Hold Steady - HAEVN

Sunrays touch the coastline
On the cutter shows the dust
Long nights are gone with the river
The water has been waiting long enough

We float on the river of time
Hold steady, hold steady
The sea comes 'cause the summer forced out the cold
The boat fought the change of tides
Hold steady, hold steady
Storm for hours, and rainy days

And all our lives we"re told
the stream will take us home

Sunrays touch the coastline
Warm our feet, show the glare
We walk through the sand in the warm night
The water will take the weight from us

And all our lives we're told
the stream will take us home
And all our lives we're told
the stream will take us home

[.....]

HAEVN

Symphonic Tales

To listen to this song beautifully sung
with symphony
click on this You Tube link

https://youtu.be/KpxFLMKXzBk?si=syofoFB377o-idxe

with thanks to Love Is A Place

~

Photo from the Internet

 

Stand Still - David Wagoner

Stand still.
The trees ahead and the bushes beside you Are not lost.
Wherever you are is called Here.

And you must treat it as a powerful stranger.
Must ask permission to to know it and be known.
The forest breathes.  Listen.  It answers,
I have made this place around you.
If you leave it you may come back again, saying Here.

No two trees are the same to Raven.
No two branches are the same to Wren.
If what a tree or bush does is lost on you,
You are surely lost.  Stand still.
The forest knows Where you are.
You must let if find you.

David Wagoner
original title: "Lost"

~

Photo - Mystic Meandering

 

The Way to The Woods - Wendell Berry

Sabbath 1985. V

[.....]

What is the way to the woods, how do you get there?
By climbing through the 6 day's field,
kept in all the body's years, the body's
sorrow, weariness, and joy.
By passing through the narrow gate
on the far side of that field
where the pasture grass
of the body's life
gives way
to
the high, original
standing of the trees.
By coming into the shadow,
the shadow of the grace of the strait
way's ending, the shadow of the mercy
of light...

Why must the gate be narrow?
Because you cannot pass beyond it burdened.
To come in among these trees you must leave behind
the six day's world,
all of it,
all of its plans
and hopes.
You must come without weapon or tool,
alone,
expecting nothing,
remembering nothing...

Wendell Berry
Excerpt from: A Timbered Choir

with thanks to Love Is A Place

~

Photo - Mystic Meandering

 

There is Music in Us - Jack Gilbert

Our heart wanders lost in the dark woods.
Our dream wrestles in the castle of doubt.
But there's music in us.  Hope is pushed down
but the angel flies up again taking us with her.

The summer mornings begin inch by inch
while we sleep, and walk with us later
as long-legged beauty through
the dirty streets.  It is no surprise
that danger and suffering surround us.

What astonishes is the singing.
We know the horses are there in the dark
meadow because we can smell them,

can hear them breathing.

Our spirit persists like a man struggling
through the frozen valley
who suddenly smells the flowers
and realizes the snow is melting
out of sight on top of the mountain,
knows that spring has begun.

Jack Gilbert, 1925-2012
Horses at Midnight Without a Moon

with thanks to Love Is A Place

~

Photo - Me on path into the woods

 

Perfect Pulsing Silence...

Perfect Pulsing Silence...
Utter Stillness...
Breath-giving Life...

This is what I come to sit for;
to sit in utter and complete Silence of Being -
the pulse of Life;
to feel and sense "The Silence",
to feel its Aliveness,
to hear Its Song...

Sitting in the silence of not-knowing
puts one in a place of really listening,
with no agenda or expectation,
leaving the space open for "The Silence" to speak,
to calm the mind and
sing Its Song to the Heart...

I listen deeply for the Song of Silence...

A breeze touches my arm gently from the window
inviting me to be more acutely aware...

I gaze inward
to "The Song of Silence" within,
that is mirrored
in the sounds of silence,
just outside my window..
It's all the same Silence, infusing everything...

