Papal Mojo

Papal bodyguard...for dangerous missions of mercy.
Eternal Beverage Meister Hoping to wipe the "4th Crusade" slate clean...
Nature-lover
Member of the Solo Mile High Club



Lothar dei Conti of Segni, aka Pope Innocent the 3rd, our fearless, 6" tall action figure of occasional ill-repute, has decided to come out of the contemplative's closet and resume saving the world. Innocent has been recharging his batteries and firing up the Papal Mojo to launch his most ambitious projects to date.

On June 6th, Innocent will undertake a whirl-wind tour of Bogota. Being a lover of cultural diversity, and madly passionate for flowers, Inny has packed his bags to roam the rose farms of Colombia and hopefully, fingers crossed, have a personal encounter with Our Lady of Everything on the Catholic continent.

And... starting immediately, Pope Innocent the 3rd will be taking your prayer requests for salvation, redemption and cures for hangnails. Write to Inny at: innocentprayers@yahoo.com. In his quest to unite the world and save the world from itself, Innocent the 3rd will be lighting candles and personally praying over all reasonable and unreasonable requests. Need more romance in your life? Ask Inny. Need a new guitar? A new wig? A new-to-you vintage Winnebago to travel the countryside and offer your own brand of salvation to the masses? Ask Inny. He's got Papal Mojo at the ready, just for your benefit...and lots of penance to pay for that 4th Crusade.

For The Love of Romance

I once fell in love with a 4 year old cat. When my heart tumbled, she was in the bottom row of ASPCA cages at the local pet store. Her eyes captivated me, as well as her big, pink ears. After buying food for my 2 cats, I said good-bye to Miss Pink and said a prayer for her speedy adoption. I cried the whole way home.

3 weeks later, needing more cat food, I found Miss Pink still on the bottom row. I fell on my knees in front of her cage. She had waited for me to come to my senses and realize I belonged to her. Because true love should never be ignored, adoption proceedings started that day. Bold-faced lying and bribery were part of the proceedings, as my residential 2-cat limit had to be circumvented. Within days, she was adopted by a kind friend and handed off to me in the pet store parking lot. I snuck her into my home and named her Romance. 10 years later, the love affair continues.

As with all successful love relationships, compromise and sacrifice must be offered. Tomorrow, I will sacrifice my summer wardrobe on behalf of an outrageously priced tooth extraction for my dear Miss Pink. A molar is infected, causing pain and the pronounced deterioration of her little heart. Why spend stupid sums on a 14 year old cat? Because I owe her. I owe her for every moment of joy she has blessed me with. I owe her for every motor-boat purr and every tear she has let me drop on her coat. No new skirts or sandals or summer beads are worth the exchange for a love of mine to be in pain. For the quality of her remaining days to be anything but the best I can give.

We are here for each other's salvation. Human, animal, plant and Mother Earth herself. If it is in our power to ease pain and offer love, we must not shirk that sacred duty. We must not turn our backs on golden opportunities to save our souls through service to others.

Clearing Clutter Continued

Dear Don,

I'm clearing more clutter. I uncovered my studio table, recycled a mountain of paper, emptied drawers and weeded through my music collection. I moved things around and rearranged. Again. Call me obsessed. Call me insane. I can't stop this quest for zen, this quest to lighten my inner and outer load. This morning, while brushing my teeth, I got more answers as to why I continue clearing. Whoever gave me the answers wanted you to know as well.

I was told we are constantly evolving. We are constantly changing. We are meant to never lose sight of our dreams, never give in to stagnation of soul and spirit, never cease to uncover our glorious, individual essences of God. But the world is heavy and our duties are heavy and we can easily slip into waking unconsciousness where we become numb to our beautiful gifts and talents. Where we cease to be aware of the changes within.

