The Song is Still Here - Fred LaMotte

Spend a little time today
getting lost.
Find your way
without rudder or sail
across the mud puddle
in your back yard.

Meet me on the shore.
We will find shelter
in each other's breath.
There is a mountain
of silence inside you,
and inside the mountain
a cave of silence
where you'll find the bones
you left here
before you were conceived.
We've had other bodies, friend,
but no other song.

Listen.
The song is still here

inside the bones
inside the cave
inside the mountain of silence
inside you.

Spend a little time today
getting lost.
Find your way
without rudder or sail
across the mud puddle
in your back yard.
Meet me on the shore.
We will find shelter
in each other's breath.
There is a mountain
of silence inside you,
and inside the mountain
a cave of silence
where you'll find the bones
you left here
before you were conceived.
We've had other bodies, friend,
but no other song.
Listen.
The song is still here
inside the bones
inside the cave
inside the mountain of silence
inside you.

Fred LaMotte
Uradiance

~

Photo - Mystic Meandering

 

Dancing with the Dark - a meandering

Darkness came to visit -
like a visitor in Rumi's guest house...

I danced with the dark;
afraid to speak the truth to it...

I danced with the dark, keeping silent,
because it was more effective than confronting it...

After months of resisting; trying to find a way out -
I gave up - and just danced;
trying to practice radical acceptance.

When I allowed the dark in,
it felt less intense - almost soothing...

How strange...

When I allowed myself to meet the darkness I felt,
instead of trying to escape from it, or push it away,
or control it - I relaxed and felt a slowing down inside
and discovered that the darkness I felt allowed me to be quiet
inside.  The darkness seemed comforting...
The darkness allowed me to feel what I needed to feel
and say what needed to be said...

I breathed deeply into the darkness -
and rested there...

Mystic Meandering
April 17, 2023

from my journal notes

The "darkness" can be anything;
sadness, grief, depression, anger;
any feeling or emotion that we have labeled
"wrong" or "dark"

Photo -
(not me :)

~~

OM - the song of Life - comes out of darkness
and creates everything that is -
creating from darkness; creating out of darkness.

What does this darkness need to teach me?  I asked...

Trust the darkness to take you where you need to go...

MM

Photo and Art - Mystic Meandering

~~

Everything is embraced/held by "The Mystery",
including what we experience as "darkness."

Nothing is excluded, even the "darkness" however
that manifests in our minds.

You have to be willing to dance with the darkness,
which only means that you are willing to meet it,
to be with it, and not try to push it away;
not resist it as something absent of Light,
but seeing that the darkness is not opposite
of Light.

Author Unknown

 

The Song of the Stars - Radiance Sutra

Bathe deeply in that ocean of sound
which is even now vibrating within you,
resonating softly,

permeating the space of the heart.
The ear that is tuned by rapt listening
learns to hear the song of creation.
First like a hand bell,
then subtler still as a stringed instrument,
eventually the buzz of a bee.
Entering this current of sound, the Listening One
forgets the external world, and becomes
absorbed into internal sound,
and then absorbed into vastness
like the song of the stars as they shine.

The Radiance Sutra part XV

with thanks to No Mind's Land

~

That's how you came here,
like a star without a name...

Rumi

~

Photo - Mystic Meandering

 

Sing Your Song - Progoff/Sinetar

A creative journey grows out of the seed of
one's song.  We need that song from you,
the song that only you can sing.

Ira Progoff

~

.....power comes from harmony with [our] inner
world...  The relationship is nurtured in silence, in
solitude, in reflection...

People who overcome great difficulties have a trusted,
trusting relationship with themselves...  They are aware
of the inner core of themselves that is always there,
that never dies...

