How the Light Gets In - Pat Schneider - For Solstice

To open a door in one's mind, whether in writing,
in prayer, or in writing-as-prayer, is to invite an
experience of "the deep."

It's rather like standing on the edge of a cliff overlooking
the ocean at night, a cliff from which I can hear the 
pounding surf below me, and see in the distance a 
multitude of stars.

I am aware of danger, but I am also aware of my own
freedom and my own good sense.

Although I could do so, I will not back up, close down,
and refuse to see or hear.
Although I could do so, I will not step out and lose myself.
I will not fall to my death.

I will stand where I am and allow the vast expanse to
come to me through my eyes, through my ears, through
wind moving the tiny hairs on my skin, through the
pressure of the solid rock against the soles of my feet.
I feel awe, I feel my own smallness, but I feel that I,
too, belong.  If I am open to the possibility, I sense that
I am seen;
I am known;
I am held in the attention of the mystery.

from: How the Light  Gets In
by Pat Schneider

~

During the winter moon/months,
it's natural to make a creative connection to
the Quiet Depth of your inner gold mine...

In the outer world, everything moves very fast.
There's no doubt things are ramped up.
Follow your Inner Counsel
Trust your still small voice.

May resilience be radiant within all living  beings.
That even the darkest of times,
a light shines forth from the heart.

Donna Iona Drozda
From Opening the North Gate

~

For Winter Solstice
Dec. 21, 2023

~

Photo - Mystic Meandering

 

 

Rekindling the Flame...

I'm rediscovering the Fire-Light that wants to come to life
again here; that wants to express and give voice;
and not be constrained by "spiritual" conundrums,
but the simplicity of the Light that Lives me -
without mentations and cogitations of words and concepts
that cloud and dim its Light...

Interesting that this is the cross quarter day between
Winter Solstice and the Spring Equinox.  Celtic tradition
has it that Imbolc is celebrated in preparation of "giving birth" -
or re-birthing something new...
a rekindling of the inner Light; the inner Flame that is 
the expression of our deepest Being...

I feel the spark of Light shining...

Alegria!

Mystic Meandering

~

Photo - Mystic Meandering

 

Hidden Fire - Alain Joly

One has to start anew, to re-create, get rid of the old and let a
new possibility of life emerge.  Real health is revival, it is the
life that creates itself every moment, without the grooves of the
past that limit and condition us.  We can never know when the
time is ripe for a new possibility.  It comes as a surprise,
uncontrolled, uninvited...  A new dawn emerges.  This is why
I chose to name my blog The Dawn Within.  The Dawn Within
refers to the Light, or at least its first and shy expressions when
the mind ceases to be interested in its own productions or in
the objects of the world out there and turns within.  The dawn
is shy - the light is coming but is not yet a full sunny day.  It
is hesitating.  The night is still lingering but the promise is here.

Alain Joly

The Dawn Within

I do not know where the fire comes from
It is hidden, ready to burst
A piece of ember under the ashes

When the flame has died out
The ashes are left,
Like a thick coat
Tenacious
Like a screed

It doesn't let anything pass
But the ember doesn't die
It remains there

Hot
Waiting

We sometimes need so little
A tiny stimulation
To remove one by one the grey leaves
Glued
Welded
Undo the uncanny order
Of all these withering years

It sometimes takes very little
To revive
Timid
Intact
This little piece of fire
That contains the ardour and madness of all flames
Of all rebirths
Of all cures

Alain Joly

Excerpt and poem from an article in
The Culturium entitled:
Alain Joly: The Dawn Within

Facing Into the Light...

Facing into the Sun for my daily
dose of warmth and light,
weeks of information overload
and overwhelm regarding
"the pandemic" has taken its toll
on my psyche...

Waking each morning
wondering - am I going to "catch it"?
watching for the signs;
wondering - will there be enough food
in the stores to last the *months* they
say it will take for the virus to dissipate?
What would be the "best" day to go
foraging for food in our big box
grocery stores, where food once
filled the shelves and cases, but
which has become sparse in the
panic of the pandemic?
What day would the shelves be
stocked the most - with the least
people to navigate?
One doesn't know these things now...

Who would have thought we would
become hunters and gatherers again,
searching for our daily bread...

Ominous...

But...

Today is not a day for mental discursions
of what I cannot control;
nor for fear of the unknown.
I must turn, instead, within
to the Sanity of my Inner Being,
and *stay* there, shelter there;
"stay home" in the Core of my Being,
if I can find "Her" again;
feel "Her" Presence, "Her" Light.

But it was not "She" who wandered off,
or was deluged with the collective fear
of the pandemic.
It was only my mind that fell into
the scare...

The Beauty of the World still exists.
The Earth is still suspended - stable - in space;
rotating around the warmth of the Sun
that lights us daily.
The Universe still sings its song
- uncalamitous -

ever-present in its
*essential* movement.

So I thank the Luminous Universe for being
- for perspective.

For I am not "earthbound" in this madness,
but am part of a celestial movement of stars and
planets dancing together, where the Hush of The
Mystery was once experienced viscerally in a moment
of Pure Silence...

I remember...

It fills my being and warms me to the core,
quelling the fear all the way to the heart,
piercing the veils of ignorance that covered
my mind.

