myself. I am you. I am God. Blessings of peace and love to you. ♡

I Have Learned So Much

Have

Learned

So much from God

That I can no longer

Call

Myself

A Christian, a Hindu, a Muslim,

a Buddhist, a Jew.

The Truth has shared so much of Itself

With me

That I can no longer call myself

A man, a woman, an angel,

Or even a pure

Soul.

Love has

Befriended Hafiz so completely

It has turned to ash

And freed

Of every concept and image

my mind has ever known.

16-12-23

This one is perhaps my favourite of all. Here is "Silent Night" with lyrics by Joseph Mohr. I send my love and blessings to you and your families. Have a beautiful weekend and I will be back on Monday. Enjoy! Love! And, may PEACE reign!

Silent Night

Silent night, holy night

All is calm, all is bright

Round yon Virgin Mother and Child

Holy Infant so tender and mild

Sleep in heavenly peace

Silent night, holy night!

Shepherds quake at the sight

Glories stream from heaven afar

Heavenly hosts sing Alleluia!

Christ, the Saviour is born

Silent night, holy night

Son of God, love's pure light

Radiant beams from Thy holy face

With the dawn of redeeming grace

Jesus, Lord, at Thy birth

Jesus, Lord, at Thy birth "

GROUP PRAYER INVITATION

Please join our prayer group on Sunday, December 25, 2016 from 12:00 - 12:20 EST.

We will pray together for 20 min. The topic is: peace on earth.

If you are called participate, all you have to do is sit quietly and focus your attention on peace for all. The overall vibrations are of compassion and self love. Together, we amplify these frequencies for the world.

Please join me in prayer as we become the energy of peace.

I am eternally grateful to you. Thank you for our togetherness.

16-12-22

Each day is holy, and each night. Every moment is a moment with God. May your day be holy and may we rejoice in our togetherness. Blessings and love to you my friends. We are each other. ☆ I hope you enjoy the beautiful lyrics of "O Holy Night" written by Placide Cappeau. This piece was first performed in 1847.

O Holy Night

O holy night! The stars are brightly shining,

It is the night of the dear Saviour's birth.

Long lay the world in sin and error pining.

Till He appeared and the Spirit felt its worth.

A thrill of hope the weary world rejoices,

For yonder breaks a new and glorious morn.

Fall on your knees! Oh, hear the angel voices!

O night divine, the night when Christ was born;

O night, O holy night, O night divine!

Led by the light of faith serenely beaming,

With glowing hearts by His cradle we stand.

O'er the world a star is sweetly gleaming,

Now come the wisemen from out of the Orient land.

The King of kings lay thus lowly manger;

In all our trials born to be our friends.

He knows our need, our weakness is no stranger,

Behold your King! Before him lowly bend!

Truly He taught us to love one another,

His law is love and His gospel is peace.

Chains he shall break, for the slave is our brother.

And in his name all oppression shall cease.

Sweet hymns of joy in grateful chorus raise we,

With all our hearts we praise His holy name.

Christ is the Lord! Then ever, ever praise we,

His power and glory ever more proclaim!

16-12-21

In honour of the solstice, let's celebrate with this poem called "Winter's Cloak" written by Joyce Rupp. Let us be enveloped by the darkness so that we can know the light. Let us seek silence in solace so that we can know our trueconnections to one another. Here's to the beauty and magic and wonder of the winter journey inward. Much love to you always.

Winter's Cloak

This year I do not want
the dark to leave me.
I need its wrap
of silent stillness,
its cloak
of long lasting embrace.
Too much light
has pulled me away
from the chamber
of gestation.

Let the dawns
come late,
let the sunsets
arrive early,
let the evenings
extend themselves
while I lean into
the abyss of my being.

Let me lie in the cave
of my soul,
for too much light
blinds me,
steals the source
of revelation.

Let me seek solace
in the empty places
of winter's passage,
those vast dark nights
that never fail to shelter me.

16-12-20

Today I bring you "Away In A Manger" written by an unknown author . I love the simple, but profound peaceful sentiment. I love the slow and sweet beauty of the story as it unfolds. I love birth and creation and children. What do you love? You can share above in the prayer request form. Wishing you love and love and more love. ♡

Away in a Manger

Away in a manger, no crib for a bed,

The little Lord Jesus laid down his sweet head.

The stars in the sky looked down where he lay,

The little Lord Jesus asleep in the hay.