When we have changed and evolved, through good seasons and bad, we need to weed out the inner and outer representations of our lesser-evolved selves. Because we are not the same anymore. We are more open to new opportunities, new adventures, new avenues to bliss. If we have let go of who we used to be, 3 years ago, 3 months ago, or even 3 weeks ago. Shoes, dishes, music, artwork, clothing, dusty collections, tools, and general crap we haven't used or worn or acknowledged in too long, all represent our lesser-evolved selves and are holding our new selves in an old pattern. Holding our new selves back from moving forward. Because that general crap is no longer symbolic of who we are right now. That crap is no longer facilitating our evolutionary path to the bliss and the dreams and the talents we are meant to offer right now. Yes, the shoes may still fit, the tools may still function, the dishes may still be pristine, but if they are not a true reflection of who we are in 2007, they are literal and figurative dams stagnating the flow of our lives. Our ever-evolving lives. Our purposeful and peaceful lives.

Don, it's about letting go of who we were in order to embrace, at a full run, the fabulous beings we have morphed into. We can only know and embrace those beautiful beings if shackles and shoes of former selves have been weeded out and put to the curb.

While There Is Still Time

If there is something that needs to be said, say it. If there is something that needs to be done, do it. If you have a dream, pursue it. If great adventure is calling, answer the call.

If you are holding back, holding on or holding in, let go.

Give hugs. Give praise. Give all you've got.

Practice kindness.

Offer forgiveness.

Recognize grace.

And never, ever, withhold love.



Because tomorrow, the next hour and the next minute may never come. For Christopher, the 45 year old, charismatic man and father to Hannah, whose funeral I will attend tomorrow, the end came unexpectedly and swift. Those that knew Chris are aching for one more minute, one more word, one more laugh, one more chance to bask in his sunshine and tell him how much he meant to them. Because we all assumed we would have plenty of time. We all assumed wrong.

Vow to say it, do it, and pursue it. Let go of grievances. Let go of fears. Offer your best self to the world, while there is still time, still breath in your lungs and still so much love to give.

Beauty Lives Everywhere

Sea Obsession

Lately, the sea is calling me. And I live no where near it. Being a grand lover of woodland landscapes, fresh water creeks and leaf-litter carpets, it confounds me, this new and sudden obsession with the sea. Its colors and textures and sounds and treasures. Pale blue sea glass. Conical shells. Sand in my shoes. Salted, wrinkled fingertips. Meditative, repetitive foam-capped waves. Sun and wind and odors of wetness. In my waking dreams, I am lying on the shoreline, baptized repeatedly by the flow and the ebb. Welcoming and releasing, birthing and dying. Surrendering to each cleansing surge and retreat.


Unlike the compressed safety of the woods, the sea is wide open. There is no where to hide when standing on a shoreline. There is only exposure and vulnerability and the need for daring to face the unyielding elements. To face the storms and not be dragged to the bottom of the final frontier. To survive and thrive and wring happiness from a storm-soaked heart and mind. This is the message of my obsession. This is the challenge I have asked for as I seek spiritual growth and inner strength. To know when it is time to exchange the woods for the sea and witness my evolution in the face of high winds and unruly waves. To expose myself on the shore of the unknown and come away knowing I was never vulnerable to begin with. Because everything is survivable when faced in the wide open. When faced head on. When faced with the truth in my heart.

"Stop hiding", calls the sea. Be willing to risk exposure. Be willing to risk the previously unthinkable, vulnerable adventure. To risk the great love, the great dream, the great release of old wounds. "Stand on the shore, lie on the shore. Just be willing to show up and get wet", calls the sea. It asks me to be willing to face what must be faced, then marvel at the treasures that wash up at my feet.

COEXIST

Ironing With God

Yesterday, fueled by rare domestic inspiration, I ironed. I am overcome with the need to remove wrinkles from my wardrobe or table linens on a seasonal basis at best, and yesterday the season was upon me. Now, every summer t-shirt is crisply hanging from a wooden rod in my closet, neatly arranged next to my newly pressed summer pants. I gazed at my accomplishment at length, knowing full well the likelihood of a repeat performance of this wrinkle-free zone may take an act of God. Or an act of desperation.

