Looking for your face

From the beginning of my life

 I have been looking for your face

 but today I've seen it.

Today, I've seen the charm

 the beauty

 and the unfathomable grace 

of the face that I was looking for.

Today, I've found you

 and those who laughed and scorned me yesterday

 are sorry they were not looking as I did.

I am bewildered by the magnificence of your beauty 

and wish to see you with a hundred eyes.

My heart has burned with passion and has searched forever

 for this wondrous beauty that I now behold. 

I am ashamed to call this love human

 and afraid of god to call it divine.

Your fragrant breath like the morning breeze 

has come to the stillness of the garden.

You have breathed new life into me. 

I have become your sunshine and also your shadow.

My soul is screaming ecstasy.

Every fiber of my being is in love with you.

Your effulgence has lit a fire in my heart and you have made radiant for me the earth and sky.

My arrow of love as arrived at the target 

 I am in the house of mercy

 and my heart is a place of prayer. 

Rumi

Red Admiral: The Regal Buttlerfly

When I arrived home this evening I saw this butterfly in my yard.  I ran into the house as fast as I could to get me camera hoping that it would still be there when I came back outside. Today was my lucky day.  After chasing the butterfly around for a little bit it decided to stay put long enough for me to get a shot.  Oh how I love this time of year!  I wish that somehow it could be July all year long, well, at least the wonderful temperatures we have been experiencing lately all of the time.  I hope that you are having a wonderful summer.  

May the wings of the butterfly kiss the sun

and find your shoulder to light on, 

to bring you luck, happiness, and riches

today, tomorrow, and beyond.

an Irish Blessing

Love and Rumi

From Coleman Barks book: The Essential Rumi

My Heart and Words...

 My Heart and Words

My heart is real.

It is not made of wood, paper, or stone.

Words cannot break a wooden heart.

Words bounce off the heart of stone.

Words are written on the heart of paper.

Words can pierce the heart of flesh, which cause it to tremble.

Words spoken in haste are the ones which linger long after the resolution.

Words can make or break the spirit of the person for whom they are directed.

Be careful with words, for in them is life and death.

Jeannie Smith

April 16, 2010

There are many things that I can control...

 "There is so much about my fate that I cannot control, but other things do fall under the jurisdiction. I can decide how I spend my time, whom I interact with, ..... I can select what I can read and eat and study. I can choose how I'm going to regard unfortunate circumstances in my life-whether I will see them as curses or opportunities. I can choose my words and the tone of voice in which I speak to others. And most of all, I can choose my thoughts.”

Elizabeth Gilbert

When the Moon is Full

Sit with your friends; don't go back to sleep.

Don't sink like a fish to the bottom of the sea.

Surge like an ocean,

don't scatter yourself like a storm.

Life's waters flow from darkness.

Search the darkness, don't run from it.

Night travelers are full of light,

and you are too; don't leave this companionship.

The moon appears for night travelers,

be watchful when the moon is full.

~Rumi~

Let the Ocean Splash in my Chest

Like the Shepherd in the story of Moses and the Shepherd,
who wanted to pick the lice off God's robe, and stitch up God's shoes,
I want to be in such a passionate adoration
that my tent gets pitched against the sky!

Let the Beloved come and sit like a guard dog in front of the tent.
When the ocean surges, don't let me just hear it.
Let it splash in my chest.
~Rumi~

The Daffodil Poem

"The Daffodil Poem"
(by Sherwood's Mother, as recited by Sherwood)

High up grew a daffodil,
I couldn't hardly reach her
Said I to me I think I will
get it for my teacher

I clumb to get the daffodil
out on a limb so thin
I tumbled down like Jack and Jill
and skinned my little shin

And here's the pretty daffodil
I brought to my new teacher
I love her dear and I always will:
I'm awful glad to meetcha!!

          

From the Little Rascals

The Tongue

The tongue merely reveals the heart. 

Let the heart be bumped and the tongue will reveal what is in the heart. 

In controlling the tongue, you must control the heart. 

 If you want to change the words of the tongue,

 you must change the condition of the heart.