Day Seven: Love

Word of the Day: Love

Image of the Day: Green Tara

Token of the Day: Russ Bear (her label reads "Bears in Love"!) and she has chosen her name to be Tara...

Love - one of the most beautiful four-letter words in the English language but do we use it too easily? Do we not use it enough? Do we mean it? Do we understand it?

i can love but not like...
or can i?
love conquers death
yet there are crimes of passion
Ah! that word again!

God so loved the world
that She gave Her only Child to save us.

The Goddess Tara - most ancient living worship
of God the Mother,
Tara, Mary, Aphrodite, Venus,
Star of the Sea, Stella Maris.

Green Tara is one of the two streams of divine love, the other being White Tara. Green Tara is ready for action, one foot out in half-open Lotus. She is associated with the night and is known as the Lunar Daughter, White Tara being the Solar Mother. Her primary function is as Saviouress.

Green Tara descends into the flux of activity (Samsara) to save Her creatures. Her name means star and a secondary meaning is Saviour in the specific sense of "She who carries us across the waters".

Jesus descended from God the Parent to save humankind. He embodies divine activity on earth.

Love means that i can look at different faiths, different cultures and ideas and see God. I do not need to be limited by my own experience but can reach out and draw on others'. Love is the force that holds the stars in the sky, allows a raindrop to balance on the tip of a dandelion seedhead, creates snowflakes as unique gems never to be repeated.

love is
act of random kindness
being present
much more than giving
loving in the darkness
living in the light
love is more
than the sum of its parts.

Further Postscript to Day Five: Inspiration

This jigsaw was put together late last night (Friday 27th). I sat in bed with my paternal grandmother's laptray and was delighted to discover that the jigsaw fit perfectly on the tray!

The process of putting the jigsaw together was ideal for my state at the time and provided me with distance from the chattering of my mind.

Gail read the following in her labyrinth book and wrote it out for me. We had not discussed what the jigsaw-making had been about for me...

The mind needs release from itself, in order to find peace and wisdom

[page 68 "Walking a Sacred Path" by Lauren Artress http://laurenartress.com/]

Day Six: Wisdom

Word of the Day: Wisdom

Image of the Day: views from the car across the Moffat Hills, 13th Feb 09.

Tokens of the Day: two wee badges, one with the word happy and the other peace

Where does wisdom take me? Sophia, Jesus, The Wisdom of Solomon, owls, old, folly, Shakespeare's fool...

wisdom
few words well-chosen
precise, gentle
weighty, packs a punch
wise head, young shoulders
an educated heart
integrated being.

It is so challenging to accept wisdom within myself. I look to the cards for guidance:

Angel Oracle: Angel of Wisdom - wisdom comes from the depths of my experience

Unicorn Cards (Diana Cooper): Wisdom - you are called on to access your innate wisdom and act with honour in an aspect of your life. Ask the unicorns to help you and they will support and guide you. I act with wisdom today - act with wisdom and people will respect you.

Archetype Cards (Caroline Myss):

• Mentor - passing on wisdom and refining a student's character


• Seeker - thirst for wisdom and truth wherever they are (look for lifetime pattern of constantly moving from one potential source of wisdom or truth to another)


• Student - humility and devotion to knowledge. Openness to lifelong learning (look for a pattern of constant learning, openness to new information as an essential part of your well-being)


• Teacher - ability to communicate knowledge, experience, skill or wisdom


• Goddess - the feminine expressed through wisdom; Nature, life force and sensuality.

There is that of God in each of us, the inner light of Christ only requires us to open ourselves to the possibility of wisdom. We do not need to hand over our souls to gurus, our wallets to healers in order to tap into that which is within us (though we might wish to seek their support and guidance through the process!). We simply
need to believe that we are part of a multidimensional, fully integrated web of life.

wisdom holds her roots fast
in the heart of my experience
tendrils stroke the inside of my arm
grounding me in my body

wisdom's face is forever turned to God
seeking to comfort, to counsel
she looks at the sea
finding God in the roar of the waves
and in that small pebble push-pulled by the tide
and she says: "Sshh! Listen! God is speaking still.

she looks on the faces of the battle-weary bankers
and the world-weary priests
she reaches out her hand
touches them tenderly
and urges them to look up,
gaze into the face of the Divine
- moon-shadow, herringbone cloud
the whisper of a rainbow -
and see the big picture.

she holds my heart
in the palms of
her holy hands
encourages me
to unfold my wings
unearth my gifts
dig up my regrets
and offer them all with love.

