heartsteps

Look to this day…
For yesterday is but a dream
And tomorrow is only a vision
But today well-lived
Makes every yesterday
A dream of happiness
And every tomorrow a vision of hope.

Sanskrit

This composite high definition image uses a number of swaths of the Earth’s surface taken on January 4, 2012. The NASA satellite was renamed ‘Suomi NPP’ on January 24, 2012 to honor the late Verner E. Suomi of the University of Wisconsin.

What keeps us alive, what allows us to endure?
I think it is the hope of loving,
or being loved.

I heard a fable once about the sun going on a journey
to find its source, and how the moon wept
without her lover’s
warm gaze.

We weep when light does not reach our hearts. We wither
like fields if someone close
does not rain their
kindness
upon
us.

Meister Eckhart

The hardest part is people.
So Lord, help me face them
without rancor or disappointment.
Help me see the pain behind their actions
rather than the malice;
the suffering rather than the rage.

And in myself, as I struggle
with the vise of my own desire -
give me strength to quiet my heart,
to quicken my empathy, to act
in gratitude rather than need.

Remind me that the peace I find
in the slow track of seasons
or an uncurling fern frond,
is married to the despair I feel
in the face of nuclear war.

Remind me that each small bird shares atoms
with anthrax, with tetanus, with acid rain,
that each time I close my heart
to another, I add to the darkness;
Help me always follow kindness.

Let this be my prayer.

Karen Holden

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
centre 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
be realistic
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.
If you can be faithless
and therefore 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 at the edge of the 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
to feed the children.

It doesn’t interest me who you know
or how you came to be here.
I want to know if you will stand
in the centre 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.

Oriah Mountain Dreamer

There is a grace approaching

that we shun as much as death.
It is the completion of our birth.

It does not come in time, but in timelessness
when the mind sinks into the heart
and we remember who we are.

It is an insistent grace that draws us
to the edge and beckons us to surrender
safe territory and enter our enormity.

We know we must pass beyond knowing
and fear the shedding.

But we are pulled upward
nonetheless
through forgotten ghosts
and unexpected angels
realizing it doesn’t make sense
to make sense anymore

This morning the universe danced before you
as you sang — it loves that song!

Stephen and Ondrea Levine

When I die if you need to weep

Cry for your brother or sister
Walking the street beside you
And when you need me put your arms around anyone
Give them what you need to give me

I want to leave you something
Something better than words or sounds

Look for me in the people I have known or loved
And if you cannot give me away
At least let me live in your eyes, not in your mind

You can love me most by letting hands touch hands
By letting bodies touch bodies
And by letting go of children that need to be free

Love doesn’t die, people do;
So when all that’s left of me is love
Give me away

Anonymous

Wash me from all that I think I am:
my struggles, my stands, my cherished opinions,
my soaring dreams and deadening fears.
Leave me only Your purity and Your peace.

Wipe away the masks of judgment
I have placed on Your children.
Show me the faces made in Your likeness,
that I may see my own as well.

Brush aside all shrines to the future,
all altars to the past.
Give me Your golden present,
a Home in You, unmovable and eternal.

Still all voices within me.
Fill me with the hush of Your peace.
Now You are my thoughts, my purpose, and my way
All I need and all I am is You.

Hugh Prather

Health is easy to keep,
Difficult to restore;
Emotions move easily
When first they arise,
Become pain when suppressed;
To respond and release
Means less toil later.

An armored heart is easily injured
And pursuing fantasy invites despair;
A great life is composed of many details,
So walk firmly — each step counts.

A grand canyon began as a tiny cleft
A great master was born a small babe;
Be happy in your place,
Growth is inevitable.
Your start and finish are the same:
The journey to enlightenment begins
Where you are right now.

One who controls
Will be out of control
And the competitive spirit
Is ever wanting.
The sage does not control
And maintains perfect balance;
She does not grab for power
So overflows with it.

The only treasure the master seeks
Is a peaceful heart;
Her only goal
To be full where she is.
Her only doctrine
To allow.

By returning to her origins,
She brings us all forward.

Haven Trevino

I said to God, “Let me love you.” And He replied, “Which part?”
“All of you, all of you,” I said.

“Dear,” God spoke, “you are as a mouse wanting to impregnate
a tiger who is not even in heat. It is a feat way
beyond your courage and strength.
You would run from me
if I removed my
mask.”

I said to God again,
“Beloved I need to love you—every aspect, every pore.”

And this time God said,
“There is a hideous blemish on my body, though it is such an infinitesimal part of my Being – could you kiss that if it were revealed?”
“I will try, Lord, I will try.”

And then God said,
“That blemish is all the hatred and
cruelty in this
world.”

Thomas Aquinas