Tapestry Weaver and woven thread

Woven are we here, into and out of this tapestry of evermore. Entwined in love and fear. Bursting at the seams it seems to expand or contract, to be more or less, free or enslaved. Always surging in opposite directions, in perfect balance, like the sea, seeking its level but never still. Tugging sometimes too hard, we break, and in that opening a new passageway is born, full of darkness and light. Shimmering like you, who are like me, unalone and yet separate too. Collectively we make a song of light that speaks the name of God to some, nature to others, and truth to a few. But the few are many and the many are few. Some are like you, including you yourself at times. But at others we merge together into one, when we are loving enough to let our hearts be joined. That is when we see. That is when we rise above our threadly roles, tied in knots to one idea or another, and see a small part of the whole. Smiling as we cry joyfully in our astounded wonder at what we have woven. Can it be so simply true. Can't we remain a joy giving flower in the garden we are growing even after we've seen the greater expanse of ourselves and know our true nameless name? Must we uproot ourselves, wilt, and die. Or can't we remain content to be both. That question haunts me and my echo when she speaks. I like the idea of pausing here and being alive somewhere else, at the same "time". And I wonder if it isn't true that's exactly how I've managed to sometimes glimpse myself as someone else in my truth filled dreams. Am I not here and there. Am I not me and you. I think I know, and so do you, when we do not doubt. When we question with an ear turned toward the answer, that always comes, and do not demand it be in a given way. So in this sweet and sour morning which is also night, and this winter which is also summer, I embrace you. Smiling I say, you are loved, for you are me, and you love yourself, as I love you, even if we don't know it, or forget. I will be the river sometimes that gladly carries your leaf where it may want to go, and whether or not you want to return the favor, I know you will, for it is your nature.

This Light That Is Heather

You sparkle in the golden sun

and glow sweetly in the light of the moon

for you are heaven sent into this world of ours

where you have brought friendship deeply into my heart

and helped me learn to know more clearly what that means

to learn to love the swirling magic that sweeps around you

as a friend who helped me find my footing on a dark night

a teacher who helped me see my worth through your eyes

and each day of knowing you has been an adventure

where I could watch you grow in so many ways

and by that gift of inspiration be freed

to help myself to grow too

so as we celebrate your birth

as you circle the sun another time

I give thanks in humble gratitude

for the splendor of knowing

this wise joyful light

that is Heather

As near as you allow it to be

As I comprehend that you exist, floating there perfectly, in balance with the tide, a sweet moment of recognition dawns, and I feel the pulse that beats so faithfully in my heart is larger than me and belongs to you. As I realize in vivid transparency how we flow to and from the same deep well, my day breaks open into a glorious song too sweet to be heard, and yet it is everything I hear and see and smell and touch and dream. Comprehending that the vibration of this string on which we walk is so slow and fast, all at the same time, only depending upon how we choose to see it, helps me find the place where I begin or end has no meaning any more. I have always desired to be held lovingly in the hearts of everyone I've meet, but too often felt excluded from that sweet circle. Yet now I see more clearly that circle has no bounds and is the only place I've ever had what can be called a life, and I have always been centered there, right where I was striving to be, without knowing it was always true and can never be any other way. And the same is true with you. Excluded only by my own hand. The very hand that is also yours. So now as the morning dawns somewhere, I find a lovely feeling flowing over my continuously awakening wider self. Even as life ebbs out of one of us it seeps into another. So I stand here in awe of all that is moving in my world. And I'm fascinated most, in this tender moment, by you, each and every one. All of us looking through the mirror thinking in moments we cannot touch, while it is only smoke that divides us at all. So with my heart I reach through that thin veil and wish you splendor in your day. Hoping you will carry yourself as high as you really are. With your head up and your heart looking forward to the next surprise, that is always as near as you allow it to be.  Have a beautiful day.

How I Do Love You

How I love these sweet creatures that soar and slither and walk and crawl and talk and groan and uplift and annoy my world. How I love you. Despite myself I do. Sometimes with tears flowing in my eyes, as I realize it is true. Overflowing in your joy sometimes to the point where you paint your loud and screaming voice across the night while I sleep so that I awaken to find your footprints everywhere I look, standing all over my favorite flowers. And in the deafening rumble you make I cannot pull my pillow tightly enough across my head to muffle you out. And a little voice that grows too strong sometimes condemns the way you behave, I know it is but a reflection of me. And I know you are alive and sweet. And I cannot help but love you in your unique way. In your giving even when it is only to get, I find compassion swelling in my heart as you warm my day with your very existence. For a see myself in you and you in me. And as I do I can remove the me and you and see the one. The one that is. I know we are that with each reflection. I pause too seldom to recognize your face. To see your face and care to be sure it is smiling. To kiss the ground that you walk upon just like me and all of we. You are just like those I love so much I would die to give them a place to stand higher. I know your heart can grow just as cold as mine and yet never snuff out the last ember, always able to rekindle itself into a blazing flame that warms the night until it bursts into dawn singing in praise. And I just want you to know that you are loved. Even when I cannot say it with words or hugs or smiles, my heart is always singing it somewhere far away, or in moments like this close at hand. But you are loved and you should know it is true. Because I love you. How I truly do.

