Invitation

You are being sent a secret message:
Everywhere it is revealed
Wake up!
Peer into the mirror,
Look through the window
Step outside
Dogs, cats, deer, birds, trees, flowers
God is calling, calling, calling.

Cast aside the outworn cloak of timidity
Immerse yourself in the waters
The flow of the ten thousand joys and sorrows.
Feel your skin caressed by the breeze
Let yourself be shaped by the Beloved.

Let a smile spread through your heartbeat
Laugh for no reason
Wonderful, wonderful, wonderful!
Singing and dancing await you.

We have time for nothing
But the truth.

Silence all that deafens my heart

Silence all that deafens my heart
From hearing You
The noise has hastened me away from You
My passions struggle in a barren wilderness
Yet I am locked into this belly
This chamber of tears.

Now, in this holy now,
Hear my longing
I reach for You
In the night-time of separation

I ran and hid
And felt forsaken by You.

How is it that You always find me?
You who know my thoughts
Before I think

Even when I shiver from loneliness
Even when I have fragmented to pieces
You have not forgotten me.
Like a raven your call is insistent
Like a song sparrow your voice is sweet.

I have been testing You
Doubting your appearance
In the desert, in the city.
The visitor in the next room
Surely he could not be You.

Your laughter envelops me
In an instant
Your Divine Playfulness
Enchants me
I want to come home.

Root out all that separates me
From You
I want to live only
To remember You
Remember You.

A Meditation:
Healing the Broken-ness

Giving my sigh to God….
Releasing the breath,
Releasing the holding
Of the ribs around the breath.
Like loosening a net around my heart,
Softening – gently – kindly
Giving my sigh to God.

And, now, being with myself in the stillness.
Deepening into the quiet movement of breath,
Allowing my breath to draw awareness
Deeper into my body,
Becoming aware of places of holding,
Of the places where pain has congealed.

Perhaps there has been shock
Where the breath is caught and doesn’t quite let go.

Perhaps the wound is old or renewed
And there is a frozen place in my heart.

Wherever the energy is trapped,
For now, I just notice.

Listening to the sensation of energy,
Where energy moves freely and
Where there are obstacles.

For now – nothing to do – only breathing
Observing, listening, feeling…

The pulse of the stillness
So many times going to this wall of pain and retreating.
Now, I gently approach,
As much as I’m willing and able,
At this time,
To move through.

One step at a time
One breath at a time.
•
Breathing into the broken-ness,
Being with myself,
Being with all
That cries out for repair.

Allowing the breath
The in and out of breath
To bring me into wholeness
To be touched with holiness.

Silence

Let me be with You in silence
Releasing into the surround of Your gentle grace.

My prayer needs no tongue to speak
For the yearnings of my mute heart
Are already heard by You.

In timeless quiet,
As a feather landing on yellowed grass,
As the dust on the butterfly wing,
As the speck of pollen on the leg of the bee,
Your voice is heard.

I am finding my own way to speak with You,
Sometimes, it is just my footfalls on the earth.
Hear my prayers.

On Dance as Prayer

Many think of dance as celebratory — as an expression of happiness. But true joy is wholeness. We have the opportunity to come into wholeness, to be healed by dance. Dance is the authentic movement that comes from the breath, the heart and the soul.
We can allow soul to move the muscles. This becomes the dance of one’s truth in any given moment, because the fluidity of movement that offers limitless possibilities can come from the deepest place within. It can be small or large, soundless or vocal. It can be solo, with a partner or with a group.
Dance can be playful, silly, somber, exploratory, amazing. We can amaze ourselves with unexpected possibilities as we create movement in the moment.
But what if one is grief-stricken, if one’s heart is broken open?

Listen to what Rumi, the Sufi mystic poet, said:

In the darkest times of my life, dance has been my deepest healing prayer. There is a sacred healing when I take my dance to the trees and the beach. Dancing on the earth and touching sky takes me beyond myself. Dancing in the water delights my dolphin-nature.