Leaning into Heaven

There are all kinds of Hell.

"...shall I show you to a room?"...

And there are all kinds of Heaven. It kind of depends on which side of the river you're going to sit on. Because you're still watching the same River of Life flow.

Me, given the choice, I prefer to watch from the side of Heaven. It's all a state of mind anyway. It's all just another mind game of duality.

Heaven/Hell has less to do with a place we go when we're dead as much as a state of being, here and now. Because it is the same movie. To be Heavenly is to be in a state of grace versus a state of torment. To carry an ultimate desire for goodness above all else. To trust our inner wisdom and not be twisted by the dictates of outer circumstances.

Lessons

The lessons we learn on the path to love will teach us everything we need to know. Teaching is not always about passing on one’s knowledge. It’s often passing on who you are. You can teach things you don’t even know yet, because you are still learning about yourself. As long as you continually open up to the lessons being whispered in your heart, the secret coded messages from your soul that only you can decipher, that Spirit of Love will lead you to wherever you need to be.

Even your pain can be a teacher. Pain keeps you raw. Like raw peanuts, eh? Until you heat them up in the fire of your belly they cannot sprout into seedlings of compassion. Be open to your pain but not attached to it, rather let it flow through you unobstructed. By not holding on to it you allow it to transform into the higher vibration of empathy. Still, if I but could I would, with one look deep into your eyes, kiss away all the pain that’s ever touched you.

Self-examination is part of my healing; I can’t heal it until I can feel it. I am learning forgiveness of myself for hiding from the darker places of my soul, for being to damn compliant at my own expense. It has taken me years to realize that my yielding has ultimately helped no one. I forgive myself for years of closing my eyes to my truth. But that’s all in the past and I can’t go back to sleep now that I’ve seen what I’ve seen and know what I know about love.

Love is the only worthy teacher.

All for now.

(c) 2011

Two Truths

Two truths
in which do I believe

the one
my heart
tells me

or

the one
my eyes see?

I have made a sacred pilgrimage
around your barren shores
and I have opened many doors
and still no soul call echoes back

In a dark and musty basement
long forgotton bottles of a vintage rara
are gathering dust
where a hopeless moth
beats her wings
against the solitary shaft
of a beam of light
scattering her golden wing dust below
in a slow dance of self immolation

The poison cannot be sucked from this wound
my jaw is slack
and words fall
like rain
upon the incoherent compost
of surrender and passion

I throw myself into my work
just to work it out of my system
and though my pinions have been hidden from me for a time
This avis rara can no longer beat these wet wings
against the bars of your cagey indifference

Two truths
in which do I believe

the one
my heart
tells me

or

the one
my eyes see?

(c) 2011

Lady Godiva and Tax Day

As tomorrow is tax day, I am reminded of the legend of Lady Godiva who rode naked on horseback through the streets of Coventry in an effort to win leniency for the citizenry from oppressive taxes. Out of respect no one was to be on the streets or open their windows while she did so. Only one betrayed that trust and he was struck blind.

(Artwork: Lady Godiva by John Collier, 1897)

Queen Bee

One finds safety in numbers
So many bees in the hive
One never bothers with self
Repeating endless mantra
"The Self is the Hive. The Hive is the Self."
One just doesn't ever contemplate
that she might be a Queen !

I know it's not standard SoulCollage® wording but that's the beauty of SoulCollage®, there are no rules!

April 5

Life goes slow without love.
It moves along unhurried.
The sun rises.
The sun goes down.

There are those who pass by
changing the life-cycle
if you are willing to wait.

I am always shy
with these journeymen at first
and by the time I get to know them
they have gone away.

~Rod McKuen
from "In Someone's Shadow," 1969