Who Will

 

Who Will?

 

Celebrate yourself

I’ve heard it said,

Give thanks for all you’ve

Done,

Self-love and all.

Not an easy prescription,

It’s so much easier

To self-loathe,

To berate

For mistakes and slips,

To wallow in self-pity

And forget

My goodness.

With time and age

I learn everyday

If I can’t,

If I don’t celebrate myself

Who will?

If I don’t show gratitude

To myself,

Honoring the work I’ve done,

And how far I’ve come

Why would anyone else?

It’s good to ask myself

Would I treat my dearest friend

This way?

If the answer is no

Time to change the tune.

Not Really Missing

 

Not Really Missing

 

What happens

When you feel

You’ve forgotten who you are

When your self seems

Far away,

Yet you don’t feel empty

No feeling sad.

Just aware

Something is missing inside.

You sit and ponder

Listening to what’s going on

Because the din of life

Has been overshadowing

Everything for a while now.

Things have been wonderful

But I’m ready for some solitude

Some peaceful meditation

A return to my soul.

Then I realize

I haven’t forgotten,

Nothing is missing,

Life just requires different pieces

At different times.

I’m completely whole

But need only draw on certain

Parts for what life demands right now.

It’s why there is no pain, no sadness.

Nothing to be sad about,

Only a slight nostalgic longing for something

Simmering away quietly on the back burner

While other pots take the foremost flames.

From the Sea

 

From the Sea

 

Footsteps in the sand

Lead me to the ocean

Where I meet my soul

Laughing in the waves

Diving to the depths

To learn the truth.

I witness joy

As the morning sun plays

Across the beach,

Turning it into a million

Sparkling jewels.

I hear the music

In my dreams

Calling me back to the sea.

So I walk along in darkness

Lit only by a streak of moonlight

To the sand that warms my feet

And takes me to a watery home.

The power, the strength

Of my soul comes through and

From the sea

So too does

The mystery, the ancient wisdom.

I come back to

Whom I really am

With the help of the sea.

Solace in Light

 

Solace in Light

 

Candles whisper in the wind

Lighting all our sorrows

Carrying prayers

On waves of heat

Out into the atmosphere.

We look for comfort there

Sometimes finding it

Others finding naught

But empty flickers

Of a white hot flame.

We reach for meaning in the darkness

We reach for solace in the light,

Often forgetting

To reach within ourselves

For both meaning and solace.

In Silence

 

In Silence

 

We sit in silence

Finding discomfort

As we meet ourselves.

As words dwindle

We are left

With what’s inside

Emotions we neglected

In the noise of the day.

To meet ourselves

Together

Creates connection.

Silence makes us vulnerable

Open to what may decide to surface

Within our hearts.

In the silence

We must face all we covered

With the noise.

Allowing silence to fill us

To open us up

To nothingness

Can be fear inducing.

I welcome silence

While fearing what it may bring.

 

For the first time I sat in silence for a Quaker meeting and was inspired to write this. I found the silence to be refreshing but it also reminded me how difficult silence can be.

 

How does silence make you feel?

You Are Home

 

You Are Home

 

I fly the skies

All day

Exploring the world

Spreading my reach

To the ends of the earth.

But every day comes to an end

Night begins to fall.

When that happens

I make my way home

To you.

It doesn’t matter

Where you are

What building you’re in

What state,

Just only that you are.

Home is where my love is,

That is you.

All my wanderings

Terminate temporarily at you,

My heart sleeps soundly with you

I’d travel twice around the world

Just to find where you are.

You are home to me,

I’ll always be where you are,

Until my travels carry me afar

But I’ll always come back.

 

So here you can choose who it is that I am coming home to, another person or a deeper part of myself. Both are present, both are true, both apply. Coming home to yourself is a wonderful thing, it means that no matter where you are, you are home and that is a comforting thing.

When have you found someone to come home to?

I Am/not My Story

 

I Am/Not My Story

 

Somewhere in my story

I can be found.

In all the birthdays

Scraped knees,

In all the sicknesses,

Celebrations

Somewhere I am.

A sum total of

My experiences

As well as each

Contributing factor.

I am the quilt

And each thread

Knit together.

I am the story

I am the space between.

Divorce me from my story

I am no longer whole,

Sink me exclusively in my story

I drown.

Accept me as a compilation

A complicated mix of

A million parts.

You need not know

Each of the million

Just acknowledge they exist.

 

Since I have been meeting so many new people in the past two weeks I have been thinking how we are and are not our stories. How our stories are a huge part of who we are and yet we also are so much more than our stories.

What stories make up part of you?

What’s Within

 

What’s Within

 

Giants walk among us

Yet we somehow manage not to see.

Greatness lives within us

Yet we are determined to live small.

We are so busy

Getting ahead

Becoming successful

We forget what success really looks like.

I think it’s made of love

Of smiles, hugs and memories.

Accept the greatness within you

You’ll find love

You’ll have real connections to those around you.

See the giants,

Realize that you too are a giant

In the world

Enlarged by your capacity to love

Even more by your capacity to receive it.

 

It’s easy to forget what lies not only within each other but within ourselves as well. I find it to be very important to spend time discovering what is within ourselves. It’s also important to realize we don’t know what goes on inside someone else.

 

When do you take time to discover what’s inside?

Finding Myself

 

Finding Myself

 

When I need to find myself

I return to the mountains

To the trees, the rivers.

In my solitude

I remember who I am,

I am awakened

By the quiet noises of the forest

As the wind whispers through

Trees and leaves.

I can feel

My heart begin to flutter

As my spirit soars.

The whole world fades away.

I am left with

Me.

I am left with now,

With the natural world

In front of me.

Time doesn’t matter

Nothing else exists

But right now.

It only takes a moment

For the transformation

For the wilderness to take hold

I become wild.

I am alone

Yet not alone.

Loneliness is so far away

When I am in the mountains.

 

I’ve spent the past few days hiking in the mountains in Vermont and New Hampshire and there is just something amazing about spending time in the mountains. Both alone and with hiking buddies, it is a magical, spiritual experience. I absolutely love it. It’s moments like this when it feels like my body has just been made to hike and be in the mountains!

 

Where do you find yourself?

So Clear

 

So Clear

Everything is so clear.

I can see it all unfolding

Before me.

A beautiful perfect flower,

Opening and reveling its truth.

It already is so there is no need

To worry anymore.

Safety is all that exists,

Permeating every action of my being.

Peace coats my soul

Like frosting on a cake

Like clouds on a mountain.

I am here to stay and be

How is not important to know.

Let go and float purposefully through

As life will pull you in all directions,

Some days will seem to never end

Some days will rush on by

Some days you will forget yourself

Some days you will remember and know yourself

But

Everyday you will be.

 

Sometimes even in the midst of craziness clarity exists. For no quantifiable, describable reason there is clarity. In those moments I am tempted to think about them and wonder where the clarity came from, why I have it now as opposed to other times. But it can be refreshing to just let the clarity be.

What helps you just be with clarity?