heartsteps

"Christ of St. John of the Cross" Salvador Dali

She caught me off guard when my soul said to me,
“Have we met?”

So surprised I was to hear her speak like that
I chuckled.

She began to sing a tale: “There was once a hard working man
who used to worry so much because he could
not feed and clothe his children and
wife the way he wanted.

There was a beautiful little chapel in the village
where the man lived and one day while
he was praying, an angel
appeared.

The angel said, “Follow me.” And he did into an ancient forest.
“Now dig here,” the angel said. And the man felt strength in
his limbs he had not known since youth and with just
his bare hands, he dug deep and found
a lost treasure, and his relationship
with the world changed.”

Finding our soul’s beauty does that – gives us
tremendous freedom
from worry.

John of the Cross

You might hear the beautiful shout of “Geronimo”
from a lover who has just dove from a
cliff and is heading full speed
into the Ocean – into the
Beloved.

And of course there will always be lots of gab
along the shore from those who are
drawn to God

but have yet to really get bare assed
and go in.

“Geronimo” may be the last word we hear
from that brave gal falling 625 mph
from a cliff,

for once beneath the sea,
once within the Water,

only fish open their mouths, still bargaining
for something.

The soul becomes quiet in ecstasy, so quiet.
Love speaks in the absence of God,
not in the heights
of passion.

Tukaram

How is it they live for eons in such harmony -
the billions of stars -

when most men can barely go a minute
without declaring war in their mind against someone they know.

There are wars where no one marches with a flag,
though that does not keep casualties
from mounting.

Our hearts irrigate this earth.
We are fields before
each other.

How can we live in harmony?
First we need to
know

we are all madly in love
with the same
God.

Thomas Aquinas

Ikhnation, 14th Century BC

Creator of the germ in woman,
Maker of seed in man,
Giving life to the son in the body of his mother,
Soothing him that he may not weep,
Nurse (even) in the womb,
Giver of breath to animate every one that he maketh!
When he cometh forth from the womb…
on the day of his birth,
Thou openest mouth in speech.
Thou suppliest his necessities.
When the fledgling in the egg chirps in the shell
Thou givest him breath therein to preserve him alive…
He goeth about upon his two feet
When he hath come forth therefrom.
How manifold are thy works!
They are hidden from before us
O sole God, whose powers no other possesseth.
Thou didst create the earth according to thy heart.

Ikhnation, Pharoah of Egypt

 

Rabia al-Adawiyya, 8th Century Islamic Saint

The sky gave me its heart
because it knew mine was not large enough to care
for the earth the way it did.

Why is it that we think of God so much?
Why is there so much talk
about love?

When an animal is wounded
no one has to tell it,
“You need to heal”;
so naturally it will nurse
itself the best it can.

My eye kept telling me, “Something is missing from
all I see.” So it went in search for the cure.

The cure for me was His beauty, the remedy -
for me was to
love.

Rabia al-Adawiyya

"Sorrow" by John D. Bailey

When sorrow comes, let us accept it simply, as a part of life. Let the heart be open to pain; let it be stretched by it. All the evidence we have says that this is the better way. An open heart never grows bitter. Or if it does, it cannot remain so. In the desolate hour, there is an outcry; a clenching of the hands upon emptiness; a burning pain of bereavement; a weary ache of loss. But anguish, like ecstasy, is not forever. There comes a gentleness, a returning quietness, a restoring stillness. This, too, is a door to life. Here, also is the deepening of meaning – and it can lead to dedication; a going forward to the triumph of the soul, the conquering of the wilderness. And in the process will come a deepening inward knowledge that in the final reckoning, all is well.

A. Powell Davies

My gift for unconditional love is a great blessing in my life. I am able to manifest an inner nobility in my relationships. I accept those who love me as they are. I allow them to love me at their speed and tempo as they are able. I do not dictate or control. their love for me is a gift. I allow them the right to choose how and why they give it. Those who love me are part of God’s love for me. They are part of the larger plan of my life. I allow God to remain the whole. I root myself in God, accepting the relationships which come to me as a part of something larger that holds all of us within its scope. I find the steadfastness of divine companionship. I allow God to be my primary security, the deep soil of my heart’s safety. Rooted in God, I allow human love to gift me and grace me but I do not demand a god-like security from human love. I find perfect love, perfect security, perfect safety in God. I allow my human loves to be human and I love them in their humanity.

Julia Cameron

I wanted to be a hermit and only hear the hymns
of the earth, and the laughter of the sky,

and the sweet gossip of the creatures on my limbs,
the forests.

I wanted to be a hermit and not see another face
look upon mine and tell me I was not
all the beauty in this
world.

For so many faces do that -
cage us.

The wings we have are so fragile
they can break from just
one word, or

a glance void
of love.

I wanted to live in that cloister of
light’s silence

because, it is not true, the heart
is so fragile and shy.

Catherine of Siena

God
and I have become
like two giant fat people living
in a tiny
boat.

We
keep bumping into
each other
and
l
a
u
g
h
i
n
g
.

Hafiz