heartsteps

O Great Life-giving Spirit
whose commanding voice I hear in the winds
and whose warm breath gives life to all in the world

Hear me
one seven-billionth of the humans on the planet earth.
I am a natural part of the universe -
as natural and necessary as the rocks,
the trees, the birds and the mice
no more important – nor any less.

Let me walk in beauty
let my spirit see the dynamic spirit of life in all that exists
with no prejudice or malice toward any creation.
May I begin to remember who I am in the natural order of things
May I come to know what time it is
in my life and in all life.

Great Spirit of Love
Connect my heart to my head
Make me wise
that I may understand the things you have taught all people.
in every heart close or far from my own.
Make me courageous when the cold winds of life fall upon me.
Give me strength and endurance for everything that is harsh
everything that hurts
everything that makes me squint and wince.

I seek strength not to be greater or lesser than my brother or sister
but to remove the tough and slimy obstacles to equality
that have made their home inside myself.
Prepare me to move through life ready to take what comes.
Comfort me and caress me when I am tired and cold.
Unfold me
the way your gentle breezes unfold the leaves on trees.

Oh Spirit of Creation
make me always ready to come to you with clean hands
and straight eyes
so when life fades as the fading sunset
my spirit may come to you without shame.
Let me remember every day that the moment will come
when my sun will go down
my river will join the vast ocean
and this rock which has bounced along so many bumps
will finally come to rest.

Give me a great sky for setting into
a crystal-clean ocean for flowing into
and an unpolluted earth for my final resting place.
And when it is time to for me to join the earth again
may I come steadily and with glory.

Fran Peavey

To live content with small means,
to seek elegance rather than luxury,
and refinement rather than fashion,
to be worthy, not respectable, and wealthy, not rich,
to study hard, think quietly, talk gently, act frankly,
to listen to stars and birds, babes and sages, with open heart,
to bear all cheerfully,
do all bravely,
await occasions,
hurry never —
in a word, to let the spiritual, unbidden and unconscious,
grow up through the common.
This is to be my symphony.

William Ellery Channing

So, friends, every day do something
that won’t compute.
Love the Lord. Love the world. Work for nothing.
Take all that you have and be poor.
Love someone who does not deserve it.
Denounce the government and embrace
the flag. Hope to live in that free
republic for which it stands.
Give your approval to all you cannot
understand. Praise ignorance, for what man
has not encountered he has not destroyed.
Ask the questions that have no answers.
Invest in the millennium. Plant sequoias.
Say that your main crop is the forest
that you did not plant,
that you will not live to harvest.
Say that the leaves are harvested
when they have rotted into the mold.
Call that profit. Prophesy such returns.
Put your faith in the two inches of humus
that will build under the trees
every thousand years.
Listen to carrion—put your ear
close, and hear the faint chattering
of the songs that are to come.
Expect the end of the world. Laugh.
Laughter is immeasurable. Be joyful
though you have considered all the facts.
So long as women do not go cheap
for power, please women more than men.
Ask yourself: Will this satisfy
a woman satisfied to bear a child?
Will this disturb the sleep
of a woman near to giving birth?
Go with your love to the fields.
Lie easy in the shade. Rest your head
in her lap. Swear allegiance
to what is nighest your thoughts.
As soon as the generals and the politicos
can predict the motions of your mind,
lose it. Leave it as a sign
to mark the false trail, the way
you didn’t go. Be like the fox
who makes more tracks than necessary,
some in the wrong direction.
Practice resurrection.

Wendell Berry

Howard Thurman

It is now.

Right now.

You and I are facing each other – you are reading these words, I within the page.

May I be so bold to offer you a gift? If I may, read on.

I gift you with the courage to be, to know deeply the divine design of your life.

I gift you with passion for the possible and the willingness to bring this possibility into time. You are more than you think you are, and something in you knows it.

All the hurts and failures, all the wanderings, losings, dyings, and forgettings were but a part of gaining of the rich material of your life. By being wounded, you became vulnerable and available; by being lost, you were able to be found; by dying, you learned the power of new birth; by forgetting, you gained the joy of remembering. Now I call all parts of you back, a mighty crew, seaworthy and well stocked, to set sail for new continents of spirit, shores of incredible lands where the fractal waves of many people and many times arrive at last, and you know that you have gained your birthright. Welcome home, god and goddess, no longer in hiding.

Anonymous

Open the storage units
Unlock every second home
Distribute every safebox jewel
Take down the fences so any may pass
Burn the titles of your past
Invite the wild to backyards
and mark the dead with trees
Throw away your watches,
take the time you need
Scatter the riches written in
the ledgers of far-away banks
Wash your eyes with water and
look again
Plant the seed of your dream,
your heart, your care.
May your backyard be a garden for you,
for me, for all beings.

Gigi Coyle

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

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

As a newborn babe I crawl from my mother’s womb
And stand on wobbly legs in the new world;
Wash the new body that has just been
So tenderly born from a lifetime labor,
And walk to stand before the fire.
I raise my face to your infinite sky
And feel your touch of grace:
Your gentle raindrops kissing my skin,
Your singing wind that moves the trees,
The hot breath of your dancing fire,
Your wet, rich earth beneath my feet
O Spirit, I recognize you now:
My father, my mother, my unseen lover—
You’ve been here always in all things;
In all things has your spirit lived for me;
From all things has your spirit loved me.
Through all things has your spirit touched me.
And never was I left alone, nor could I be
In this truer world of holy people
And living stone.

Rochelle Wallace

I promise myself to be so strong
that nothing can disturb my peace of mind;
To talk health, happiness and prosperity
to every person I meet;
To make all my friends feel
that there is something in them;
To look at the sunny side of everything
and make my optimism come true;
To think only of the best,
to work only for the best
and expect only the best;
To be just as enthusiastic
about the success of others
as I am about my own;
To forget the mistakes of the past and press on
to the greater achievements of the future;
To wear a cheerful countenance at all times
and give every living creature I meet a smile;
To give so much time to the improvement of myself
that I have no time to criticize others;
To be too large for worry, too noble for anger,
too strong for fear, and too happy
to permit the presence of trouble.

Christian Larson