Poetry is wisdom that enchants the heart. Wisdom is poetry that sings in the mind. If we could enchant man's heart and at the same time sing in his mind, Then in truth he would live in the shadow of God. Kahlil Gribran

The Universe is in a Sheet of Paper

"If you are a poet, you will see clearly that there is a cloud floating in this sheet of paper. Without a cloud, there will be no rain; without rain, the trees cannot grow; and without trees, we cannot make paper. The cloud is essential for the paper to exist. If the cloud is not here, the sheet of paper cannot be here either. So we can say that the cloud and the paper inter-are. "Interbeing" is a combination of "inter-" and the verb "to be", which creates a new verb, inter-be. Without a cloud, we cannot have paper, so we can say that the cloud and the sheet of paper inter-are. If we look closer at the sheet of paper, we can see the sunshine in it that grew the forest, which made the paper. Without "non-paper elements", like mind which is perceiving it, the logger and his parents who made the logger possible, the sun, the rain, etc., there would be no paper. As thin as the sheet of paper is, it contains everything in the universe in it." From Thich Nhat Hanh

A Song of Faith

A rendering showing some of the 18,000 objects that are being tracked in earth's orbit

A SONG OF FAITH by Ella Wheeler Wilcox 1916
My glass of life with its brew of Being,
I lift, with a toast, to the Universe.
Though black guns bellow and mad men curse
And a sick world hurries from bad to worse
I trust in the might of the One All Seeing--
The One All Knowing, to set things right.

Though hate in the heart of the race may thunder,
In rifle and cannon and bursting shell,
And the sea and the air their tales may tell,
Of the minds of mortals that seethe with hell,--
Yet in God's vast plan there can be no blunder--
He is blazing the trail for the Super-man.

The creeds of ages may totter and tumble,
And fall in ruins, but out of the dust,
And out of the wreckage of old things, must
Rise better religion, and stronger trust,
And faith that knows, and knowing is humble.
(Humility ever with knowledge goes.)

This speck in space on its orbit spinning,
Swings safely along without aid from me,
A Mind that can order, an Eye that can see,
Back of, and over it all must be--
And will be--and was from the first beginning,
Not mine to question or doubt the Cause.

But mine to worship the Mighty Master
And Maker of all things; mine to raise
Ever an anthem of love and praise
In the light of the sun or in shadowed ways,--
In the world's bright hour, or in world disaster,
To see His glory and sing His power.

So my glass of life with its brew of Being
I lift, with a song of the One All Seeing--
Of the One All Knowing; though earth seems hurled
Out into chaos, I see it lying
In God's great palm--and my faith undying
Cries, "Lo! He is moulding a better world."

Native American Prayer

Let there be beauty before me as I wander,
Let there be beauty behind, as I wander,
Let there be beauty above and below me,
Let there be only beauty from this day on.

Napping and the Biological Clock

I took a nap. I had to quiet that voice within saying no, guilt-trip, too much to do, etc. I felt so wonderful all cozy under the warm blanket, well cared for. Take a nap. Let it all go for a bit of a lazy afternoon. Look what the experts say and don't feel guilty!
Contrary to popular belief, except for insomnia sufferers, a brief afternoon nap does not necessarily interfere with nighttime sleep. In fact, an afternoon nap may be perfectly compatible with a finely-tuned biological clock. For most people, the sleep/wake cycle includes being awake for about 16 hours and then asleep for about eight. But what many people don't realize is that the body's clock is set with two distinct dips in alertness within a 24-hour period: one at about 2:00 am and another at about 2:00 pm, corresponding to the midday dip. Fighting off the urge to sleep during these times is challenging, especially for someone already suffering from sleep deprivation.

Gregory Belenky, MD, Research Professor and Director of the Sleep and Performance Research Center at Washington State University, recommends naps as a way to make up for lost nighttime sleep. He says, "The beauty of naps is that they add to total recuperative sleep time," adding that "A large number of the world's people divide their sleep into two blocks (with the afternoon sleep called a siesta in Spanish-speaking countries). It is even possible that divided sleep is more recuperative than sleep taken in a single block."

A Blessing for You

"May there always be work for your hands to do, may your purse always hold a coin or two. May the sun always shine on your windowpane, may a rainbow be certain to follow each rain. May the hand of a friend always be near you, may God fill your heart with gladness to cheer you."
- Irish Blessing

Forgive

All your images of winter
I see against your sky.
I understand the wounds
That have not healed in you.
They exist because God and love
Have yet to become real enough
To allow you to forgive

Mountain Poems

You're bound to become a buddha if you practice
If water drips long enough even rocks wear through
It's not true thick skulls can't be pierced
People just imagine their minds are hard.

Standing outside my pointed-roof hut
Who'd guess how spacious it is inside
A galaxy of worlds is there
With room to spare for a zazen cushion.