Not desperation for perfectly smooth cotton, but desperation for Universal wisdom. It seems, while ironing, my Higher Power dropped by for a Universal chat. It took advantage of the quiet, meditative state I was in, turned the volume down low on my Nora Jones CD and sent streams of assurance, understanding and inspirational pearls into my brain.

I ironed as long as the inspirational one-sided conversation lasted. It lasted long enough to finish my summer wardrobe. It lasted long enough to calm my nerves. It lasted long enough to achieve a deep sigh of relief in the center of my heart.

My Higher Power told me that chaos is a means to cut through the fear that holds me back. That chaos is actually a direct path to my betterment. That vulnerability exposed in the chaos is needful for me to birth a new way of living. That my ego will, in the end, submit to the changes it fears the most.

My Higher Power told me that patience is needed for anything worthwhile to manifest. It told me to not pull up new growth by its roots and for pity's sake, stop questioning if what I've planted really is growing. It is.

My Higher Power told me the only one I have to trust, ever, is myself. If I trust myself, I will only attract trustworthy people into my life. My Higher Power reminded me, again, that all answers lie within my own heart. Because my heart is mentally, emotionally, physically and spiritually connected, in every chaotical nano-second, to the Source, the One, the Mother-Father God. Connected to the Higher, Omnipotent Power that cares enough to direct the growth of each blade of grass, each sea creature's fin, each feather, each bone, each follicle of fur, and each moment of my life. My worthwhile life. My sacred life. My life of spectacular grace.

My Higher Power told me to be still more often. To iron more. To meditate more. To make myself more available to the ever-present streams of Universal wisdom, assurance and inspiration. Not only will my wardrobe improve, so will my inner peace.

Saving Grace

Dear Pisces Project~

I found her. Right where you said she would be, beyond the fear. Instinct told me, the best place to find her was off the beaten trail, trespassing in the woods with her digital camera. Trillium were everywhere, carpeting the leaf litter from last year. Sunshine, cool breezes, trees, woodpeckers, chipmunks, 3 kinds of butterflies and singing cardinals. Enough wildflowers to fill Heaven. And no one else in sight.

Peace came.
Peace came.
Peace came.

All photographs copyright(c)2007 Graciel

Saving Grace part 2

All photographs copyright(c)2007 Graciel

The Red Trillium

All photographs copyright(c)2007 Graciel

Watch This...Pass It On

http://www.freehugscampaign.org/

The Mission

Where has she gone? Where is her passion, her drive, her full flaming heart? Where is the Woman who loves love and believes in world peace? Where is the Daughter of Nature who lays with her chest against the new April grass and exchanges heart beats with the Great Mother? Where is the Champion of a woman's right to free self expression? Where is the Artist, the Lover, the Advocate for trees? Where is the Writer and Thinker and dependable Friend? Where is the Woman who talks with Faeries and meditates and knows there is more to this world than meets the eye?

She is lost. Lost under grey skies and dirty floors and lack of time for dreaming the not-so-impossible dream. She is lost to the energy drain of working for others. She is lost to the sadness of empty rooms and empty hands.

My only mission is to find her. The only way to find her is to love her. The only way to love her is listen to the cries of her heart. To make time for her dreams. To help her remember that God is the fullness of heart, hand and home.

To Risk

William Arthur Ward, "To Risk"

To laugh is to risk appearing a fool.
To weep is to risk appearing sentimental.
To reach out to another is to risk involvement.
To expose feelings is to risk exposing your true self.
To place your ideas and dreams before a crowd is to risk their loss.
To love is to risk not being loved in return.
To hope is to risk despair.
To try is to risk failure.

But risks must be taken because the greatest hazard in life is to risk nothing.
The person who risks nothing, does nothing, has nothing is nothing.
She may avoid suffering and sorrow, But she cannot learn, feel, change, grow or live.
Chained by her servitude she is a slave who has forfeited all freedom.
Only a person who risks is free.
The pessimist complains about the wind;
The optimist expects it to change;
And the realist adjusts the sails.