The cattle are lowing, the baby awakes,

But little Lord Jesus no crying he makes.

I love Thee, Lord Jesus, look down from the sky

And stay by my cradle til morning is nigh.

Be near me, Lord Jesus, I ask Thee to stay

Close by me forever, and love me, I pray.

Bless all the dear children in thy tender care,

And take us to heaven, to live with Thee there.

16-12-19

Thank you for the group prayer on Sunday. It was a beautiful and joyful experience to connect with you all. Let's do it again! ♡

GROUP PRAYER INVITATION

Please join our prayer group on Sunday, December 25, 2016 from 12:00 - 12:20 EST.

We will pray together for 20 min. The topic is: peace on earth.

Please join me in prayer as we become the energy of peace.

I am eternally grateful to you. Thank you for our togetherness.

16-12-15

Once again, for the holidays, I bring to you lyrics from lovely light-filled Christmas songs and hymns. Without further ado, we begin with "It Came Upon A Midnight Clear" written by Edmund Sears in 1849.

It Came Upon A Midnight Clear

It came upon the midnight clear,
That glorious song of old,
From angels bending near the earth,
To touch their harps of gold:
"Peace on the earth, goodwill to men
From heavens all gracious King!"
The world in solemn stillness lay
To hear the angels sing.

Still through the cloven skies they come,
With peaceful wings unfurled;
And still their heavenly music floats
O'er all the weary world:
Above its sad and lowly plains
They bend on hovering wing,
And ever o'er its Babel sounds
The blessed angels sing.

O ye beneath life's crushing load,
Whose forms are bending low,
Who toil along the climbing way
With painful steps and slow;
Look now, for glad and golden hours
Come swiftly on the wing;
Oh rest beside the weary road
And hear the angels sing.

For lo! the days are hastening on,
By prophets seen of old,
When with the ever-circling years
Shall come the time foretold,
When the new heaven and earth shall own
The Prince of Peace, their King,
And the whole world send back the song
Which now the angels sing.

16-12-13

Dear Friends. We have decided to do two group prayers in a row in order to celebrate the beautiful and benevolent energies of forgiveness and compassion that are coming through at this time. I will be in touch with a reminder as we move through the coming weeks, but I just wanted to let you know in advance for your holiday planning.

We have a group prayer scheduled for this Sunday, December 18 at 9:00 am est. and we are going to add a second group prayer for Sunday, December 25 from 12:00-12:20 est.

*Please note the time change - we will gather energetically a little later in the day and for a little less time. :)

I hope you can join us as we take a few moments to anchor the energies of peace and unconditional love. Many thanks and blessings to you always.

16-12-12

GROUP PRAYER INVITATION

Please join our prayer group on Sunday, December 18, 2016 at 9:00 am EST.

We will pray together for 30 min. The topic is: unconditional love.

If you are called participate, all you have to do is sit quietly and focus your attention on unconditional love. The overall vibrations are of compassion and self love. Together, we amplify these frequencies for the world.

Please join me in prayer as we become the energy of unconditional love.

I am eternally grateful to you. Thank you for our togetherness.

16-12-08

Another beautiful poem via Transactions with Beauty. Please take a moment and experience this lovely online experience of poetry and reflection. Here is Marge Piercy's "The Art of Blessing the Day". Blessings to you for a day filled with joy and wonder.

The Art of Blessing the Day

This is the blessing for rain after drought:
Come down, wash the air so it shimmers,
a perfumed shawl of lavender chiffon.
Let the parched leaves suckle and swell.
Enter my skin, wash me for the little
chrysalis of sleep rocked in your splashing.
In the morning the world is peeled to shining.

This is the blessing for sun after long rain:
Now everything shakes itself free and rises.
The trees are bright as pushcart ices.
Every last lily opens its satin thighs.
The bees dance and roll in pollen
and the cardinal at the top of the pine
sings at full throttle, fountaining.

This is the blessing for a ripe peach:
This is luck made round. Frost can nip
the blossom, kill the bee. It can drop,
a hard green useless nut. Brown fungus,
the burrowing worm that coils in rot can
blemish it and wind crush it on the ground.
Yet this peach fills my mouth with juicy sun.