Marsha Sinetar

With thanks to Heron Dance

 

The Song From Within - Robert Henri

There are moments in our lives, there are moments in a day,
when we see beyond the usual - become clairvoyant.  We reach
then into reality.  Such are the moments of our greatest happiness.
Such are the moments of our greatest vision.  At such times, there
is a song to which we listen.  It fills us with surprise.  We marvel
at it.  We would continue to hear it. But few are capable of holding
themselves in the state of listening to their song.  Intellectuality
steps in, and as the song within us is of the utmost sensitiveness,
it retires in the presence of the cold, material intellect.  It is
aristocratic and will not associate itself with the commonplace -
and we fall back into our ordinary selves.  Yet we live in the
memory of these songs, which in moments of intellectual 
inadvertence have been possible to us.  They are the pinnacles
of our experience and it is the desire to express these intimate
sensations, this song from within, which motivates the 
masters of all art.

Robert Henri
artist and writer in the 1800s
from his book The Art Spirit

from: HeronDance.org

Here's to the song from within.  That shy song that retreats
from the commonplace.  The song needs downtime, space,
in order to emerge.  It walks the slower, gentle path.

What does yours have to say, to sing?  Like a little flame,
easy to extinguish, needing nurturing, needing recognition.
In harmony with that song, I am alive, powerful, happy, at
peace.  I live in wonder if I make room for that song.

But it is shy, disappears at the slightest discontinuity.  Few
are capable of holding themselves in that state of listening.
I'm often not.  But it is, nevertheless, worthy.

Rod MacIver
artist and writer

from Rod's new Heron Dance website and e-journal.

During these times we all need inspiration and to
find our creative expression.  All you creatives, 
artists and writers might enjoy his inspirational
e-journal and reading about his "journey."

~

Photo from the Internet

 

The Song of Life - J. Krishnamurti

I have no name,
I am as the fresh breeze of the mountains.
I have no shelter;
I am as the wandering waters.
I have no sanctuary, like the dark gods;
Nor am I in the shadow of deep temples.
I have no sacred books;
Nor am I well seasoned in tradition.
I am not in the incense
Mounting on high altars,
Nor in the pomp of ceremonies.
I am neither the graven image,
Nor in the rich chant of a melodious voice.
I am not bound by theories,
Nor corrupted by beliefs.
I am not held in the bondage of religions,
Nor in the pious agony of their priests.
I am not entrapped by philosophies,
Nor held in the power of their sects.
I am neither low nor high,
I am the worshipper and the worshipped.
I am free.
My song is the song of the river
calling for the open seas,
Wandering, wandering,
I am Life.
I have no name...

J. Krishnamurti

with thanks to The Beauty We Love

~

Photo - Mystic Meandering

 

The Muse-ic of Life...

Last night... while waiting for sleep...

I noticed I could hear "sounds" differently:
the ceiling fan whirring
through the air overhead
had the vague sound of violins
playing in the distance...  The distant
"traffic" noise from the highway hummed some
unidentifiable melody...

Everything sounded " different" -

I had the feeling that I was
"waking up" to the world -
to the "magic" of the world;
that they weren't ceiling fans,
or cars, or trucks, or planes -
but some magical symphony
playing in the night...

Every sound was the sound of an alive Universe...

My heart opened to the delight
of life playing its song -
and I melted into sleep, totally immersed
in the music of the world;
as an owl softly hoooo'd in a distant tree...

Magic...

Mystic Meandering
Sept. 26, 2021

~

Photo - Mystic Meandering

 

Sing to me the Song...

Sing to me the Song of the Heart,
as you have heard it...

Do you know that song?

Has "The Mystery"
kissed your Heart?

Does It fill your body?
Does It Sing to you?

Sing to me Its lullaby that
sings through you -
in soothing syllables of sound,
lyrical and refined,
emerging from an unknown
place deep within you -
that brings you back to life again.

Sing to me that song - the one
that enlivens your very being,
and warms you like the sun.

Let me be moved by those melodies
playing from the depths
of our Inner Being.

Sing to me that song,
the one that makes the body
tingle with delight, with recognition,
and remembrance of
our true origins...

Sing to me that song...

Mystic Meandering
Feb. 6, 2020

~

Friends are those people who know
the words to the song
in your heart and sing it
back to you when you have
forgotten the words.

Anonymous

~

Photo from the Internet

An Unfinished Song - Mark Nepo

The more we surrender the more we are touched by
the life around us...