April Walk

Crap-ectomy

The physical environment within our homes contributes to the quality of our lives. We are constantly involved in an energy exchange with the things we choose to live with. The quality and the energy have to do with our reaction to the things we bring in and keep in our environment. Every object either lifts us up or weighs us down. Stagnates us or sets us free. Enriches us or depletes us. If we love something or need something, it contributes positive energy to our daily lives. If we don't like something, are indifferent to it, or if we're hoarding something out of fear, it serves as an energy drain. That drain contributes to ill health, ill thoughts and lack-luster lives. To increase our energy, boost our health and uncover the missing luster, we can choose to change the atmosphere within our homes. We can choose to get rid of the crap.

Crap is defined as: clothes that are stuffing closets that haven't been worn in 2 years. ( We are either too fat, too thin, or we never liked the rags from the get-go). Magazines in piles, read and unread. (We can live without the uptight recipes from Martha's kitchen. There simply aren't enough hours in the day). The lamp or the vase or the drippy picture of butterflies that Aunt Evelyn gave us for our wedding or that milestone birthday. ( Since when do we need to live with Aunt Evelyn's taste, especially when it is not ours? We'll tell her the vase was victimized by the cat). Receipts from 10 years ago, books we will never read again, kitchen appliances dead in the back of the cabinet, slivers of soap neatly stored under the bathroom sink. Crap is anything that serves no purpose, does not enhance our lives and takes up valuable space in our limited space.

Often we feel paralyzed when facing the daunting task of getting rid of our crap. We have so much, we'll never get through it all, Aunt Evelyn will be mad at me... and on the excuses go. Where do we start? We start with one closet. One cabinet. One drawer. One cluttered counter top. We make a small commitment and go forth from there. We look carefully at each object and ask if it makes us happy. We consider if we truly need it. We reclaim our space, one small effort at a time. We surround ourselves with only things that we love, and that serve our higher good. We recycle, donate and remove the rest.

Harmony and happiness and good health lie beneath the clutter and crap. We must take charge of our personal environments. We must make them a true reflection of our goodness and worth. We must let the positive energy we deserve flow freely in our homes if we want it to flow freely in our lives.

Only...

Bless the World

I subscribe to the idea that thoughts and words have power, that thoughts and words create reality. Both individual and collective realities. My world, my reality is a tapestry of thoughts and ideas I have repeated to myself over and over. My world is reinforced, torn down or built anew based on self-talk, as well as mental and verbal declarations. As I think, so shall I be. In the beginning was the Word. Argue with me all you want, but the exact same principle applies to you. It also applies to the world at large.

The human world, in its current delicate state, is a tapestry of agreed-upon thoughts, beliefs and declarations. The prolific "ain't it awful" diatribe heard in every office building, every shopping mall, every sports bar, and every diner, to say nothing of the private home, is a contributing factor to the chaos the world is currently in. Negativity, pessimism, hopelessness, and prejudice are powerful creative forces we are all collectively, and unknowingly unleashing on the world. Our individual private worlds, and the world as a whole.

What do we do to take back our power, to strengthen the state of human affairs, to save the world from human blight? We start talking. We start declaring positive, optimistic, hopeful and unbiased words to each other and to ourselves. We take back our power by thinking more carefully before we speak. By refusing to engage in the "ain't it awful" conversations. By choosing not to slander races and religions and regions of the planet we know nothing about.

What else do we do to save the world and save ourselves? We ask the God of our choice to intervene on our behalf and the behalf of any situation that concerns us. We speak the command, we ask to receive, we invoke through our thoughts and our words the most powerful Force in existence.

Worried about the current, chaotic direction of the United States of America? Ask God to bless America. Ask it over and over without insisting on how that blessing is to be doled-out and received. Worried about the devastation and death and war in Iraq? Ask God to bless Iraq. Ask every single day. Ask passionately. Ask without condition. Let God invoke the ways and means to support the Iraqi people in a dignified, sustainable and loving manner. Let our collective, powerful words assist in the creation of stability in the cradle of civilization.