And i can't close today's blog without reflecting at least briefly on the badge words happy and peace. I am immediately reminded of the Beatitudes: Happy are the peacemakers for they shall be called the children of God. We have perhaps weakened the word "happy", we don't recognise it as a blessing, a joy, a gift and the same often happens with "peace" - it is seen as a passive state rather than an action. I will wear the words on my sleeve and seek to act wisely from an educated heart with happiness (allowing myself to receive blessings) and peace (non-violent, appropriate use of my power).

Blessed be!

Midnight inspiration...

inspire me
breathe me in
my essence consumed
yet not used up, eaten, gone
rather, like the Phoenix in the flames
my spirit is renewed - i am restored to life.

i am inspired
inhaled deeply
lungfuls of me gulped down
until Gaia, once more replete
sighs me into being.

i inspire;
i am Muse, God, Oracle
my very breath is sacrament
its vapour desired, bottled, inhaled

my lungs house the Spirit
"I Am That I Am" pulses through my body
each heartbeat echoes across the rib-cage
and the whisper heard only by the angels is believed to be:

breathe
inspire
be inspired...

Day Five: Inspiration

Word of the Day: inspiration

Image of the Day: Hopscotch the Bear

Token of the Day: Tinkerbell Fairies jigsaw



inspiration
expiration
breathe in
breathe out
give life
take life away.


If we are inspired by something or someone we are moved to do or be something new, often challenging. Something inspirational is uplifting - takes our breath away (?) But we can also be inspired to do something as a response to something awful, can't we?



Who has inspired me? Brother Roger of Taize, Oscar Romero, Rosa Parks, Henri Nouwen, Jean Vanier, the Suffragettes, May Sarton, Maya Angelou...



We use the word inspirational almost flippantly. If we were truly inspired by all the art, places, music, people we claimed were inspirational the world truly would be a better place! Yesterday's Scotsman had a supplement "Recommends" with the header "Inspiring Scotland". It included photos of places readers found inspiring including the Callanish Stones, Assynt and also whole towns such as Peebles and Stow. How can they be described as inspiring?



Inspire is defined as:

Stimulation of the mind or emotions to a high level of feeling or activity

Divine guidance or influence exerted directly on the mind and soul of humanity

An agency, such as a person or work of art, that moves the intellect or emotions or prompts action or invention


I am inspired by places such as the Taize community, cathedrals, caves, landscapes, seascapes, fragile buds, butterflies... Do they lead me to action, invention, or simply a feeling? Hmmm...


My bear Hopscotch is now about 15 years old. He came from a shop that has long gone called Hopscotch in Peebles. Over the years his filling seems to have been somewhat removed, his fur is less bright and he struggles to hold up his head. I've even had to put a knot in his bowtie elastic! And that makes me think of the Velveteen Rabbit when he talks with the Skin Horse:

"What is REAL?" asked the Rabbit one day, when they were lying side by side near the nursery fender, before Nana came to tidy the room. "Does it mean having things that buzz inside you and a stick-out handle?"
"Real isn't how you are made," said the Skin Horse. "It's a thing that happens to you. When a child loves you for a long, long time, not just to play with, but REALLY loves you, then you become Real."
"Does it hurt?" asked the Rabbit.
"Sometimes," said the Skin Horse, for he was always truthful. "When you are Real you don't mind being hurt."
"Does it happen all at once, like being wound up," he asked, "or bit by bit?"
"It doesn't happen all at once," said the Skin Horse. "You become. It takes a long time. That's why it doesn't happen often to people who break easily, or have sharp edges, or who have to be carefully kept. Generally, by the time you are Real, most of your hair has been loved off, and your eyes drop out and you get loose in the joints and very shabby. But these things don't matter at all, because once you are Real you can't be ugly, except to people who don't understand."

I hope and pray that i might be led to action by those people, places and things that inspire me. That i might feel moved, in the words of the Wild Goose song "inspired by love and anger"... John Bell wrote these words and they are very much at the core of social justice:

Inspired by love and anger, disturbed by endless pain, aware of God's own bias,we ask [him] once again: 'How long must some folk suffer? How long can few folk mind? How long dare vain self-int'restturn prayer and pity blind? 'To God, who through the prophets proclaimed a diff'rent age, we offer earth's indiff'rence, its agony and rage: 'When will the wronged be righted? When will the [kingdom] come? When will the world be gen'rous to all instead of some? 'God asks: 'Who will go for me? Who will extend my reach? And who, when few will listen, will prophesy and preach? And who, when few bid welcome, will offer all they know? And who, when few dare follow, will walk the road I show?' Amused in someone's kitchen, asleep in someone's boat, attuned to what the ancients, exposed, proclaimed and wrote, a Saviour without safety, a tradesman without tools has come to tip the balance with fishermen and fools.