In our journey, when.....driven by experience
we spiral through a stripping of our will,
reduced to an unfinished song.....into
a place of increasing surrender
that always brings us closer
to the essence of
life.

It is often when in need -
when too sad to keep the mask in place,
too tired to keep the wall propped up,
too wounded to lift the sword -
often it is then that we glimpse
each other as we really are,
stripped of all things we think
we need to protect ourselves.

When we are humbled to surrender
our claims of control and mastery,
we are invited into a space where
we are both completely ourselves
and completely beyond ourselves.

In moments of total surrender
we become the song
that brings us and others alive.

Surrendering control, letting go
and accepting,
opens a small
doorway
back
to life;
to being present
and staying open...
to the mystery of Being,
living in Wholeness...


Mark Nepo
From: The Exquisite Risk:
Daring To Live An Authentic Life

(Mark's words, my compilation)

Photo - Mandala Art digitally altered

The Forest Knows - Wagoner and Berry

Stand still.  The trees ahead and 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 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 it find you.

David Wagoner
From "Lost"

~*~

I go among trees and sit still.
All my stirrings become quiet
around me like circles on water.
My tasks lie in their places
where I left them, asleep like cattle.
Then what is afraid of me comes
and lives a while in my sight.
What it fears in me leaves me,
and the fear of me leaves it.
It sings, and I hear its song.
Then what I am afraid of comes.
I live for a while in its sight.
What I fear leaves it,
and the fear of it leaves me.
It sings, and I hear its song.
After days of labor,
mute in my consternations,
I hear my song at last,
and I sing it.  As we sing,
the day turns, the trees move.

Wendell Berry
"I Go Among Trees"

Life Sings...

Life Sings:

I am the rustling of leaves,
the feel of the cooling breeze,
the call of the Magpie – displeased…

I am joy, sorrow, grief;
comedy and tragedy…
 

Even the sound of traffic,
honking horns, and
sirens screaming…

It’s all Life singing.

Just sit with Life,
listening…

Life Sings:

I am THIS
and this,
and this…

Life Sings:

I am everything…
being everything…
living everything…

Life is Awake,
Aware, Alive
and
Singing…

Life Sings:

Hear ME

Aware ME
Experience ME
Remember ME

the song of Life…
the singing of Aliveness…
the singing of the Heart for ItSelf…

Life is everything
and everything is singing Life…

Nothing is separate from this Life
that sings…

Nothing is discounted…

Nothing is dismissed
as illusion or dream…
Every thing is always
Life – singing…

Life does not see ItSelf as “duality”
or “non-duality”
as light or dark;
not opposing forces…

Life just sees ItSelf ~
Vibrant and Alive and Singing!

Playing, Loving, Living…
Whole in its expressions…

Everything is always Life living ItSelf,
expressing ItSelf…

Delighting in living ItSelf,
Life Sings!

Mystic Meandering
originally written June 2011
updated January 2016

Listening to Life...

Sitting at the open window of Life,
wide open Awareness,
listening to Life’s Symphony
on a raw, cold, wet day
in May…

The chill in the air
touches my skin
caressing me,
 welcoming me,
allowing me to feel Life’s
Presence…

A canopy of lush green leaves
holds a chorus of birds
chattering and chirping.
Mourning Doves coo.
Blue Jays screech,
warning of impending rain…

The sound of rain hits
the leaves
in sharp pitts and dull plops
and splashy splatts
that barely rustle
in the light wind

The sound of cars pass on the street
leaving the crackle
of wetness as tires ride
over rain-soaked pavement -
which I find strangely comforting…

The brilliant blue, white and black markings
on the wings
of a Blue Jay

capture Awareness
as the Jay swoops
from fence line to fence line,
swiftly cocking its head around
looking sharply with each landing,
then moving beyond view...

Being takes it all in,
through these eyes…

A rabbit sits in the rain,
as if sitting vigil…
Big, black-pooled eyes
stare - watching…
ears cocked,
listening…
Being content to Be…

Beneath the “human noise”
of cars, and planes, and engines
There is just Life’s Presence,
Its inherent Aliveness
Its Awakeness…

Buds and Blossoms
bounced about
by rain and wind
nod - whispwering yes...

