Frolicsome

I want

to think again of dangerous and noble things.
I want to be light and frolicsome.
I want to be improbable beautiful and afraid of nothing,
as though I had wings.

—

Starlings in Winter excerpt by Mary Oliver

Perhaps you’re not a starling gifted with wings, but you may have the capacity to find your way to light and frolicsome behavior before this week is out …and that may lead you to feel as if you do.

Good wishes to you ahead of the next full moon, also known as the pink moon or budding moon. May you step into your own expression of full light in whatever way that can best support you now.

Darkness and Light

If taking a moment to ponder a poem looks like bliss, this post is for you. If it looks like torture, this post is also for you as a possible mindfulness exercise.

Approach the words from a point of present moment awareness, let this be an invitation to read them and let them go without attempting to process or understand them, and be present with only the word held in your mind at that moment. If you could hover a light over only one word at the time, pausing with each one as a momentary discovery, what would your take away be?

Would there be any coherence? Would that matter?

Darkness and Light

By Stephen Spender

To break out of the chaos of my darkness

Into a lucid day is all my will.

My words like eyes in night, stare to reach

A centre for their light: and my acts thrown

To distant places by impatient violence

Yet lock together to mould a path of stone

Out of my darkness into a lucid day.

Yet, equally, to avoid that lucid day

And to preserve my darkness, is all my will.

My words like eyes that flinch from light, refuse

And shut upon obscurity; my acts

Cast to their opposites by impatient violence

Break up the sequent path; they fly

On a circumference to avoid the centre.

To break out of my darkness towards the centre

Illumines my own weakness, when I fail;

The iron arc of the avoiding journey

Curves back upon my weakness at the end;

Whether the faint light spark against my face

Or in the dark my sight hide from my sight,

Centre and circumference are both my weakness.

O strange identity of my will and weakness!

Terrible wave white with the seething word!

Terrible flight through the revolving darkness!

Dreaded light that hunts my profile!

Dreaded night covering me in fears!

My will behind my weakness silhouettes

My territories of fear, with a great sun.

I grow towards the acceptance of that sun

Which hews the day from night. The light

Runs from the dark, the dark from light

Towards a black or white of total emptiness.

The world, my body, binds the dark and light

Together, reconciles and separates

In lucid day the chaos of my darkness.

✨

Look Within

Everyone sees the unseen in proportion to the clarity of his heart, and that depends upon how much he has polished it. Whoever has polished it more sees more – more unseen forms become manifest to him.

— Rumi

Below you’ll find questions for self inquiry as we come away from a powerful solar eclipse. Paper and pen may be handy as people tend to find response in writing to be different than pure mental chatter. If you want to really stir things up, try writing with your non dominant hand. Give yourself space to answer from the heart as you consider the following:

How could you soften into your heart when you feel caught in the mind?

What does the heart allow you to see?

What could be seen differently if you release yourself from the storyline of your life as told to you by your mind?

What would you do next if you saw yourself as a character that could be or do or say anything to shift direction?

Almost Spring

Can you feel the daylight stretching to meet the darkness in equal length?

To honor the extending light, a poem from E.E. Cummings that demonstrates his unconventional phrasing and punctuation:

[in Just-]

in Just-

spring when the world is mud-

luscious the little

lame balloonman

whistles far and wee

and eddieandbill come

running from marbles and

piracies and it’s

spring

when the world is puddle-wonderful

the queer

old balloonman whistles

far and wee

and bettyandisbel come dancing

from hop-scotch and jump-rope and

it’s

spring

and

the

goat-footed

balloonMan whistles

far

and

wee

________________________

I hope you’ll pause with this and consider how something different in the day could stretch your internal light. What nonsensical joy can lighten your load, even just for a moment? The rhyme and the reason need not hold hands in every moment! Be free for a bit.

With love —

Hope

“Hope” is the thing with feathers

BY EMILY DICKINSON

“Hope” is the thing with feathers –

That perches in the soul –

And sings the tune without the words –

And never stops – at all –

And sweetest – in the Gale – is heard –

And sore must be the storm –

That could abash the little Bird

That kept so many warm –

I’ve heard it in the chillest land –

And on the strangest Sea –

Yet – never – in Extremity,

It asked a crumb – of me.

——————————————————

I go back and forth on hope and its use to our wellness. I love it, I love it not. Some people argue it’s necessary to life and some people argue it can keep you stuck when expectation can take you further. I’m currently convinced it’s all in what hope means to you and if that energy is disempowering or empowering in your daily choices.

What is your relationship with Hope?

Present Reflection

“The object of reflection is invariably the discovery of something satisfying to the mind which was not there at the beginning of the search.”
– Ernest Dimnet

With reflection, we have the opportunity to review our experiences for the sake of deeper connection with life, ourselves, and others. We may give ourselves a fresh take on positive traits or we may notice reason to grow. Keeping an eye towards spying something satisfying in your time of reflection is for sure a positive way to keep a past time practice useful to the present moment.

Wherever you are in your experience of present moment awareness, reflection can support the joy you experience in this moment.

Resource

“It takes discipline to be a free spirit.”
Gabrielle Roth

When you decide you want to be a free spirit in this world, it will require your steady devotion. You’ll have to show up at the spiritual feast every day and partake in whatever is offered with awareness towards your hunger and your satiation.

You are your greatest resource, sweet soul. Born among a creative and resourceful species, it’s you that knows what will nurture you most at this time. We need different things at different times — a little more sun — a little less water— breathing room —- listen with care to your internal guidance.

Choose wisely and be relentless in showing up for yourself.

Heart Knowing

Your heart knows the way.

Run in that direction.
Rumi

As you find yourself waking up to the middle of another week, and approaching the full moon in Leo on Thursday, how would it be to pause and create a time for a little heart consultation?

Leo is sometimes branded with a bad rap for being the drama king or show off of the zodiac, however, in its higher octave of expression, this sign is all about fully embraced heart centered living. Not only does a full moon bring that energy into the internally felt emotional life, it turns it up to the max.

We are approaching a wonderful few days to take extra time to be in communion with your heart.

What would your heart say to you over tea, in a few lines scrolled out on paper or typed into your screen, in images on a vision board, whispered to you nestled next to a warm fire, or in promised blossoms to come?

Truly, you need to sit before you run.

Filled with Light

When I am Among the Trees

by Mary Oliver

When I am among the trees, 
especially the willows and the honey locust, 
equally the beech, the oaks and the pines, 
they give off such hints of gladness. 
I would almost say that they save me, and daily. 

I am so distant from the hope of myself, 
in which I have goodness, and discernment, 
and never hurry through the world 
but walk slowly, and bow often. 

Around me the trees stir in their leaves 
and call out, ”Stay awhile.” 
The light flows from their branches. 

And they call again, ”It's simple,” they say, 
”and you too have come 
into the world to do this, to go easy, to be filled 
with light, and to shine.”

2024

Success is liking yourself,

liking what you do,

and liking how you do it.”
Maya Angelou

May you live wisely into the kind of success that leaves your heart full and your head in peace.

Success is one size fits one and cannot be accurately prescribed for you by anyone but you.

You are your guru —- and your heart the ultimate sage! 🙏🏼💖