How close is inspiration to insanity? Creativity to madness? Is it simply society's conventions? Our inability to accept that which we cannot explain? If i go into a trance, feel moved to do something like dance am i inspired or crazy? Does it matter?...

Day Four: Passion

Word of the Day: Passion

Image of the Day: Brea the Iron Fairy

Token of the Day: The Lion King storybook

Today is Ash Wednesday, marking the beginning of Lent which ends with Passiontide from Passion Sunday to Palm Sunday to Holy Saturday.

Brea is the fairy of the nasturtium. On her outstretched foot sits a butterfly (caterpillar-chrysalis-butterfly). Nasturtium is wholesome and nutritious, its name means nose-twister or nose-twitcher! It symbolises patriotism (link with lion), victory in battle (Aslan comes to mind) and conquest (Resurrection). Interestingly, the passion flower symbolises faith.

Pleasure and pain

the pain and the passion

purple prose and purple robes

without my passion

i am an empty shell

lack-lustre, no sparkle

once empassioned

my breath is hot

my heart on fire

my spirit restored.

Passion etymology:

Middle English from Old French from Medieval Latin passio, passion

• the sufferings of Jesus, or a martyr, from Late Latin
• physical suffering, martyrdom, sinful desire, from Latin
• an undergoing, from passus, past participle of pati, to suffer

The Passion:

the events and suffering - physical, spiritual, and mental - of Jesus in the hours before and including his trial and execution by crucifixion.

The Lion King tells of the Circle of Life, believing in one's own worth, sacrifice, passion... There are elements of Narnia, the Passion, Old Testament accounts of family breakdown...

Ardent

abandoned display

strong

lustful

suffering

martyred

boundless

limitless

devotion

desire

eros

pathos...

Day Three: Breath

Word of the Day: Breath

Image of the Day: White Geese at Annandale

Token of the Day: "The Megamogs" by Peter Haswell.

Breath not breathe - i don't know why! was Gail's comment and indeed if you do a Google search you will find that the first thing it asks is: Did you mean "breathe"? and there are very few references to breath. And yet breath is life, it is fact, and it inspires (oh, there's another breath word!).

I hear in my head the words i so often say in my exercise classes: Focus on your breath, the rise and fall of your chest, the inflation and deflation of your lungs, expansion and contraction of your rib-cage... I guide participants through a relaxation exercise, breathing in energy, health, peace, calm... breathing out fatigue, illness, pain, anger, frustration. We give the breath colour and visualise the colour travelling round our body... And exactly how much of this do i do for myself?!

Breath, ruach, pause, selah!

Wingbeat, heartbeat

lungs fill, ribcage lifts

lungs empty, ribcage falls

in, out, up, down

- all in a breath.

Goose-breath, goosedown

skein of geese, gooseberries

in formation - what a gaggle!

have a gander, goose-step

good for the goose

good for the gander.

Seeing, no - first hearing, geese flying overhead is always awe-inspiring, spirit-filled, breath-taking. They communicate in a series of honks, wingbeats cut the air, slice clouds into rainbows. And i believe i can see their breath creating new clouds which then stream behind them, avian vapour trails.

Feather on the Breath of God - beautiful, haunting music by Hildegard von Bingen which i first encountered thanks to Simon Bates who played it on Radio One and got so many enquiries about it that he had to keep announcing what it was for several days following. Both the music and the mystic have been blessings in my life. Have a look at this link which i have just discovered: http://www.callalilynetworks.com/home/shop.php/articles/philosophy/a-feather-on-the-breath-of-god/p_46.html

Seeing a white feather suggests that an angel is near, that a loved one who has died has visited... Geese as angels, angels in the form of geese. We humans as goose feathers on the breath of God.

ruach is the Hebrew word for breath, air, wind, spirit. Its Greek equivalent is pneuma and the Latin is spiritus. It is used to refer to that which sustains the life in a nephesh (which means soul, the complete life of a being, usually used in the sense of "living being"/breathing creature).

