November’s Poem

November’s Poem

Black crow glides between fall red maples on still wings
banks slowly and gracefully coming to a two hop stop.
A clutch of tiny sparrows swoop down and alight as one
in the golden green crown of a tree readying for winter.

Even the evergreens on the hillside carry their share
of tan dead leaves among the green waiting a storm’s
windy rainy fingers to pluck them free to return to their Mother.

Dissolving was. Resolving is. Creating what shall be.
Nothing is forgotten. Another transformation.

Results of a path taken are remembered in life’s flesh.
Denial and avoidance fruitlessly repeat a sad story
unwilling to squeeze through the needle’s eye,
blocking the way with pride, arrogance, certainty.

Life creates a truth awaiting our awakening.
Love calls softly to us, before we are able to choose,
leaves signs and miracles in plain sight.

Despised by the powerful of the world we make
love comes meek and humble with arms wide spread
so much like death and birth.

Yellow green leaves shiver in a breeze whispering mystery’s name.
Crow caws and cu-cuck-cu-cu-cucks the name from her darkness.
Sparrows in their wheeling flight as one sign the name.

Guarionex
November 2010

an opportunity to participate

Life is not about that which is commonly sought after but is an opportunity to participate in a unique yet universally available experience. Here we are with the innate yet generally ignored ability to sense the presence of the divine within ourselves and the whole creation and instead we chase after fame, fortune and power. We busily pursue the offerings of a man made world thereby losing the sense of mystery and awe which makes it possible for us to commune with the creator and the creation. Instead, we wind up worshipping the “reality” we make and thinking it is life.

We fall into a man made trap, the vanity of God made in our image. We fall into a pit dug by our arrogance, our conceit that the creation, the universe exists for our domination. The simple truth of our being born into a world over which we have little control and in which we could not survive except for the graciousness and self giving love of countless generations of ancestors is quickly forgotten if acknowledged at all.

Perhaps if we could envision the process wherein the one without ancestors poured self into the creation dividing and differentiating into everything that is, while remaining whole and present in every part of it, we could appreciate the magnitude of the gift we have by virtue of being alive, awake and aware.

And being aware of the gift of life and the presence of the one who is self giving love in ourselves and in each and every other being, we could relate to the divine mystery in each with clarity and wisdom born of the knowledge of our interdependent existence. Perhaps this is an awakening from the illusion of power over that upon which we are utterly dependent. Perhaps this is the humility which would allow us to relate to each other in terms of mutuality, common good and the welfare of all life. Perhaps this would quicken the light of love and compassion in everything known and unknown which is capable of such feeling and emotion. Perhaps we could learn to dwell here and from here.

On This Earth Day

Every day we learn again to live in peace.
We recall how to live in love
through the ceremony each does for Earth
not once in a lifetime but continuously.

We know deep inside we cannot heal the Earth
if we hate ourselves or others.
Earth heals when we heal.
Healing is slow, one moment at a time
each new wound a setback.
Earth is not surprised, she has grown
accustomed to our injurious ways.
She endures as mother of life.

Stunted within the prisons of our minds
we destroy our place within her.
Not seeing her as mother of life
she becomes barren, shrinking
from our touch as though abused.
But here we are, perhaps only a few,
or perhaps a multitude, intending healing,
intending love and compassion.

Intent upon healing and love
we let down the walls, let go the fear,
embracing life and its awareness
choosing to listen to the spirit of life
so the mother of flesh may be healed
and future generations may grow in diversity
consciousness and compassion

So it is in this moment, on this day, this Earth day.
She rises within our spirits to greet and embrace
the beloved flesh of her flesh, children of life.

Not Our Mind’s Creation

For our own sake, we follow the way.
We see it, wake in it and sleep in it.
It is the way she is healed,
sister Earth, grandmother Gaia,
revolving, evolving, Atabey,
mother spirit of life.

The way she becomes her own again
and not any man’s property
or subject to rule,
is for us to find the way and live it
through the seasons and days of our lives
regardless of culture or tradition.

Thinking why yields no answer.
This is the way we come to you, Beloved,
following your spirit scent, feeling you nearby,
watering your seeds of compassion and love.

We know why in the living of it
now and then feeling its fullness and emptiness
reassuring us it is you love
who makes it so.

We have been ourselves long enough to know
it is not us drawing forth life’s consciousness
blessing the way with intent and purpose.
It is beyond our wisdom.

We look in mirrors to see the way
that is before we know the way.
The way runs through us and begins here.
It is like that for each of us.

The Spirit of life lives in all that lives
and guides us when we let go the illusions
and shed the protective shells
slowly removing the armor.

The way stands open.
It travels through every being
and naked each chooses
to know it or not.