Becoming a buddha is easy
But ending illusions is hard
So many frosted moonlit nights
I’ve sat and felt
The cold before dawn.

by Shih-wu (1272-1352)

Twelve Days of Christmas

From 1558 until 1829, Roman Catholics in England were not permitted to practice their faith openly. Someone during that era wrote this carol as a catechism song for young Catholics. It has two levels of meaning: the surface meaning plus a hidden meaning known only to members of their church. Each element in the carol has a code word for a religious reality which the children could remember:
Twelve Days of Christmas
The partridge in a pear tree was Jesus Christ.
Two turtle doves were the Old and New Testaments.
Three French hens stood for faith, hope and love.
The four calling birds were the four gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke & John.
The five golden rings recalled the Torah or Law, the first five books of the Old Testament.
The six geese a-laying stood for the six days of creation.
Seven swans a-swimming represented the sevenfold gifts of the Holy Spirit--Prophesy, Serving, Teaching, Exhortation, Contribution, Leadership, and Mercy.
The eight maids a-milking were the eight beatitudes.
Nine ladies dancing were the nine fruits of the Holy Spirit--Love, Joy, Peace, Patience, Kindness, Goodness, Faithfulness,
Gentleness, and Self Control.
The ten lords a-leaping were the Ten Commandments.
The eleven pipers piping stood for the eleven faithful disciples.
The twelve drummers drumming symbolized the twelve points of belief in the Apostles' Creed.

A Walk In the Rain

Take a walk in the rain. Bundle up and bring your umbrella, but walk in the rain. Breathe in the Light and wash away the insideous worms of winter. The dark time brings the challenge of the dark, and walking in the rain brings fire and light back into the realm. I am the Light that is this world. Praises be.

A Prayer for The Little Black Ant

I reached into the large kitty food bag yesterday to feed the two remaining feral cats and my companion calico, and when I withdrew my arm, filled food container in hand, I was surprised to see my forearm covered in little black ants. My arm was alive with them. I didn’t panic (sort of). I didn’t scream, although I could feel a scream itching to be released. No, I calmly took the food container to the sink, and washed the ants off my arm. With a sigh I knew my cozy abode had been invaded, my space was being violated by these small, quiet, black creatures scurrying out of the rain and into the nearest source of food they could find. I have come to peace with the fact that I cannot live with ants in my space. I will not share my food or space with tiny, crawling, swarming, black ants. So I killed them as quickly as I could with a spray bottle of biodegadable soap. I did my obligatory communication ritual with them and ordered them out of my house if they wanted to live. They refused to go. So, now, I wait patiently as the sweet bait spreads its deathly sleep into the colony so I can return to my creature comforts of a cozy home without little crawling ants. I respect the ant,--outside my boundaries, and I have tried every humane way to establish and maintain an ant free, ant forbidden territory. I bless the death of these black ants, may you know peace and lots of foraging in the next life. Forgive me as I forgive you. Amen!

Purr More

I saw a bumper sticker today that read: "Wag More, Bark Less". Since I am more of the feline persuasion I decided to transpose this into "Purr More, Claw Less". In ohter words Smile, Breathe, & Go Slowly. Then uncaused joy will bubble to the surface within your heart. The Christ has risen, again.

Have a Chuckle

Timeless...

Making Clouds With Hands

I was the first customer at a local garage sale this morning and I scored a Toshiba dvd player for $15.00. My cheap Sony died several weeks ago. I promptly plugged and wired it in and slipped a dvd of my favorite tai chi master into the machine. Then, I became spell bound by the ebb and flow of the tai chi movements. My soul responds to this form of movement in a way I have not experienced in any other form. One movement that captivated me this morning was titled "making clouds with hands", or something like that. And there he was, actually fluffing clouds with his hands. Amazing. Heart opening. Spirit in alignment through every layer.

"A Hummingbird's Delight"

I finished working on this pressed flower collage today and had it outside on my little porch spraying some sealant on it. I stood there staring at the piece losing myself in the floral imagery when a humming creature joined me, zummed right up next to me and looked at the piece along side me. I didn't even turn my head; we both stood there looking at the picture together--a hummingbird and me. When I realized that I was not alone I turned to look at my companion who shimmered in irredescent green. It looked at me as if disappointed in being tricked into thinking it could sup necture from the color and hummed away in an arc over the lanky cymbidium leaves. It took me awhile to realize what a little messenger of Spirit my friend was to me today. I feel I had a special visitor, a guest, invited by the splendor of Spirit's creativity blooming through me. What an affirmation. I think I might title this piece "A Hummingbird's Delight" or something. By the way that hibiscus bloom in the center is for real! Thank you Patricia!

The Return

Now, we are in those days when many people are talking about 2012: and some of them don’t see the positive side of the Prophecies because they are looking only at the surface of the Prophecies and not at the deeper meaning of the Prophecies.
“The ancient ones said that the Maya Lands are the home of the bird called “T’HO”, a bird with beautiful blue feathers, and these birds are our Grandfathers and they are waiting for the Goddess to come back again” (Waiting for the Awakening of the Sacred Feminine). The Goddess will bring again the Solar-Knowledge to Humankind; and allow them to fly out of their caves. (It means that Human Beings will fly again in spirit out of their bodies (their caves) applying the Solar-Wisdom in order to once again reach the Stars. Now, it is the time to fly out of our own limitations and to see and to experience in our spirit and the spirit of one “Whose Name is Whispered in a Breath” the amazing gift we have to change anything in a positive and creative manifestation of Love and Life. Now, it is the moment to manifest again the Maya within (“to be a chosen one”) because you have the Science (the intellect) and the Spirit (in your Heart) to fulfill the great responsibility facing 2012: to guide Humankind again, through our actions and words, to the balance and harmony that the ancient ones; Hunab-Ku, Itzamana, IxCheel, and K'u-Kuul-Kaan, desired for us.
Miguel Angel Vergara Calleros