This is the blessing for the first garden tomato:
Those green boxes of tasteless acid the store
sells in January, those red things with the savor
of wet chalk, they mock your fragrant name.
How fat and sweet you are weighing down my palm,
warm as the flank of a cow in the sun.
You are the savor of summer in a thin red skin.

This is the blessing for a political victory:
Although I shall not forget that things
work in increments and epicycles and sometime
leaps that half the time fall back down,
let's not relinquish dancing while the music
fits into our hips and bounces our heels.
We must never forget, pleasure is real as pain.

The blessing for the return of a favorite cat,
the blessing for love returned, for friends'
return, for money received unexpected,
the blessing for the rising of the bread,
the sun, the oppressed. I am not sentimental
about old men mumbling the Hebrew by rote
with no more feeling than one says gesundheit.

But the discipline of blessings is to taste
each moment, the bitter, the sour, the sweet
and the salty, and be glad for what does not
hurt. The art is in compressing attention
to each little and big blossom of the tree

of life, to let the tongue sing each fruit,
its savor, its aroma and its use.

Attention is love, what we must give
children, mothers, fathers, pets,
our friends, the news, the woes of others.
What we want to change we curse and then
pick up a tool. Bless whatever you can
with eyes and hands and tongue. If you
can't bless it, get ready to make it new.

16-12-06

Be with me today as we follow these wise and hopeful words by Judyth Hill . This poem is called "Wage Peace." Enjoy, and remember you are love, you are loved. ♡

Wage Peace

Wage peace with your breath.
Breathe in firemen and rubble,
breathe out whole buildings
and flocks of redwing blackbirds.

Breathe in terrorists and breathe out sleeping children
and freshly mown fields.
Breathe in confusion and breathe out maple trees.
Breathe in the fallen
and breathe out lifelong friendships intact.

Wage peace with your listening:
hearing sirens, pray loud.
Remember your tools:
flower seeds, clothes pins, clean rivers.

Make soup.
Play music, learn the word for thank you in three languages.
Learn to knit, and make a hat.
Think of chaos as dancing raspberries,
imagine grief as the outbreath of beauty
or the gesture of fish.
Swim for the other side.
Wage peace.

Never has the world seemed so fresh and precious.
Have a cup of tea and rejoice.
Act as if armistice has already arrived.
Don't wait another minute.

16-12-01

A poem today by Denise Levertov called "For Those Whom the Gods Love Less." If this is how you are feeing today, please read these words and rejoice, there is a remedy. Yours, in love always.

For Those Whom the Gods Love Less

When you discover
your new work travels the ground you had traversed
decades ago, you wonder, panicked,
'Have I outlived my vocation? Said already
all that was mine to say?'

There's a remedy -
only one - for the paralysis seizing your throat to mute you,
numbing your hands: Remember the great ones, remember Cezanne
doggedly sur le motif, his mountain
a tireless noonday angel he grappled like Jacob,
demanding reluctant blessing. Remember James rehearsing
over and over his theme, the loss
of innocence and the attainment
(note by separate note sounding its tone
until by accretion a chord resounds) of somber
understanding. Each life in art
goes forth to meet dragons that rise from their bloody scales
in cyclic rhythm: Know and forget, know and forget.
It's not only
the passion for getting it right (thought it's that, too)
it's the way
radiant epiphanies recur, recur,
consuming, pristine, unrecognized-
until remembrance dismays you. And then, look,
some inflection of light, some wing of shadow
is other, unvoiced. You can, you must
proceed.

*poem via Transactions with Beauty

16-11-29

I enclose this poem again by popular request. Thank you for sharing in the power of these words. Here is "The Serenity Prayer" by Reinhold Niebuhr.

The Serenity Prayer

God grant me the serenity
to accept the things I cannot change;
courage to change the things I can;
and wisdom to know the difference.

Living one day at a time;
enjoying one moment at a time;
accepting hardships as the pathway to peace;
taking, as He did, this sinful world
as it is, not as I would have it;
trusting that He will make all things right
if I surrender to His Will;
that I may be reasonably happy in this life
and supremely happy with Him
forever in the next.
Amen.

16-11-24

GROUP PRAYER INVITATION

Please join our prayer group on Sunday, November 27, 2016 at 9:00 am EST.

We will pray together for 30 min. The topic is: love of all energies.

If you are called participate, all you have to do is sit quietly and focus your attention on loving all energies. The overall vibrations are of compassion and self love. Together, we amplify these frequencies for the world.