I feel "The Rhythm" of Silence begin ~

I sit back in my chair
listening to the pulsing Silence
within and without,

feeling Its familiar Rhythm,
feeling the dance of intimacy begin again...

Nothing disturbs It,
Nothing  disturbs the depth of It,
Nothing prevents Its Song
from being sung ~

In this intimate Silence I am reminded that
everything occurs within "The Great Silence."
All life, all breath, all death, all movement
occurs within this vast space of Silence
that we are...

In "The Silence"
I know everything is living according to Its
natural order - is following Its natural order,
including this life I call mine...

All life is being lived
by the hush of this "Mystery"...

All is the pulse of the Great Silence ~
the pulse of Life ~

Mystic Meandering
Meditative Writings
May 2011

~

Photo - Mystic Meandering

 

A Deeper Rhythm...

I've heard a deeper Rhythm....
Composed of cello, viola and oboe, I think.
I heard it when I was in the kitchen
cooking dinner one night,
many years ago,
and every other night after that,

for several weeks,
until it stopped...
when the noise of my life
became too loud - again,
and the weight of my weary heart
drowned it out -
like now...

There was no music playing on the stereo,
just the sound of the meal cooking,
and the sounds of daily living
outside the window:
children playing,
dogs barking,
lawn mowers,
power saws,
and birds -

chirping...

Underneath it all was a Rhythm
so melodious I could even hum it;
forgotten now...

I just listened, and hummed, with wonder...
Where was this coming from -
this music -
this slow, deep melodic rhythm,
drawing me into itself...

I didn't even have to try to listen,
it was just there
soft - in the distance,
barely audible,
as if in another room,
through another door,
maybe even in another realm;
a cosmic rhythm

I knew then, somehow, that my own life rhythm
was hidden in this Deeper Rhythm...

But I no longer hear it now;
drowned out by the
noise of living
other people's
rhythms -
and the endless
cacophony
of daily
existence.

But I know it is there -
playing somewhere.
I listen for it -
this Deeper Rhythm,
that underlies
all other rhythms...
mysteriously playing
within...

Mystic Meandering
Nov. 5, 2015

~

Photo - Mystic Meandering

 

The Mysterious Virtue - Tao Te Ching

Nurture the darkness of your soul
until you become whole.
Can you do this and not fail?

Can you focus your life-breath until you become
supple as a newborn child?

While you cleanse your inner vision
will you be found without fault?

Can you love people and lead them
without forcing your will on them?

When Heaven gives and takes away
can you be content with the outcome?

When you understand all things
can you step back from your own understanding?

~

Giving birth and nourishing,
making without possessing,
expecting nothing in return.

To grow, yet not to control:

This is the mysterious virtue.

Tao Te Ching
translation by j.h. mcdonald

with thanks to The Beauty We Love

~

Photo - Mystic Meandering

 

Feel. Sense. Listen. - Matt Licata

The capacity to mourn and to grieve the death of an old
[perspective/view of life] is the portal to a new life, and one
that so many of us in our contemporary world have lost
contact with.  To go into the broken and to feel, to honor the
shards and shattered pieces of soul, to not pathologize them
and to not  urgently scramble to put it all back together.
For they are holy and complete in their brokenness...

Perhaps they need not to be "put back together," but held
in presence and in love.

In a more subtle way, we may discover a moment which is
"in between" the light and the dark, the known and the unknown,
lunar and solar - an opening into liminal space, where we come
into direct contact with something mysterious and vast...

[We can] train ourselves to recognize this inner space and its
qualities, to trust and listen to its non-ordinary, non-rational
wisdom and allow it to cleanse our perception...

...in this way, as the veil parts just a bit and we begin to lift
out of the collective matrix, we may start to see, in an
embodied, experiential way, that the soul is always speaking 
to us...

This communication will at times come by way of experiences
of beauty, joy, connection, and peace.  Through states of flow,
awe, wonder and pure Being.