Wishing each other a Thanksgiving

People are wishing each other a happy Thanksgiving and expressing their gratitude for life. The images of thanksgiving make some of us sad even though we are grateful for life. We think of the indigenous people of all lands and what the dominator cultures and societies did and do to them and we are sorrowed. At Thanksgiving some of us are sorrowful for those who are oppressed and exploited by the dominator predator model of thinking that operates in the world. We feel great connection to the people, the imprisoned, the wounded and abused, the left out, the meek of the Earth, the chosen, the faithful ones of the Great Spirit for the powerful of the world grind us to dust.

We remain grateful for life for it is a gift from the Creator no matter how damaged or distorted by our unconscious acts. We are grateful for the opportunity to enter into relationship with God through the creation. We are grateful and give thanks for the consciousness we have and the light we are given to nurture. We are grateful the Earth feeds our bodies and spirit with hers and that we journey as part of her in the universe.

We are grateful for the Spirit of life which teaches us to laugh as well as weep. We are grateful and give thanks for the Beloved and all the forms the Beloved takes. We give thanks for our bodies, minds and spirits and for those of the others to whom we relate. We give thanks for feelings and that within each of us which feels its way to the wisdom that surpasses understanding.

We give thanks for the truth though we may not yet know it fully. We are thankful that it exists and is the source of all life and makes itself known, here and there, now and then. We are grateful and give thanks that none can possess the truth but that we may be lifted by it.

Finally, we are grateful for the light that breaks into our darkness leads us on the way that is life eternal. We give thanks for friends and family, the stranger and the other. We ask you, Beloved Spirit of life, to create in us a holy place where we may drink from the spring of love and wisdom that flows from your presence in the creation.

The Thunder Dreamer

Dreams tell me the way of violence is coming to an end.
We are left with a crippled home to care for as though it is ours
though we may not be of the world that made it thus.

We are the aliens, the outsiders, the strangers, the dirt people.
We are the poor and the oppressed. We are the raped and wounded.
We the maimed and broken have nothing but God’s promise.

We are the beloved of Mother Earth yearning for justice.
We are the creation becoming conscious on the way.
We are the awakening and the turning.

Dreams tell us it is happening even as we sleep.
The empires of man are falling beneath the weight
of their shadowy arrogance and they are afraid.

The dreams tell us to come out of their clutches, beloved.
Let them die in peace. Ease their going for they fall prey
to a disease of mind and soul. A heart rot leaves them empty.

The dreams say it is time to set right what we can,
time to tend our relations. The Creator is in the creation.
The fall wind strips dead leaves and limbs from trees.

Winter draws us tight to each other and spring waits on us.
This man’s world comes to an end and heaven and earth
are one. That is what the dreams say.

Father Creator if we ask you to reveal

Father Creator if we ask you to reveal our cracks and shadows, do you do it in a way we can understand and accept? Will you help us to see the log in our own eye, the place of our denial? Help us to see what it is in us, in me, which prevents healing. Heal our separation from each other. Help us to understand what it is we need to do this time around to be consciously aware in your presence each moment. Help us see where we put the blocks to your presence in the moment.

Beloved, we want to relate to each other as though you are present in each of us knowing full well we may have forgotten who we truly are. We forget we are your light taking form. And in the forgetting we become frightened children fearful of the spirits we create in our forgetting. Yet most of the creation knows it is you taking form, Beloved. Most of the creation lives in union with you. Not separate from but integrated into the expression of your love.

But many of us do not yet know this in our souls and still delight in the distinctions that make us better than the other, whether the other is a coyote, a pine cone, a granite outcrop. We define ourselves by comparison to whatever is seemingly other and reinforce our sense of separate self as present and accounted for and more valued than these small wonders. Perhaps the judge must suspend all judgments so the Great Mystery has room to operate and the time of control returns to the forces of nature and departs from the hand of man. After all a judge can only judge by human law and the law of humans is flawed for we have made ourselves into gods. While the truth is if we think we are god or act as if we are god or could be god we are far from the way.

Our minds are unique gifts from the creation to itself and to each other for it is the creation which produced this mind, body and spirit from the creative energy of the Creator burning within it. It is the energy which is never consumed but always transformed into greater and greater complexity and differentiation. It is written in the bible that the Great Spirit can create children to Abraham from the stones of the Earth. Children to Abram, inheritors, heirs to the Great Spirit’s blessing of the way, the truth and the light.

Oh Christ, can you imagine Buddha meditating, sitting still while the cosmos revolves and evolves. Empires rising and falling while the light of Malcolm and Martin, Gandhi and Black Elk shines through their fog and darkness like beacons of hope in a sea of unconsciousness.

A well meaning and sincere man asked me what this communion would look like, this consciousness of communality. I answered he should talk to God about it and look for the answer there. He told me he did not like my answer but later apologized because his wife suggested he may have offended me. I was not offended by him saying he did not like my answer. I thought of another way to answer the question. Many want to know what heaven will look like before they will choose it and in the meantime we exist in man made suffering and denial, full of pride and arrogance building empires and cultures of dominance and greed. I have heard that it was Jesus who said seek first the presence of God. Sounds like the place to start and end every endeavor for the sake of all future generations.