Please join me in prayer as we love all energies.

I am eternally grateful to you. Thank you for our togetherness.

16-11-11

It is so good to be back with you. I am so grateful to be here.

Today, I am called to this poem called "In Flanders Fields" by John McCrae.

Thank you for our love. Thank you for our freedom.

In Flanders Fields

In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.

16-10-28

Dear Friends. I will not be posting prayers to the website next week. However, please continue to send your prayers and I will continue to pray for you. As always, I am honoured to do so, and grateful. Yours, in love always. See you in one week's time.♡

16-10-25

A fun poem for your contemplation today. I love how the rhyme works to lighten, and also highlight the simplicity of the message. Each of us has a responsibility - let's sing these words together. Here is Ella Wheeler Wilcox's "See?".

See?

If one proves weak whom you fancied strong,

Or false whom you fancied true,

Just ease the smart of your wounded heart

By the thought that it is not you.

If many forget a promise made,

And your faith falls into the dust,

Then look meanwhile in your mirror and smile,

And say, 'I am the one to trust.'

If you search in vain for an ageing face

Unharrowed by fretful fears,

Then make right now, and keep a vow

To grow in grace with the years.

If you lose your faith in the word of man

As you go from the port of youth,

Just say as you sail, 'I will not fail

To keep to the course of truth.'

For this is the way, and the only way--

At least it seems so to me.

It is up to you, to be and to do,

What you look for in others.

SEE?

16-10-24

Thank you to everyone for yesterday's group prayer. It was wonderful to share the energies with you. We will meet again in 3 weeks time. Until then, my love and prayers go to you.

16-10-21

GROUP PRAYER INVITATION - REMINDER

Please join our prayer group on Sunday, September 23, 2016 at 9:00 am EST.

We will pray together for 30 min. The topic is: harmony.

If you are called participate, all you have to do is sit quietly and focus your attention on an openness to harmony in your life. The overall vibrations are of compassion and self love. Together, we amplify these frequencies for the world.

Please join me in prayer as we harmonize our systems with love.

I am eternally grateful to you. Thank you for our togetherness.

16-10-20

Let's circle around God together. Here is "Widening Circles" by Rainer Marie Rilke. This is dedicated to our spiritual path, however it presents, as we give ourselves to it. Love to you, and blessings for a beautiful, soft, and magical day.

Widening Circles

I live my life in widening circles

that reach out across the world.

I may not complete this last one

but I will give myself to it.

I circle around God, around the primordial tower.

I’ve been circling for thousands of years

and I still don’t know: am I a falcon,

a storm, or a great song?

16-10-18

A short, but very sweet poem for you to ponder today. Please find below "This We Have Now" by Rumi. I love how simple it can be - when we surrender to what is. Loving you more always.

This We Have Now

This we have now

is not imagination.

This is not

grief or joy.

Not a judging state,

or an elation,

or sadness.

Those come and go.

This is the presence that doesn't.

16-10-17

GROUP PRAYER INVITATION

Please join our prayer group on Sunday, September 23, 2016 at 9:00 am EST.

We will pray together for 30 min. The topic is: harmony.

Please join me in prayer as we harmonize our systems with love.

I am eternally grateful to you. Thank you for our togetherness.

16-10-13

Hello Friends and welcome this magical day. I am honoured to share a poem by Stefi Weisburd called "Little God Origami". I love the micro of self juxtaposed with the macro of spirit. Let us unfold ourselves, and return. Blessings and love to you always.

Little God Origami

The number of corners in the soul can't

compare with the universe's dimensions folded

neatly into swans. In the soul's

space, one word on a thousand pieces

of paper the size of cookie fortunes falls

from the heavens. At last, the oracular

answer, you cry, pawing at the scraps that twirl

like seed-pod helicopters. Alas, the window

to your soul needs a good scrubbing, so

the letters doodle into indecipherables just

life every answer that has rained

down through history, and you realize, in

your little smog of thought that death

will simply be the cessation of asking, a thousand

cranes unfolding themselves and returning to the trees.

16-10-03

Today, I enclose a poem for you called 'Keeping Quiet' by Pablo Neruda. I love the call to silence and stillness. I pray that we can all feel something like this today - a respite from our busy-ness anda break from our chattering minds. Thank you for being here with me. I am so grateful for our togetherness. Much love, and many blessings to you.

