s u b m e r g e

Sit. Feast On Your Life.

Inspired by Derek Walcott's poem "Love After Love".

Let yourself be silently drawn by the strange pull of what you really love. It will not lead you astray.

"Let yourself

be silently drawn

by the strange pull

of what you really love.

It will not lead you astray."

- Rumi

You Are Forgiven

"You have to say 

I am forgiven 

again and again 

until it becomes the story 

you believe about yourself"

- Cheryl Strayed

My kinda Saint.

Any true ecstasy
is a sign 
you are moving in the right direction.
Don't let any prude tell you otherwise.
- St. Teresa de Ávila

My Desires At The Tail End Of The Dragon

s h e d

gather

d e v o t i o n

International Women's Day - desire stirring

Handmade collage
I began at the
International Women's Day
SpiralMuse women's circle I hosted
in my little cottage on
Sunday 8th March, 2009

It is definitely time to glue a new vision together.
One with less walls.
*

Wild geese inspire late night rambling thoughts.

We do share this planet. Sometimes - too often - it is easy to forget this. We do share the earth. We do share the sky. We do share the oceans and rivers. We do share the air that we breathe.

Today - for a moment - it was easier for me to remember. Wild geese and humans, each desiring a safe return home. A moment. A flow-flow on the air current. A slight turn. A flap-flap of wings. A miraculous landing. Safe returns for some.

Tonight the homeless children I work with delighted in sharing. Feathers. Stickers. Paintbrushes. It didn't really matter what. They had the experience of feeling good while relating in this new way. It was a game. They felt connected. Seen. Wanting to share is unusual for them. Their lives are rich in scarcity.

I think of the Middle East. Africa. I know I sound ridiculously naive, but my aching heart begs can't we just share?

*

Wild Geese
by Mary Oliver

You do not have to be good.
You do not have to walk on your knees
for a hundred miles through the desert repenting.
You only have to let the soft animal of your body
love what it loves.
Tell me about despair, yours, and I will tell you mine.
Meanwhile the world goes on.
Meanwhile the sun and the clear pebbles of the rain
are moving across the landscapes,
over the prairies and the deep trees,
the mountains and the rivers.
Meanwhile the wild geese, high in the clean blue air,
are heading home again.
Whoever you are, no matter how lonely,
the world offers itself to your imagination,
calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting —
over and over announcing your place
in the family of things.

from Dream Work by Mary Oliver

*

The Prayer of Jesus in Aramaic

When translated from the original language of Jesus, "The Lord's Prayer" is beautiful, and very different from what I had to say in school every morning as a child! I especially appreciate the idea of god as both verb and feminine and masculine.

The Prayer of Jesus in Aramaic

O Birthing! Fathering-Mothering of the Cosmos!

You create all that moves in light.

Focus your light within us - make it useful: as the rays of a beacon show the way.

Create your reign of unity now - through our firey hearts and willing hands.

Your one desire then acts with ours, as in all light, so in all forms.

Grant what we need each day in bread and insight:

subsistence for the call of growing life.

Loose the cords of mistakes binding us,

as we release the strands we hold of others' guilt.

Don't let us enter forgetfulness

But free us from unripeness

From you is born all ruling will, the power and the life to do,

the song that beautifies all, from age to age it renews.

Truly--power to these statements--

may they be the source from which all my actions grow.

Sealed in trust & faith. Amen.

Transliteration and original translation by Dr. Neil Douglas-Klotz from

the Peshitta (Syriac-Aramaic) version of Matthew 6:9-13 & Luke 11:2-4

A fascinating radio show interview with Dr. Neil Douglas-Klotz and my hero, Caroline Casey:
http://kpfa.org/archives/index.php?arch=24231
and for more info on him:
http://abwoon.com/

And while I'm here... yesterday's Caroline Casey radio show was beautiful, also talking about language and religion:
http://kpfa.org/archives/index.php?arch=25385
This Thursday is the Vernal Equinox, Persian and Afghani New Year, Maundy Thursday, the Eve of Purim, the 5th anniversary of the brutal invasion of Iraq, and.. the Full Moon! a week rife with symbolic and metaphoric guidance. So, more than perfectly, Caroline welcomes back long-time ally, religious scholar and political consultant Pat Ewing, that we may bring informed reverence for life to bear on our personal, collective spiritual and political lives, and cultivate
liberating leadership.