Entering through the narrow gate the cosmos stretches before like a meadow fringed with forest. This is the land unmade by human hand glowing naked and natural while raising sounds of joy to the light. The Creator hears the creation and makes and unmakes so we might flourish in its love and be conscious within it. Coming through the narrowest gate can we now discern intent and desire and read the spirit of all things? We are cut free from the anchor of self to find the way and follow it. It is our choosing that makes it thus and thus and thus. The Great Sprit remains though all things come and go hoping what hope there is for the sake of the living light taking form as the instrument of love.

And though love is sweet between lovers it is sweeter still when it is the embrace of all living things and sweetest when we feel its fullness is the presence of the only one who frees us to be that love in the creation.

But early along this dream filled passage the world lays claim to each believing mind and enthralls each body to a communal making of empires and wonders. The idols to which we kowtow and bow, swear fealty and faithfulness, salute and pledge allegiance are the gods we choose to replace the one who makes our coming and our going.

Yet we are never abandoned though we stray far from the truth and the nature of the Beloved. The signs are signed for us to see and ponder. The word made flesh for eyes to see and ears to hear over and over again. An endless stream of God inspired people respond and choose the way that is the creative peace of the Creator’s love in this human made world.

Who are we then beloved of the Creator? To whom shall we give ourselves? Who shall we consciously accept into our bodies and souls? No one can choose for us when it comes time for choosing. Here is the gift of choice which is the life of the spirit and the promise of Beloved’s love fulfilled.

To those who inherit the future

These words are written for all the generations that are yet to be. I write to all who will inherit the future which human beings now make. There are no excuses for we who live now and I will make none. We are responsible. We know what we are doing and we do it anyway.

The Great Spirit shall heal the damage we do and evolve a creation and consciousness that fully appreciates and holds holy the presence of the Beloved in the creation. But this confidence does not relieve humanity of its responsibility to the cosmos. Our hearts know this. It is not our humility which destroys life but our arrogance.

Many we entrust with power are unready to serve the God of life or surrender their will to the Great Spirit. Many of us choose to trust and follow those who affirm our egos and self righteousness and lead us where we “think” we want to go. We prefer to be right than to follow the truth. Many of us do not want to believe the prophets, martyrs, saints, holy ones, enlightened ones, signs, miracles or the way. But ultimately, as you know, beloved yet to be, the Great Spirit breaks through into our consciousness and transforms us from what we think we are into what and who we are called to be by the love that creates us.

Somewhere along the way, each of us is awakened from the dream of the world to dwell in the presence of the way, the truth and the light. And even if it is only for a moment, that moment has profound influence on the evolution of all forms and of the whole. There is a voice within which speaks and clears the way in that awakened consciousness. It is a voice of compassion, peace and forgiveness and though the world conspires against it and tries to kill it and deny its existence, it lives.

But you know this already, beloved yet to be. You see what is and travel the way. You choose the truth and bless the community of all living beings. You heal the breach between humans and the living God. You restore Mother Earth to all her fecundity and encourage life in its diversity. You teach the powers of this world the way and cause them to serve life. You allow yourself to be transformed by the Spirit of God. Ho.

The Creator and the world work at cross purposes. Please understand that the world does not mean the Earth for the Earth naturally follows the Creator's way. What I mean by the world is the human made systems which are overlaid on the Earth and it creatures. The world is created by the thoughts and actions of the dominant life form on the planet, Homo Sapiens. The Creator and the world each have their ways, but the true way to the Spirit's source and home is God's way, the Great Spirit's way. The holy ones know it and live it. The world denies and desecrates it. Jesus believes it and becomes it. Buddha lives it. Malcolm found it and is true to it. Black Elk prays it. Many are the holy ones who make the way their own through faith in the Great Spirit of all life.

The world and God work at cross purposes. God frees us to live while the world would enslave us so that it might become god to us. The world would like to capture and hold our attention. In fact, it strives to enthrall us as we accept its beliefs. The world would make us complacent participants in its domination of all forms of life. The world of domination would like to have complete and absolute control over everything and each of us. Manipulation and control as tools of power over the other are hallmarks of the world's way. Individual life is meaningless and worthless to the world for it feeds on death.

All is not lost, though it seems bleak and full of despair for the interdependent web of life at this moment in the human story. The God of life/love has planted the seed of transformation in each being and illuminates the way. Each of us finds the way. Sooner or later the light dawns within each of us, whether we are willing or unwilling, and we recognize it. Though our lives seem like a moment in the life of the whole creation, we come face to face with the Spirit of life in that awakening.

Perhaps this awakening is influence enough to cause us to look here in the present moment for the presence of the Beloved. Now that we know the truth is so near perhaps we shall set aside weapons and defenses and invite the truth to come in and stay with us as long as it will. Perhaps we understand now that each is precious to the whole and begin to mend what is broken and heal the illness that destroys life. Perhaps we come to know who we are individually and collectively and become the ones for which the Earth longs.