Keeping Quiet

Now we will count to twelve

and we will all keep still.

This one time upon the earth,

let's not speak any language,

let's stop for one second,

and not move our arms so much.

It would be a delicious moment,

without hurry, without locomotives,

all of us would be together

in a sudden uneasiness.

The fishermen in the cold sea

would do no harm to the whales

and the peasant gathering salt

would look at his torn hands.

Those who prepare green wars,

wars of gas, wars of fire,

victories without survivors,

would put on clean clothing

and would walk alongside their brothers

in the shade, without doing a thing.

What I want shouldn't be confused

with final inactivity:

life alone is what matters,

I want nothing to do with death.

If we weren't unanimous

about keeping our lives so much in motion,

if we could do nothing for once,

perhaps a great silence would

interrupt this sadness,

this never understanding ourselves

and threatening ourselves with death,

perhaps the earth is teaching us

when everything seems to be dead

and then everything is alive.

Now I will count to twelve

and you keep quiet and I'll go.

16-09-28

Today, I share a poem by Rumi called "The Breeze At Dawn". I pray we stay in the space where the two worlds touch, asking for what we really want. I love you always.

The Breeze At Dawn

The breeze at dawn has secrets to tell you.

Don't go back to sleep.

You must ask for what you really want.

Don't go back to sleep.

People are going back and forth across the doorsill

where the two worlds touch.

The door is round and open.

Don't go back to sleep.

16-09-26

Thank you to all who participated in our group prayer yesterday morning. It was lovely to connect and increase the vibrations of self-love. Blessings to you and love always. ♡

16-09-21

Today, I enclose a poem for those who are feeling like they need to hold onto something - anything, just to feel alive, or feel real. Perhaps holding on to these beautiful and honest words will comfort you. Here is Dorothea Lasky's Ars Poetica. Many thanks to Calm Things for a curation of poetry that speaks to both soul and season. Blessings to you all, and love.

Ars Poetica

I wanted to tell the veterinary assistant about the cat video Jason sent me
But I resisted for fear she’d think it strange
I am very lonely
Yesterday my boyfriend called me, drunk again
And interspersed between ringing tears and clinginess
He screamed at me with a kind of bitterness
No other human had before to my ears
And told me that I was no good
Well maybe he didn’t mean that
But that is what I heard
When he told me my life was not worthwhile
And my life’s work the work of the elite.
I say I want to save the world but really
I want to write poems all day
I want to rise, write poems, go to sleep,
Write poems in my sleep
Make my dreams poems
Make my body a poem with beautiful clothes
I want my face to be a poem
I have just learned how to apply
Eyeliner to the corners of my eyes to make them appear wide
There is a romantic abandon in me always
I want to feel the dread for others
I can feel it through song
Only through song am I able to sum up so many words into a few
Like when he said I am no good
I am no good
Goodness is not the point anymore
Holding on to things
Now that’s the point

16-09-19

GROUP PRAYER INVITATION

Please join our prayer group on Sunday, September 25, 2016 at 9:00 am EST.

We will pray together for 30 min. The topic is: self-love

If you are called participate, all you have to do is sit quietly and focus your attention on self-love. The overall vibrations are of compassion and forgiveness. Together, we amplify these vibrations for the world.

Please join me in prayer as we love ourselves together.

I am eternally grateful for you. Thank you for our togetherness.

16-09-15

Good morning, Friends. Let us become students of the 'School of Truth' together, and we can live these lessons from Hafiz, together. Blessings and love to you.

School of Truth

O fool, do something, so you won't just stand there looking dumb.

If you are not traveling and on the road, how can you call yourself a guide?

In the School of Truth, one sits at the feet of the Master of Love.

So listen, son, so that one day you may be an old father, too!

All this eating and sleeping has made you ignorant and fat;

By denying yourself food and sleep, you may still have a chance.

Know this: If God should shine His lovelight on your heart,

I promise you'll shine brighter than a dozen suns.

And I say: wash the tarnished copper of your life from your hands;

To be Love's alchemist, you should be working with gold.

Don't sit there thinking; go out and immerse yourself in God's sea.

Having only one hair wet with water will not put knowledge in that head.

For those who see only God, their vision

Is pure, and not a doubt remains.

Even if our world is turned upside down and blown over by the wind,

If you are doubtless, you won't lose a thing.

O Hafiz, if it is union with the Beloved that you seek,

Be the dust at the Wise One's door, and speak!