What you can give for free

As I reflect upon this peaceful land where I'm sitting now, wrapped up inside your sweet dream as it flows to meet the ocean of love, I find comfort in your way. And although we sometimes break like shards of sharp glass upon the shore, still we may mean no harm. For that too is our way. It is only an expression of how we grow too brittle and bitter so easily. But in that bleeding cut that we may cause, to our self or another, are the seeds of realization for a better way to walk without breaking or being broken. When we open our eyes to see both the joy and suffering from one step removed. Realizing even as we see ourselves being pulled into this or that vortex, or seeing our baggage that was left behind arrive ahead of us at the next station, we find peace by knowing that is not where we are really heading at all. For if we are strong enough to dare, we see the film break, or make it break, long enough for the pause to dawn into clear knowing. Even for only an instant is long enough, for a while. For a while we float there above the fray. Some may pray or be prayed too. And somehow even that may help us grow higher or perhaps slip away again without a footing, so that we may try again to walk this silken or rusted road.

Yet here I stand face to face with you in this moment. These words, some of them pronounced upon my lips are flowing through your eyes and touching your ear as you may choose to say them out loud for me and for you. Just as I'm saying them out loud for you right now. Just as I'm feeling them in silence. This moment when you have come to read these words you are reading now. And if you'll feel the communion that is buried in my heart, and perhaps buried in your heart too, you will know how we are one. You will understand this swirling veil I'm entangled in keeps me from reaching through the mirror and touching your hand in grace. In true love that transcends beyond the beginning and ending of time. But you know it is true. I am but you talking to yourself. And as you read me into you, we become one for a moment, and I hope you feel that as vividly in this moment of yours as I do in this one of mine right now. This moment of mine that came before your moment and yet is the very same instant. The instant where you have always lived.

Pause then now. And dream sweetly. Deep and slow. Find your heart and let it flow. Imagine the greatest love you've ever known, or even just wanted to know but never found, and bestow it now upon you, yourself, your glorious magnificent self. And let it sink into you, like a perfect lover's tender hand. Melted like warm buttered chocolate all over your being. Look down without peeking and see your sweet essence. And know it is good. Perfectly, exactly, what it is right now. Perfectly in balance with the never ending web of imbalance that makes us move, that makes us animated and alive. And breath that into your soul. Together with me, as we see together through one eye, for a perfect moment, what is true. Now linger there longer than you think you should. And when you awaken, back into sleep, give some of what you gained to another today. Spread that love and recognition for who you are and what you can give for free.

Golden Thread

Encrypted in this silent frozen tongue

I find no words to measure this moment

as it recedes beyond the edge of my time's view

nor comprehend how this fabric shall now be woven

without that golden thread so finely loved and spun

and in this humble heartfelt observation I reflect

down into this shimmering well so deeply flung

that I'm unable to hear my echo back

sweetly answering to me in the night

and my heart does cry for you dearly

beyond the reach of my loving arms

that sleep at night and arise at dawn

still here wishing you had not gone

wishing I could follow further

feeling that warm embrace

dancing again on the rainbows

that floated in your grace

but I know this heart runs deep

and in its ever flowing love must be

the brilliant sunrise that was once mine to see

now has blossomed into a larger day in warmer tones

and somewhere else you touch as sweetly as you did me

and though upon this frame you weave no more

not in the way you once wove before

the love you brought is here to stay

and it will blossom every day

for in my heart you are

at the center of this moment

when I bow my head in silence

and feel your essence living in me

and every soul you have and will touch

Full of Hope

With tears

you carry on

the baggage which

was never yours to own

shedding them now

you feel a core believe slip

and moved to the center of self

you gasp at what you are

at what you are and have been

more complete than morning light

but in a way closed behind a door

that you yourself did shut

bury not the fear you held

but rather let it fly free

beyond the mountain tops

let it soar forever more

no longer in your pocket

which is lined with golden rainbows

never seen before this moment

never seen in their full glory

but now eyes washed clean

let the tears give way

or choose to stay

if you are not done

but be done soon

for the quaking in your heart

is only really you begging to be born

wanting to taste the light of this day

and knowing where to stand

is not the matter once you thought it to be

like Dorothy in ruby slippers are you

yet look at how you dare not click them

So yes I see through that waterfall in you

I comprehend the message spinning on your tongue

and I wonder full of hope

for what you have begun

Who Is This Awareness

Who is this awareness you seem to be

who is this wandering wonderer

who seldom asks enough

and takes too little

of the plenty

that lays

within

thinking

that somehow

there is plenty without

and yet you are nothing of substance

that cannot change as quickly as the wind

though you may see this truth you turn away

again and again until the end of your chapter

when the closing thought comes too late

the printing is already done too soon

or so you seem to love to know

and convince yourself again

in the morning mirror

where you hate

some thing

in you

but

I

do

love

this wonder

who you surely are

this sweet treasure that lays

yet undiscovered beyond your reach

only because you will not believe what you know

only because you will not touch what lays

already within your open hand

that you keep closed

around this gem

that I call

you

♥

______________

Photo: Chris Willis