At Winter Solstice - Dolores Stewart

Art by Valerie Claff
www.valerieclaff.com

Winter Owl hoots three times in the far woods,
fair warning for all small creatures
scurrying to their burrows.

Are we not still and always
those crouching figures
who flee the heavenly alchemy?
Three times in the crackling air,
Owl hoots for us.

*

Wind plays the drums of snow...
staccato taps
crescendo off the roofs,
flourish of shuddering branches.
Ice snaps its castanets,
its daggers.

Atonal music of the darkest days
needs the most fearless,
subtle listeners.

*

Those strumming flamenco 
fingers of sunlight
are a long time away now.

Now we go comforted
in dreams and ceremonies
flaming our star-speck candles,

raising our voices against that other music,
drowning out the forever
at night's heart.

*

Look up!  The wheel is turning.
The spectacular crowd of stars,
the tangle of dimensions
jostle for our attention.
Salute the birth of everything holy.

Dolores Steward (Riccio)

with thanks to Beyond the Fields We Know

~

Photo - Art by Valerie Claff

 

Divine Wind...

This body, the vehicle I inhabit,
needs deep rest...

Relief - from the constant stimulation of life and living -
and the unbalance that it brings...
Shutting out the "worldwind" that spins
 out of control around me;
Not obliged to enter its chaotic storms,
I turn to the rhythmic pace of the Soul...
The Holy Space...

Even my Soul needs quiet "shelter"...
Respite - from the endless sucking winds of the demands of
others who are lost in an addiction to themselves...
Empty shells wanting to be filled;
grasping at me, drowning in their dark, distorted shadow,
as they try to pull me under to save them from themselves -

like hungry ghosts...

And my Heart needs to feel the Stillness
at the Core of my Being - again;
to hear the comforting sound of the Divine Wind,
restoring me to
sanity and wellness of being;
whispering Life into my Heart,
as I surrender
to its soft, silent Breeze...

Mystic Meandering
January 12, 2022

~

Photo - Mystic Meandering

 

Blessing in the Chaos - Jan Richardson

To all that is chaotic
in you,
let there come silence.

Let there be
a calming
of the clamoring,
a stilling
of the voices that
have laid their claim
on you,
that have made their
home in you,

that go with you
even to the
holy places
but will not
let you rest,
will not let you
hear your life
with wholeness
or feel the grace
that fashioned you.

Let what distracts you
cease.
Let what divides you
cease.
Let there come an end
to what diminishes
and demeans,
and let depart
all that keeps you
in its cage.

Let there be
an opening
into the quiet
that lies beneath
the chaos,
where you find
the peace
you did not think
possible
and see what shimmers
within the storm.

The human heart continues to dream of a state of wholeness,
a place where everything comes together,
where loss will be made good, where blindness will transform
into vision, where damage will be made whole,
where the clenched question will open in the house of surprise,
where the travails of a life's journey will enjoy a homecoming.
To invoke a blessing is to call some of that wholeness upon a
person now.

Jan Richardson

With thanks to  The Beauty We Love

~

Photo taken at Keukenhof Tulip Garden in Holland
by Ellen Ratmeyer

How the Day Keeps Us - John O'Donohue

No one knew the name of this day;
Born quietly from deepest night.
It hid its face in light,
Demanded nothing for itself,
opened out to offer each of us
A field of brightness that traveled ahead,
Providing in time, ground to hold our footsteps
And the light of thought to show the way.

The mind of the day draws attention;
It dwells within the silence with elegance
To create a space for all our words,
Drawing us to listen inward and outward.

We seldom notice now each day is a holy place
Where the Eucharist of the ordinary happens,
Transforming our broken fragments
into an eternal continuity that keeps us.

Somewhere in us a dignity presides
That is more gracious than the smallness
That fuels us with fear and force,
A dignity that trusts the form a day takes.

So at the end of this day, we give thanks
For being betrothed to the unknown
And for the secret work
Through which the mind of the day
And wisdom of the soul become one.

John O'Donohue
Original Title: The Inner History of a Day
From: To Bless the Space Between Us:
A Book of Blessings