16-09-12

This poem by Rumi is called 'There is a community of the spirit". Today, I pray we we join spirit, and each other. I pray we see with the other eye. Love to you, and blessings.

There is a community of the spirit.

Join it, and feel the delight

of walking in the noisy street

and being the noise.

Drink all your passion,

and be a disgrace.

Close both eyes

to see with the other eye.

16-09-08

Today, I am grateful for everything. I wish the same for you - it is the energy that heals us. To get us in the mood, here is Carrie Newcomer's poem 'Three Gratitudes'. Enjoy! I am so thankful for you!

Three Gratitudes

Every night before I go to sleep

I say out loud
Three things that I'm grateful for,
All the significant, insignificant
Extraordinary, ordinary stuff of my life.
It's a small practice and humble,
And yet, I find I sleep better
Holding what lightens and softens my life
Ever so briefly at the end of the day.
Sunlight, and blueberries,
Good dogs and wool socks,
A fine rain,
A good friend,
Fresh basil and wild phlox,
My father's good health,
My daughter's new job,
The song that always makes me cry,
Always at the same part,
No matter how many times I hear it.
Decent coffee at the airport,
And your quiet breathing,
The stories you told me,
The frost patterns on the windows,
English horns and banjos,
Wood Thrush and June bugs,
The smooth glassy calm of the morning pond,
An old coat,
A new poem,
My library card,
And that my car keeps running
Despite all the miles.
And after three things,
More often than not,
I get on a roll and I just keep on going,
I keep naming and listing,

Until I lie grinning,
Blankets pulled up to my chin,
Awash with wonder
At the sweetness of it all.

*poem via Calm Things

16-09-06

Today, I feel utterly graced by these words of Hafiz. The poem is called 'No More Leaving' . I pray spirit hops into all of our pockets today. Blessings to you, and love. (Translation by Daniel Ladinsky.)

No More Leaving

Some point

Your relationship

With God

Will

Become like this:

Next time you meet Him in the forest

Or on a crowded city street

There won't be anymore

"Leaving."

That is,

God will climb into

Your pocket.

You will simply just take

Yourself

Along!

16-09-05

Thank you for our group prayer yesterday. It was lovely to connect with everyone. I hope you felt our togetherness as much as I did. I am so grateful for you! Blessing and love to you today and always.♡

16-09-01

GROUP PRAYER INVITATION - REMINDER

Please join our prayer group on Sunday, September 04, 2016 at 9:00 am EST.

We will pray together for 30 min. The topic is: releasing attachments.

If you are called participate, all you have to do is sit quietly and focus your attention on a willingness to release attachments that are not serving you. The overall vibrations are of compassion and self love. Together, we amplify these vibrations for the world.

Please join me in prayer as we release attachments.

I am eternally grateful for you. Thank you for our togetherness.

16-08-31

Please find enclosed a poem by Laura Foley called "Gratitude List". Today, I pray we find it in ourselves to be grateful for the benevolent energies that are always all around us. I pray we find solace and joy, in beauty and simplicity. I pray our souls are set loose with the feeling of love.

Gratitude List

Praise be this morning for sleeping late,

the sandy sheets, the ocean air,

the midnight storm that blew its waters in.

Praise be the morning swim, mid-tide,

the clear sands underneath our feet,

the dogs who leap into the waves,

their fur, sticky with salt,

the ball we throw again and again.

Praise be the green tea with honey,

the bread we dip in finest olive oil,

the eggs we fry. Praise be the reeds,

gold and pink in the summer light,

the sand between our toes,

our swimsuits, flapping in the breeze.

16-08-30

I hope you enjoy these beautiful and soothing words of Pablo Neruda. This poem is called "You Will Remember". I love it because it calls to the knowledge we already have within, we just need to be reminded. I wish you a wonderful day full of love and light.

You Will Remember

You will remember that leaping stream

where sweet aromas rose and trembled,

and sometimes a bird, wearing water

and slowness, its winter feathers.

You will remember those gifts from the earth:

indelible scents, gold clay,

weeds in the thicket and crazy roots,

magical thorns like swords.

You'll remember the bouquet you picked,

shadows and silent water,

bouquet like a foam-covered stone.

That time was like never, and like always.

So we go there, where nothing is waiting;

we find everything waiting there.