I exhale,
and mind lets go,
deeply listening
to Life;
deeply aware of
Life’s Presence;
communing
with the
Essence of Nature
deeply living…

Life living ItSelf…

Despite our busyness,
our harriedness,
our distractions,
LIFE lives…
holding it all,
allowing it all,
awareing it all.

Window sitting is my favorite meditation.
Aliveness flourishes in the deep silence of
listening…

Life watches ItSelf play ItSelf out
through my eyes...

silently gazing through
the open window,
while the music of Life
plays ITs own Symphony.

How intimately magical Life is…
How whimsically Life plays…

How do we miss such an enchanting spectacle…
How did we forget,
become blind and deaf,
to Life living ItSelf;
needing the kiss of a
”Prince Charming”
of Truth
to awaken to Life’s
beauty once again.

Life calls:

Are you awake?
Or are you still asleep -
pricked by the poison of ignorance -
waiting to be kissed…
to be enlivened…

Thunder rolls in,
louder and sharper.
The wind picks up,
blowing rain
 through the screen.
The chill is chillier,
coursing a deep shiver

through this body.

Life’s lusciousness
runs through the veins
and beats the heart…

Be kissed…

Awaken…

Mystic Meandering
Meditative Writings
May 23, 2012

November Sky...

“He who can hear Love
can hear Silence.
He who can hear Silence
can hear Love.

All the words of the world bow
and pay homage to Silence’s song."


Kabir

“Let peace work on you
and enable you to gather your
scattered mind into
the mindfulness of Calm Abiding.”

“Above all, be at ease,
be as natural and spacious as possible.
Slip quietly out of the noose
of your habitual anxious self,
and relax into your true nature.”

Nyashul Khenppo

“Here is where the adventure begins,
the adventure of not knowing…
but simply standing still.
The task turns out to be ceding to stillness,
and in that stillness the recognition of
just this…”

“Stop pretending
you don’t know
the fundamental nature
of your being…”

Joan Ruvinsky
Pathless Yoga

“…over time wonders were revealed,
chief among them the light
of conscious awareness…”

”The light turned out to be
my truest home -
what was most abiding.”

Tracy Cochran
Finding a Path

Fire of Life Vortex

The sounds of the rustling leaves,
the *feel* of the cooling breeze,
the coos of the Morning Dove,
the chatter of Robins in Love,
the squawk of a Blackbird displeased…

Life is singing!

Even the sound of traffic,
honking horns, and
sirens screaming…

It’s all Life singing…

I just sit with Life,
listening…



Life sings:

I *am* THIS
and this,
and this…

Life Sings:

I *am* everything…
being everything…
living everything…

Life is aware,
alive and singing…

Life Sings:

Hear ME
Aware ME
Experience ME
*Remember* ME

the song of Life…
the singing of Aliveness…
the singing of the Heart for ItSelf…



Life *is* everything
and *everything* is this Singing Life…

Nothing is separate from this Life
that sings…

No thing is discounted,
No thing is dismissed
as “illusion”
Every thing is always IT…

Everything is Life!



I am mesmerized by the song of Life
outside the window,
realizing -

Life does not see ItSelf as “duality”
or “non-duality,”
as light or dark…
Life just sees ItSelf ~
Vibrant and Alive and Singing!
Playing, Loving, Living…

Everything is always Life living ItSelf,
expressing ItSelf

I will not be deterred from
*knowing* This -
The Joy of Life Living ItSelf
in everything,
as everything,
as me – *as* I am…
Life…


Life delighting in living ItSelf!


~*~

Mystic Meandering
copyright
June 2011


Art: “Fire of Life Vortex”

Rapids and Turbulence

It seems like it’s been one thing after another lately. Actually it’s been quite turbulent for the past 7 years, starting with husband relationship issues, and then health issues for the past 6 years, leaving me with erratic health and varied levels of stamina. Then my husband left “the corporate life” a few years back for his own sanity, and has been trying to get a consulting business off the ground for the past 2 ½ years in a difficult economy, as well as trying to find other income streams, redefining “the business” as he goes – losing our healthcare insurance in the process. And there are a myriad other things that seem to go “wrong” on a regular basis.