Concerned about the ethnic cleansing in Darfur? Ask God to bless Darfur. Concerned about the child sex-slave trade in Cambodia? Ask God to bless Cambodia. Don't despair, don't feel helpless, don't give up. Use the power at hand in your living room in Topeka, in Liverpool, in New Dehli, in Santiago. Use the power of thought and the spoken word to assist in the creation of a more loving reality for the human race. Speak to uplift. Speak to rebuild. Speak to bless the world.

The Great Madness

I have moments of madness. Lengthy minutes of self doubt. Blinding flashes of crumbling confidence. In the madness, I am paralyzed. Wings are severed from my body. Blood pulses at a deafening pace. Hope and reason are seemingly lost.

In the madness, the familiar madness, I have learned to pray. I have learned to remove myself from the opinions of others and convalesce in the presence of God. We meet most often on the floor, with a lavender blanket and a cup of tea. On the floor, wrapped in the blanket, I sit and ask for guidance. I sit and listen. I simply sit.

In the convalescent silence, madness meets its doom. Wings are reattached. Blood quietly flows. God whispers to my quiet mind of hope and reason and great truth. God reminds me that my truth is different from the truth of others and that the secret of bliss, the secret of inner peace, lies in heeding the taylor-made guidance for me. The guidance that says, my heart alone has the answers to my questions. My heart alone has the direct link to God's atlas for my path and its quality. My heart alone is the only opinion that matters in matters of my life, my love and my bliss.

And so it is with you. Sit through the madness. Care not for the opinions of others. Allow the presence of God, the whispers of God, to direct your truth and your life. Feel your wings unfurl and allow the moment-to-moment bliss you richly deserve. There beyond the great madness, there beyond the self doubt, in the presence of God we will meet. All truths will be honored, all hearts confirmed, all wings will have strength to fly.

Easter Greetings

Happy Easter to all my peeps...

A Vote For Inspiration

http://www.thebestofblogs.com/2007/03/page/2/

It seems my friend, Polli, had nominated my blog for the "Best Inspirational Blog of 2006". Go figure, I made the top 10. Now the voting begins. To be honest, I don't know what this all means. But Polli has such faith in my writing and I want to honor her trust in me. So, could you please help this endeavor and click on the above link? Scroll down to the 3rd category, Inspirational Blogs, and click on my "Evenstar Art" button to cast your vote. Oddly, you can vote each and every day until April 13th.

I read something about Las Vegas and maybe a little sidebar icon if I win. Cash would be better, but heck, the icon would be neat for all you 13 regulars who check in with me.

I appreciate your help, and your vote. I'll let you know, after Polli lets me know, what the outcome is. A year's supply of European chocolate would also be nice...

The Stones Of My Desire

I have a desire to embrace and love the world. A longing to understand other people, other cultures, other ways of expressing joy. If desires are pure and heart-based, if they serve a higher purpose and open doors for more goodness to rush in, the Universe is obliged to fulfill them. The Universe will scatter the stones that create the path to walk boldly into the arms of desire. 3 months ago, the stones of heaven began raining down on the uncharted land before me. A path was formed. An opportunity was created. Desire beckoned me forward.

3 months ago, I began a technology-facilitated conversation with a man from another country. A country I have given little heed to in my life, despite the ongoing media blitz. A man from ancient Babylon, now known as Iraq. Fascination, revelation, humor and endearment are the hallmarks of our daily contact. It thrills me and pains me and enriches me to hear about his daily life and his larger life in a country filled with torment.

Surprisingly, we have more in common than would be initially conceived. No religious affiliation, a love of laughter, a search for truth, the same limited palette for wine. We do, however, have different levels of tolerance for issues of human behavior. Where he beats me hands down is in tolerance of the self. My desire to know the world, to know compassion and tolerance for the world, has led me rocketing back to my own inner world. The world a man thousands of miles away can accept and appreciate and applaud. The world I compulsively judge and question and find lacking.

My fascination and revelation lie in the Universal truth that one cannot have tolerance for the world if one does not have tolerance for the self. In seeking the outer, I am ultimately seeking the inner. Because bottom line, the is no outer world. Everything is a reflection of the one mind and body and soul reacting to itself. To love and embrace the world, I must love and embrace myself. No judgement. No questions. No lack.