16-08-29

GROUP PRAYER INVITATION

Please join our prayer group on Sunday, September 04, 2016 at 9:00 am EST.

We will pray together for 30 min. The topic is: releasing attachments.

Please join me in prayer as we release attachments.

I am eternally grateful for you. Thank you for our togetherness.

16-08-24

Please find enclosed a poem by Mary Oliver called "Poem (the spirit likes to dress up)". I love the imagery and the playfulness and the necessity of being one -mind/body/spirit. I hope you enjoy these nourishing words as much as I do. Love to you.

Poem (the spirit likes to dress up)

The spirit

likes to dress up like this:

ten fingers,

ten toes,

shoulders, and all the rest

at night

in the black branches,

in the morning

in the blue branches

of the world.

It could float, of course,

but would rather

plumb rough matter.

Airy and shapeless thing,

it needs

the metaphor of the body,

lime and appetite,

the oceanic fluids;

it needs the body's world,

instinct

and imagination

and the dark hug of time,

sweetness

and tangibility,

to be understood,

to be more than pure light

that burns

where no one is --

so it enters us --

in the morning

shines from brute comfort

like a stitch of lightning;

and at night

lights up the deep and wondrous

drownings of the body

like a star.

16-08-22

Thank you, thank you, thank you for your love and energy and compassion and intentions for peace on our beautiful planet earth. We shared a lovely group prayer yesterday, and I am so grateful for our togetherness.

In the spirit of our ultimate togetherness - our union with the divine - I enclose this poem by Ella Wheeler Wilcox called "Conversation." There is no separation between us. There never has been. We have always been one. I love you always, fully and completely.

CONVERSATION

God and I in space alone

and nobody else in view.

"And where are the people, O Lord," I said,

"the earth below and the sky o'er head

and the dead whom once I knew?"

"That was a dream," God smiled and said,

"A dream that seemed to be true.

There were no people, living or dead,

there was no earth, and no sky o'er head;

there was only Myself -- in you."

"Why do I feel no fear," I asked,

"meeting You here this way?

For I have sinned I know full well--

and is there heaven, and is there hell,

and is this the Judgment Day?"

"Nay, those were but dreams,"

the Great God said,

"Dreams that have ceased to be.

There are no such things as fear or sin;

there is no you -- you never have been--

there is nothing at all

but Me."

16-08-19

GROUP PRAYER INVITATION - REMINDER

Please join our prayer group on Sunday, August 21, 2016 at 9:00 am EST.

We will pray together for 30 min. The topic is: peace.

If you are called participate, all you have to do is sit quietly and focus your attention on filling yourself with compassion - for self and others. Together, we amplify this vibration for the world.

Please join me in prayer as we meet ourselves and each other in peace.

I am eternally grateful for you. Thank you for our togetherness.

16-08-18

Today I enclose "Oh, Worker of the Universe" by Rabindranath Tagore. This is who I am today, right now, a worker of the universe, ever striving for the light. Blessings my friends, and love to you. My prayers are with you always. I am so honoured to be here for you. Thank you for visiting.

Worker Of The Universe

It is only the revelation of You as the Infinite

that is endlessly new and eternally beautiful in us

and that gives the only meaning to our self when

we feel Your rhythmic throb as soul-life, the whole

world in our own souls; then are we free.

O Worker of the universe! Let the irresistible

current of Your universal energy come like the

impetuous south wind of spring; let it come

rushing over the vast field of human life. Let our

newly awakened powers cry out for unlimited

fulfillment in leaf and flower and fruit.

* source

16-09-16

I love the quiet, peaceful beauty in these words by Thich Nhat Hanh. Below is the poem called "Non-Duality". Enjoy your divine day. I send to you light, love, and blessings.

Non-Duality

The bell tolls at four in the morning.

I stand by the window,

barefoot on the cool floor.

The garden is still dark.

I wait for the mountains and rivers to reclaim their shapes.

There is no light in the deepest hours of the night.

Yet, I know you are there

in the depth of the night,

the immeasurable world of the mind.

You, the known, have been there

ever since the knower has been.

The dawn will come soon,

and you will see

that you and the rosy horizon

are within my two eyes.

It is for me that the horizon is rosy

and the sky blue.

Looking at your image in the clear stream,

you answer the question by your very presence.

Life is humming the song of the non-dual marvel.

I suddenly find myself smiling

in the presence of this immaculate night.