Blow through me breath of God

blow through me

like a pipe, like a flute, like a reed,

making melody -

the cosmic song in me,

Breath of God.

Song by Miriam Therese Winter, copyright Medical Mission Sisters, 1987

from "Woman Prayer Woman Song"

I could write all day about breath but i will close with this:

Ruach of YHWH

Breath of I Am Who I Am

blow through my being

bring my essence to life

that each breath i take

is filled with hope

and each breath i give

is filled with peace.

I am Nephesh, spiritus, corpus

my pneuma is Your breath

pure, loving, joy-filled.

May my life return!

Breathe on my dry bones

Raise my soul from the dirt!

I long to be Your White Goose in the heavenly skein,

Your Unicorn in the Blessing.

Day Two: Sparkle

Word of the Day: SPARKLE

Image of the Day: unicorns

Token of the Day: spotty trainer socks

SPARKLE: the name of these lovely singing and dancing unicorns who are part of my blessing of unicorns. The Sparkles are Rose (see photo!), Pearl (just in background) and Amethyst (not shown).

The immediate sensation i experience is lightness, brightness, joy, childlike happiness!

And then i start thinking about SPARKS, the Divine Spark. Things that spark off, creating sparkles. I turn to the online dictionary to assist me in my reflecting:

to throw out sparks
to effervesce
to become lively or animated
to cause to glitter or shine

Its etymology is Middle English, frequentative of sparken: to spark (13th Century)
(frequentative: denoting repeated or recurrent action or state - used of a verb aspect, verb form, or meaning)

Sparkle

Throw out sparks
ignite the fire
spirit effervesces - fizz! pop!
aura glitters and shines
animated by one touch
from the tip of the horn
of the holiest of holies
-The Unicorn, the Redeemer, the Christ.

Once sparkled
i become, i live,
i move, i inhabit my being

But this can easily dissipate
if i wander away,
fail to recognise
- my belief brings
Unicorn to life, raises God from the dead.

Day One: Recovery

Image of the Day:

a fragile, delicate, jewel-like snail shell perched on flattened grasses. It appears incongruous, unexpected, easily-missed by feet tramping across the field but spotted and photographed by Gail. The location is the Hanson Quarry near Shap in Cumbria where we were hunting for Andy Goldsworthy sculptures!

Word of the Day: RECOVERY

What comes to mind immediately? Recovery from addiction. Recovery places one in an incongruous, seemingly inappropriate, improper sphere as one is led to behave in unexpected ways. Not drinking when one has always been part of the drinking community; making amends when one has often been too proud to be humble; facing oneself squarely...

And then i start to ruminate on the word itself. Without reference to a dictionary i first reflect:

recover, re-cover, cover again
- seat cushions on a settee
old covers removed (musing: re-move, move again?)
bare cushion revealed (musing: re-veal??)
stains seeped through, exposed wounds, old but raw
or perhaps original cover remains (musing: re-mains??)
faded, threadbare, long-forgotten,
perhaps a fond memory, or better forgotten.

Ah, so that is RECOVERY
first - lifting away, peeling back
layers of dirt, time, dis-ease
not a covering-over or a cover-up!

second - remembering, re-membering
embodying the memories
touching the wounds
listening to the stories.

third - select a new cover (a replacement? re-placement...?)
or choose nakedness.
But don't spend so much time and energy
getting the perfect fit that you
fail to appreciate
the fabric, the weave, each thread.

fourth - wear with humility and with pride

BE YOUR RECOVERY!

Introduction

The journey starts, as all good journeys do, with the first step!

Gail presented me with tokens - wrapped in tissue paper, one to be opened each day between 22nd February and 3rd April. The tokens will nourish, help me to reflect, as i travel forty days and nights.

Gail presented me with cards - wrapped in a square pink hankie/scarf. Each card is a blessing, a reflection. There is an image - a photo taken by Gail - and a word. A different image and a different word for each day between 22nd February and 3rd April. The cards are to be chosen at random, serendipitously. And each day i will write in my unicorn Believe journal which Gail bought for me from the lunicorn stall at the Body and Soul Fair in Glasgow (http://www.lunicorn.com/.)

And this introduction card which reads:

Thoughts/Words/Actions for the Journey - adventure, voyage of discovery that is this life, that we know, have, hold, live.

The cards are kept in a velvet unicorn pouch and, as i select them, they are then moved to my Believe box (lunicorn again!) which, of course, is also a gift from Gail.

I am blessed - Blessed be!