For instance in just the past week it cost nearly $2500 to keep our nearly 20 year old car running and able to pass inspection. And then for some unknown reason we had a musty odor arise from the crawl space, which I think we may have mitigated on our own, but still may require hiring a professional. And we turned the furnace on for the first time this season on Monday when temperatures dropped 30 degrees and “Fall” arrived one day early with a rain/snow mix, warning us that this might be a big winter coming. And up from the vents arose another musty odor and my respiratory system went berserk. So the duct cleaning people will be here Saturday to ream out the system for a mere $400… And on it goes it seems. One thing after another. It led me to wonder what kind of karma we have going on - although I’m not convinced that there is such a thing… Maybe there was a mirror that I broke way back when? I would prefer to believe that I haven’t done anything “wrong” to “deserve” this long stretch of, dare I say, “tribulation.” And if it is in fact THE Tribulation then I expect I will be “raptured” any day now. But no, I remind myself, it’s just life, being what it is, living itself as it does – not a punishment for wrongs committed.

Now I’m not saying “poor me” here – as I know there are many of us in the same boat. It’s uncanny to me, from reading other blogs, how our lives seem to parallel each other. We all seem to have rather weighty issues that we’re dealing with these days. No one’s issues are more or less weightier than another. They’re just issues – experiences that we go through for whatever reason. Yet they are sometimes like a wolf at the door – huffing and puffing.

And since life has sort of been “in our face” for so many years, struggling to keep our heads above water, my husband announced on the 17th that it was “Turning Point Day.” So we had one of those “quality of life” conversations, and determined it was time to make a few life changes. (I actually felt relieved that he finally came to this realization himself! I’ve been gasping for breath for years! :) We came to the conclusion that we need to sell the house… It is requiring way more time, physical exertion and money than we are willing or able to give it. Yet it is nowhere near sellable condition. There are multiple expensive repairs needed as things have been put off in these turbulent years. My husband is not the handyman type. There’s also 13 years of well-organized, and not so well organized clutter here, which I have wanted to purge for a long time, but never had the motivation or the energy. So here’s my excuse to fire up the internal engine as much as possible and get ‘er done – a little at a time mind you. Last week I started in my office/work space with the piles and piles of un-filed papers, unfinished projects, and just junk that I never seem to be able to keep up with. I don’t even want to *think* about the basement. And, the other issue: Where are we going anyway, not qualifying for rentals, or another house? The street isn’t exactly the “quality of life” we’re looking for – nor is it an option. And that’s thinking too far ahead at this point anyway. Another excuse to get entwined in the mind - which is not where I want to go either…

So it’s one foot in front of the other - stepping back from the precipice of panic, resting in Awareness and practicing Presence, trusting, maintaining sanity as much as possible without feeling too overwhelmed about what I assume lies ahead of us: the seemingly daunting rapids of life – as I’m about to turn 60 btw – where it appears we are about to be spewed out of a water chute and dropped into a pool of churning, turbulent water, without a kayak or paddle for that matter. Does that mean we’re up Schitz Creek? :) Maybe. And I thought we already went down that one, or was that down the tubes! And I wanted a nice, quiet, contemplative, “spiritual life!” Another illusion shattered…

In any case, in our “quality of life” conversation we each defined what that would mean for each of us. Interestingly we both really want the same thing: We want to hear the song of Life again. It has somehow been muffled. We’ve lost the ability to *hear* the song, to feel the rhythm, to play the notes. We don’t have a sense of Life’s song, the song that wants to be sung through each of us. The life we are living now has pretty much suffocated our ability to sing, and we’re tired of almost drowning. So, we need to discover again what the song is that wants to be sung, and make the necessary adjustments – always adjustments - and of course remember to Ride the Wind and “take the rabbits.” :)

So if you hear a slightly wobbly tune wafting in the breeze that will be me trying to find the right notes. :)

Heart Smiles as always…