spirit
A remedy for pain
“True acceptance…means you are willing to feel this emotion, this pain in your body, forever.”
Kim Eng
Fun and Natural
“Fifteen minutes of fun exercise each day is the equivalent of one anti-depressant.”
Shawn Achor, The Happiness Advantage
Body as Water
I ran across this poem and it spoke to my heart:
Nearly
When we slid out of the lane. When my sleeve caught fire. While we fought in the snow. While the oncologist spoke. Before the oil spilled. Before your retina bled. Beyond the kids at the curb. Beyond the turn to the forest. After the forest turned to ashes. After you escorted my mother out. As I led your father in. As the dolphin swam the derelict canal. While the cameras filmed it dying. While the blackout continued. When the plane dipped. When the bank closed. While the water. While the water. And we drank it.
Melt Into the Sun
“For what is it to die but to stand naked in the wind and to melt into the sun?
And what is it to cease breathing, but to free the breath from its restless tides, that it may rise and expand and seek God unencumbered?Only when you drink from the river of silence shall you indeed sing.
And when you have reached the mountain top, then you shall begin to climb.
And when the earth shall claim your limbs, then shall you truly dance.”
From Kahlil Gibran’s “On Death”
Dissolve
“As people around you pass away, you become increasingly aware of your own mortality. The body will dissolve. Many people still, in our civilization, they deny death. They don’t want to think about it, don’t want to give it any attention.
There is enormous potential there for spiritual flowering. Even in people who, up to the point of the beginning of the fading of the form, were completely identified with the form. It’s your last chance in this incarnation, as your body begins to fade – or you are becoming aware of this limited lifespan. It’s your last chance to go beyond identification with form. This is true whether it’s to do with your body or somebody else’s body.”
Eckhart Tolle
Interval
Spring – the jumping off time
of green buds and birds’ trill
of thriving and spreading
when souls vault with thrill
Summer – enlivened bustle
of limitless affection
of prime corporeality
when spirits rouge the complexion
Autumn – abated season
of settling gratitude
of tranquil sanctuary
when ego battles disquietude
Winter – gradual repose
of profound cogitation
of placid acceptance
when the form meets salvation
Black Flowers
I only ask because your face is bloated
and you’re distracted much of the time –
you don’t enjoy the things you used to
and the pep in your step is gone
You say you’re happy
and it makes you relax
but the TV and booze glaze your eyes
and your spirit is in the bottle
What Gifts do You Bring?
Do you bring…
- full attention and presence?
- judgment and shame?
- happiness and enthusiasm?
- fear and anxiety?
- unconditional love and freedom?
Your spirit permeates your life and your loved ones. What you reap, you will sow.
Twigs and Bones
When I walk among the trees,
I drink in the rays of light
that peek through the leaves
and my feet crunch the “dead” things
but they are not lifeless
see here?
insects march and work
fungus and lichen exchange food
the twigs lie in wait
to service fires and soil
and you are not dead – never were –
your spirit lives on in everyone you ever met
Kismet 