The Universe knew to scatter the stones of my desire between Buffalo and Baghdad. It knew my secret desire, my first desire was to love and embrace myself. It knew precisely, in all the world, the soul to facilitate and tolerate and beckon me onward to higher purpose. It knew time and distance and impossibility do not exist when love and all worlds are waiting to be embraced.

One Light

Yes, there is darkness in the world. Yes, there are forces that seek to oppress. Yes, there are ill-willed human beings that desire total control and conquest through fear. Yes, there is even the blackness of one's own mind to contend with. You can choose to cower before these dark forces. You can choose to give in. You can lay down your will and submit to the conquest or you can choose to shine.

One light, my friend, one small candle, one struck match and darkness retreats. It takes so much darkness to cover a light and so little light to banish the dark. Light can be a candle, a lamp, a word of kindness, an offered hand. In a room full of dark lies and deceit, one sentence of spoken truth will ignite the dawn.

Keep matches in your pocket. Keep courage to speak the truth. Keep love in your heart. When darkness comes, strike your match. Unleash your truth. Throw down your love at the base of false evil. Let God's light within you shine forth.

The Path of Destiny

Suddenly, I find myself staring down the path of destiny. It is a curving path with no roadsigns, no speed limit, no recorded length. It is not a paved path. I see no footprints or hoofprints or tire tracks. This is not the path less traveled. This is the path yet-to-be traveled. It begins at the end. The end of 6 cycles of 7 years, in which my body and cells and thoughts have renewed themselves for the 6th time. It begins at the end of a life lived as ordinary, predictible and tame. Though the landscape hugging the path is lush and green and filled with the promise of growth, I cannot see past the first curve. I cannot see what lies ahead.

No matter.

My heart is the lamp I hold firmly in front of me.
Courage and trust are the shields I bear.
Love and respect are the fuel for my journey.
God is my unfailing guide.

Come peace.
Come harmony.
Come adversity.
Come destiny.

My footprints are already marking the path.

Expect The Unexpected

When asking the Higher Power of your choice to grant a wish, fulfill a dream or answer a prayer, you must be careful what you ask for and you must keep an open mind. The grant, the fulfillment and the answer will rarely show up in the preconceived form you cling to in your mind. It is more likely to reveal itself in a form that forces you to stretch yourself beyond your limits to receive the bounty. To receive the healing. To receive the love. Only a pure heart can receive a wish, because only a pure heart will recognize its arrival.

Wishing for greater bounty and abundance? Stop expecting cold hard cash to flood your coffers and instead attune your heart to the smallest gestures of kindness that begin to mark your days. Notice smiles and return them. Accept the door held open. Receive compliments graciously. Become aware of sunshine. Above all, be thankful for every morsel of goodness that trickles into your life and soon, very soon the trickle will become a stream, will become a river and your heart will be cleansed and your coffers will be filled in ways you could not have imagined.

Dreaming of great love to soar into your life? Stop expecting the blue eyes, the buxom babe, or the billionare bachelor to stop you in the lobby and declare you are the fantasy realized. Instead, love yourself and all your foibles. Love yourself some more. Then cast your net wide. Wider than you ever dared. Priaise your Higher Power for having granted great love before it ever arrives. Feel the emotion of being in the company of your boyfriend, girlfriend, husband or wife before they enter your waking life. Keep your eyes open. Look for the dark horse. Expect the unexpected.

Be open to love in whatever package it arrives. Whatever skin color, or eye color, or hair color it arrives. Whatever race, or religion, or region of the world it arrives. Great love exists everywhere, in every possible guise. Stretch your mind. Open your heart. Your wish is waiting to be granted. Your dream is waiting to be fulfilled. Your prayer will be answered in unlooked for ways. Awaken, recognize and receive.

The Compass Heart

All answers lie within. All truth lies within. Everything of great importance, of great meaning lies within. We need look no further than ourselves when faced with opportunities or challenges or pathways that will change the course of our lives. The yes or the no, the stop or the go can be clearly heard within, if we would only choose to bend our ears to our hearts.