I know because I am here that you are there,

and your being has returned to show itself

in the wonder of tonight's smile.

In the quiet stream,

I swim gently.

The murmur of the water lulls my heart.

A wave serves as a pillow

I look up and see

a white cloud against the blue sky,

the sound of Autumn leaves,

the fragrance of hay-

each one a sign of eternity.

A bright star helps me find my way back to myself.

I know because you are there that I am here.

The stretching arm of cognition

in a lightning flash,

joining together a million eons of distance,

joining together birth and death,

joining together the known and the knower.

In the depth of the night,

as in the immeasurable realm of consciousness,

the garden of life and I

remain each other's objects.

The flower of being is singing the song of emptiness.

The night is still immaculate,

but sounds and images from you

have returned and fill the pure night.

I feel their presence.

By the window, with my bare feet on the cool floor,

I know I am here

for you to be.

16-08-15

Thank you to the people of Brazil for visiting this website and sharing your prayers. I am filled with so much love and appreciation for our connection.

These beautiful words are for you...

Pai Nosso / Our Father / Pater Noster

Pai Nosso que estais nos céus,
santificado é o Vosso nome,
venha a nós o Vosso reino,
seja feita a Vossa vontade,
assim na terra como no céu.
O pão nosso de cada dia nos dai hoje,
perdoai-nos as nossas ofensas,
assim como nós perdoamos a quem nos tem ofendido.
E não nos deixeis cair em tentação,
mas livrai-nos do mal,
Amén.

16-09-15

GROUP PRAYER INVITATION

Please join our prayer group on Sunday, August 21, 2016 at 9:00 am EST.

We will pray together for 30 min. The topic is: peace.

If you are called participate, all you have to do is sit quietly and focus your attention on filling yourself with compassion - for self and others. Together, we amplify this vibration for the world.

Please join me in prayer as we meet ourselves and each other in peace.

I am eternally grateful for you. Thank you for our togetherness.

16-08-11

Dear Friends. This song encapsulates the way I am feeling today. It is the feeling of our togetherness, and the innocence of unconditional love and trust. Eternal thanks to the song writers - John Lennon and Paul McCartney.

All You Need Is Love

Love, love, love, love, love, love, love, love, love.

There's nothing you can do that can't be done.
Nothing you can sing that can't be sung.
Nothing you can say, but you can learn
How to play the game
It's easy.
Nothing you can make that can't be made.
No one you can save that can't be saved.
Nothing you can do, but you can learn
How to be you in time
It's easy.

All you need is love, all you need is love,
All you need is love, love. Love is all you need.
Love, love, love, love, love, love, love, love, love.
All you need is love, all you need is love,
All you need is love, love. Love is all you need.

There's nothing you can know that isn't known.
Nothing you can see that isn't shown.
There's nowhere you can be that isn't where
You're meant to be
It's easy.

All you need is love, all you need is love,
All you need is love, love. Love is all you need.
All you need is love. (All together now).
All you need is love. (Everybody).
All you need is love, love. Love is all you need.
Love is all you need.
Love is all you need

(Yesterday)
(Oh yeah)
(She love you, yeah, yeah, yeah)
(She love you, yeah, yeah, yeah)
(Oh, yesterday)

16-08-07

I love the poetry of Hafiz - there are so many of his beautiful words already on this website. Let's add more today. Here is "It Felt Love". May you have a fearless day, filled with light. Love to you all.

It Felt Love

How
Did the rose
Ever open its heart

And give this world
All its
Beauty?

It felt the encouragement of light
Against its
Being,

Otherwise,
We all remain

Too

Frightened

16-08-02

Today, a poem by Krev Roues called "One Easy Step Toward Enlightenment". Here's to our togetherness, always. Blessings for a lovely day.

One Easy Step to Enlightenment

First off, and I do mean first

You know in your heart

that the times are changing

Oh so much slower than we thought

and you know in your heart

that the good guys and the bad guys

don't know any more than you what's going on

End of the World?

End of Time?

I'm here to tell you

and yes that is my job

It doesn't matter

This moment and only this moment, matter

It is your heart, your very soul

that will shape this moment

and when we, together

Awaken to the idea

that is this moment

we will reach out

without any thought for

what's in it for us

without any notion of our need

but reach out in one infinitesimal

moment

for no other reason than to

Together

Joined

In the Moment