But this dispatch from The Beloved from the Soul, will at times
emerge as an eruption of the dark, of the lunar, out of the
underworld and the somatic unconscious, and can be fierce
and untamed.  It doesn't conform to who and what we think we are,
what this world is, what "God", or the Divine is.

[It can express as] a surge of activation in one of our relationships,
out-of-the-blue experiences of depression or anxiety, an
unexplainable symptom in our body, the collapse of the known.

To perceive this also as grace is not easy and will ask everything
of us.  Stay in your body.  Feel. Sense. Listen.
Something important may be emerging, to be illuminated and held,
just underneath the threshold of consciousness.

Step into the unknown, and listen...

Matt Licata

~

Photo by my husband :)

 

Quiet Whispers...

Lately I've been hearing Quiet Whispers
in my chest, telling me that "everything will be okay" -
while standing at the sink doing dishes,
while making sandwiches for lunch -
or dicing carrots or peeling potatoes;
late at night just before sleep;
even watching TV.

Suddenly my Heart goes Quiet,
I feel pulled inward,
and "It" whispers:
"Everything will be okay."
And I am suddenly at peace...

Now I listen for the Quiet space inside,
reigniting inspiration, 
tapping me into my own inner knowing
telling me that "everything will be okay."
Nobody else can tell me this;
they don't know...

Only my own Quiet Heart Knows...

I listen to the whispers...

Mystic Meandering
June 8, 2024

10:10 am

~

Photo - Mystic Meandering
Butterfly Wing Shadow

 

Dissolving Illusions - Ivan Granger

We are going through a collective process of disillusionment,
whether we like it or not.  We are being required to drop
our illusions and witness unpleasant truths, about ourselves
[individually and as a nation], and about the world around us.
We may ask: What have we ignored that has allowed such
fear and hatred to fester?  How have our political and social
systems become so damaged that they are unresponsive to
the needs of society?  What cruelties are encoded in society
that I have ignored or made excuses for?  How did we
imagine things were solid, when they are so fragile?  How
can my neighbor [or family members] believe such things,
and what is their hurt that I was blind to?  These are the
questions we are forced to ask now.

Painful though it may be, we can only be strengthened by
the process of disillusionment.  We want to drop our
illusions.  We want to see things as they are..

As a meditative exercise we can look at the reality we see,
the terrible and the beautiful together, and just sit with it;
[just be with it internally, meditatively].  It may break our
hearts, but we can just sit with it.  It may overwhelm us with
its immensity, but we don't run, we don't seek to merely feel
good.  Instead we just sit [be] with it.  We allow ourselves to
see and feel fully.  We watch our reactions to it, but are not
hooked by them.  In this way, we begin to inhabit a bigger 
reality.  Our personal sense of reality becomes more 
integrated and a truer reflection of what actually is.  As we do
this, we become more capable of fashioning healthier
 lives and healthier societies.

When I stop trying to assert some idea of how reality should work,
and just really notice what is.....everything just opens up.  The
heart opens in unexpected ways, making healing possible where
only walls seemed to stand.  It's easy to think that reality is
somehow broken, but when we really look, we discover that we
inhabit an improbable wholeness instead.  It's not entirely logical
amidst the world's fear and suffering, but look for yourself and see.
Really see.  Seeing the full picture, our actions become more 
effective and lasting.  Looking honestly, we become capable of
compassion and connection, where there was only anger and hatred....

Ivan Granger
Excerpt from a commentary on a poem by May Sarton
at Poetry Chaikhana

~

Photo - Mystic Meandering
taken from inside, reflecting objects in the room in the window -
giving the illusion of another reality...

 

Transformative Cycles - Matt Licata

In the cycle of death and rebirth - the archetypal basis of all
healing and spiritual transformation - there are two aspects to
that sequence, each being an equal portal on the journey of
embodied wholeness.

There's the aspect of death, where part of ourselves
 must fall away: the death of an old dream, of me
and my life and how it was all
supposed to turn out.

At the other pole is rebirth, renewal, and the emergence of
new life.