Facing into the Sun, absorbing its warmth,
begins to ignite the Light within.

Facing into the Light within, I am prepared to
move through the day - unfettered by the
unessentials of the madness around me.

At peace in the Celestial Movement of Life...

Mystic Meandering
March 29, 2020

10:10 am

~

Thank you to Alain Joly at The Dawn Within
for the spark of inspiration that ignited this poem...

~

Photo - the Flammarion Engraving
from the Internet

Life Postmortem...

It's been six weeks since my mother passed...  My grieving has ended.
I did most of my grieving over the 3 months she was home on
"Hospice Care", waiting to die; which was really her children taking
care of her 24/7, watching her deteriorate; although, because of her
dementia, she forgot that's what was happening to her - until about
a week before she passed, making it all the more sad...
She struggled so hard to hang on to life...

But my mother's passing was not the worst part actually.
I am at peace with that and my "spiritual" beliefs have seen
me through.  It's the "postmortem..."

Now my days are dominated with going through her 90 years of
life's belongings at her house with my sister.  Mom was a bit of a
pack rat/hoarder, so we are trying to clear things out so we can
put the house up for sale, which also means trying to find a place
for my sister to live, as she has lived with my mother for 8 1/2 years.

But she doesn't want to move.  That is not an option - she can't pay
the mortgage or the bills...  My brother returned to his home early
in April after staying with Mom for 3 months until the week after
she died, and tried to set things in motion for my sister and I to
follow through in processing the "postmortem" experience.

The process itself is difficult, even demanding, but with my siblings
has been especially challenging.  We are all so very different;
different values, different priorities, different perceptions, and we've
 all taken different paths, and made different life choices for ourselves
 and how we choose to live...  And they don't mix well.  But we manage
most of the time to treat each other kindly...  Unfortunately there has
 also been a lot of drama, which I really can't expand upon here... 
But will be glad when everything is finally settled, and I can "move on",
 as they say, and have some space to breathe again, and hopefully
 rekindle  the Spark within, as I am feeling rather uninspired lately
 - lackluster;  out of sync with the rhythms of Life.
 Like an automaton going through  the motions to get things done,
 yet surprisingly "present" as well.

But nothing speaks to me anymore - well almost nothing.
Feeling trapped in the particulars of my moment-to-moment
experience. It is what it is, and I am where I am...  No pretense here...
The stress of the family dysfunction and the grind of being
 immersed in the mundane has made me weary of life - and placed a
 heavy burden on my heart...

I have had little time for Solitude and deep Meditation - feeling rather
distracted by the externals of living, creating a feeling of "separation"
from the Alive Presence within...
My meditation space has now become storage space for some of my
 mother's things, which will have to be gone through at a later time -
another "postmortem" activity...

I don't foresee this "experience" ending any time soon.  It will probably
last through the Summer, although I know this too shall pass, and
there will be another, hopefully brighter, postmortem...

I realize I am on the edge of a new journey, a new chapter in this
story that is playing itself out in my life at the moment - waiting
for the page to turn.  I know it's all just a story in the context of a
larger Story - but still...  It is being lived in "real" time... condensed
from somewhere out of time...

And so it goes...

Namaste

~

In everyone's life, at some time, our inner fire goes out.
It is then burst into flame by an encounter with another
human being.  We should all be thankful for those people
who rekindle the inner spirit.

Albert Schweitzer

'Strange Peace'

There is a stranger that arrives sometimes
in these mid-winter days…

In Her presence
everything settles…

everything lets go…

everything becomes still…

everything rests,
not lifeless – just rests…



When She arrives
everything feels strangely

~ peaceful ~


When She comes
life is allowed to be as life is,
as I listen deeply to
Her whispers…


She feels ‘strange’ to me
only because She
has come as a surprise,
unexpected,
and is larger than life;
beyond mental understanding…

Yet, I know I know this “stranger.”
She is strangely familiar…
I’m sure we have met before…


I welcome Her in...

She gives me Her mantel of Peace
and wraps it around my heart…

The Fire-Light within begins to brighten
because She is Home...


Mystic Meandering
copyright
February 3, 2011


Photo ~ March 2010

Imbolc: Fire-Light

I am re-discovering the Fire-Light that wants to come to life here;
that wants to express, to give voice,
and not be constrained by “spiritual” conundrums.
The Light that Lives –
without mentations and cogitations of words and concepts
that cloud and dim its Light…

~

Interesting that this is arising for me at Imbolc –
the cross quarter day between the Winter Solstice
and the Spring Equinox.
Celtic tradition has it that Imbolc is celebrated
in preparation of “giving birth”,
in anticipation of the birth of Spring.

~

I’ve actually been feeling this inner Fire for a long time –
pushing through, coming alive, wanting to thrive,
threatening to consume “me;”
creating a combination of excitement and apprehension…

It’s a threshold kind of feeling,
like Imbolc, the threshold of “re-birth”,
of rekindling the inner Light;
the intuitive inner compass Light of the Heart;
the inner Fire-Light that is the expression of Being ItSelf...

I see a spark of light shining…
Alegria!


In the meantime, I intend to in-JOY the remaining days of winter,
tending the faint light until it ignites into the Flame...

Warm Winter Blessings!


top photo: sun through frost on window
bottom photo: street light through frost