It is understandable that the rebirth aspect is one we most
welcome and are drawn to: healing, union, the coming back
together of that which has fallen apart.

To embrace dissolution as path, as initiation, as a manifestation
of the ally [Friend] will feel contradictory and counter-
instinctual.  It will ached in the heart.

However, in many alchemical and mystical streams, dissolution
and the death of the material (known) is the very essence of
the path and required for our perception (and subtle body) to be
cleansed.

Rebirth is not possible without full participation in the process 
of death.  There is no doorway in and through without
embodiment to the cycles of grief. 

We see this experiential discovery for example in the writings
of Rumi, St. John of the Cross inThe Dark Night of the Soul, in
Teresa of Avila's vision of the Interior Castle.

[But] there's no real reference point for it in a lot of our
contemporary traditions, which remain oriented exclusively
to the upward, clear, and ascending currents.

In addition are the currents of the divine descent, the illuminated

black sun, the lunar cycles that unfold within the somatic
unconscious and the underworld.

~

Remembering that spiritual transformation and awakening
involve not only what we'll access and gain, but what will
inevitably be taken away in the process of being emptied out.

The goal isn't so much to rise up and out of the unwanted,
and unexpected, but go into its interior chambers.

The light found there isn't what we normally think of as 
"light".  It's a "full-spectrum" light that contains the dark.
It's not only the light that can hold us, but the darkness as well,
in a holding benevolence...

There's an innate patterning of experience within the human
psyche to falling apart and coming back together again.

Things "falling apart" and "coming back together" is the 
essence of a  more tantric, or alchemical approach to
healing and spiritual transformation...

Matt Licata

~

Art - Mystic Meandering
2012

 

The Days Are Round - Jean Giono

Days begin and end in the dead of night. They are not 
shaped long, in the manner of things which leads to ends -
arrow, road, a person's life on earth.  They are shaped round,
in the manner of eternal things eternal and stable...

Civilization tries to persuade us we are going towards 
something, a distant goal.  We have forgotten that our
only goal is to live, to live each and every day, and that if
we live each and every day, our true goal is achieved.

All civilized people see the day beginning at dawn or a
little after or a long time after or whatever time their work
begins; this they lengthen according to their work, during
what they call 'all day long'; and end it when they close
their eyes.  It is they who say the days are long.  On the
contrary, the days are round.

Jean Giono

with thanks to Love Is A Place

~

Vortex Art - Mystic Meandering

 

Missed Moment - a meandering...

I stepped outside one morning in May recently
to put cracker crumbs under the bird feeder,
for the birds, squirrels or whatever would eat them.

Upon stepping out the door,
I immediately felt the cool morning breeze
on my face...

I stopped in my tracks,
lifted my face to the breeze in silence,

and was stunned by the aliveness of the greenery
of everything, through the dappled light of
the morning sun;
like a blind person seeing for the first time...

Everything went still - for about 5 seconds.
I didn't take it in, didn't linger longer to feel
the moment, but stepped out of the moment to
finish my task and went back inside to continue
my care-giver routine.

I had missed an opportunity, and I knew it,
to be in the quietness of Nature, my backyard
version of Nature, with its beautiful trees,
gentle breezes. and filtered sunlight;
recently seen only through windows - until this
one moment.  I had just one moment - and I 
missed it.

I realized how much I have missed the quiet connection
with Nature over the past couple of years, not even
going out into my backyard; a prisoner in my own home,
missing the quietness of Nature, the comfort of Nature.

I actually miss quietness in my life! BC
Before Caregiving- the role I took on nearly 20 months ago.
So many losses of quiet moments and personal freedoms
over that time.

That's a story I need to explore...

So what does *this* story that I tell myself
 about feeling imprisoned,
and missing moments
 trying to tell me...

That I need to find and savor quiet alone moments
like these - and stay there - allowing myself to connect
with a much needed deeper Quiet within...

Mystic Meandering

May 2024

~

Photo - Mystic Meandering
watching for the mailman :)