The heart is our compass and our guide. It unfailingly points the way to our highest good. Our final answer. Our most direct path. The heart is never wrong, for it is aligned with God. It is aligned with our life's blueprint and is privy to the destiny of our soul. It is the conduit that allows grace to flow and bless our lives in extraordinary ways.

Our job, our responsibility is to heed the heart's call. To trust its impulses. To make it our final authority. We must put aside opinions and commands from outside its chambers. We must respectfully turn away from the fears and the noise of those around us, and humbly turn our attention within. We must trust and know our hearts would never betray us, and never lead us into anything that is not for our very best at this very moment. We must trust and know our hearts seek only unbounded, unselfish, unwaivering love. In everything we do. In everywhere we go. In everyone we meet.

We must reverently and humbly bend our ears to listen to the beat of wisdom within. We must catch the first impulse, the first word, the first rush of emotion that comes to our conscious awareness. There do the answers lie. The heart is quick and concise, truthful and final. It offers an answer immediately.

We must trust our heart, follow our heart, and live from our heart. The reward and the result will be a life spent in peace and prosperity, a life spent in love.

Courage

Courage is associated with bravery and valor. We think it most often applies to the military, to firefighters, to police officers. We think courage is about saving people from burning buildings, rising up in defense against hostiles during war and facing the gunman in a dark alley. Courage is most certainly present in all these acts of high heroism. But courage can be applicable, as well, to getting out of bed, laying down the past and following the urges of the heart.

Ordinary living takes a certain amount of fortitude. Extraordinary living takes courage. Audacity. Mettle. Extraordinary living requires us to step boldly into our ring of fears and allow the monsters of our minds to have their say. Courage is what keeps us in that ring, facing the horrors of our imagination and our past experiences. Courage is what keeps us breathing and conscious until the monsters and the horrors and the demons of our past begin to sputter and lose their life energy. Whether we are moving to a different location, changing careers or confronting great love, in the face of courage, in the face of great determination, all fears are revealed as false. Powerless. Impotent.

More than any other scenario, to follow the drum beat and the pull of passion from the hardest working muscle in the body takes courage. For love, as lead by the wisdom of the heart, is the final frontier. The passage to the great unknown. The consuming fire that burns the chains of the past to ash. Courage, my friend, is the only thing that will allow us to approach the fire. The only thing that will enable us to throw our whole selves into it. The only thing that will sustain us in the searing ecstasy of fears consumed.

Courage is the bridge that delivers us to the final frontier. To everyday high heroism. To love unleashed. Without it, we are chained to the false, the powerful, and the potent. Our lives remain ordinary.

Rise up, my friend. Rise up with me to meet the dawning force of love. We'll bring our courage. We'll cross the bridge. We'll burn. We'll love. We'll fly.

Today

Today, I am no one. I am not an artist. I am not a designer. I am not a child of nature. I am not your friend. I am nothing I was or thought I was 2 days ago.

Today, the mask is gone. Veils have become prayer flags fluttering in the breeze. Doors are hanging on hinges. Teapots are teetering off shelves.

Today, the light is blinding. The comforting shadows are gone. The tarot deck reveals The Fool.

I don't know who this person is, this person looking out through silver glass. This person who now dreams of Arabian horses and sheds hot tears while peeling onions to their core.

Today, I am no one. No one I recognize. No one I know. I have no map. I have no voice. Thoughts are swallowed by silence.

Today, in this blinding void of the present, I have no past. Faith is my only companion. Love is my only guide. I am no one. I am everyone. I am.

Go To The Door Laughing

This being human is a guesthouse.
Every morning is a new arrival.

A joy, a depression, a meanness~
Some momentary awareness comes
As an unexpected visitor.

Welcome and entertain them all!
Even if they're a crowd of sorrows
Who violently sweep your house
Empty of its furniture.

Still, treat each guest honorably.
He may be clearing you out
For some new delight.

The dark thought, the shame, the malice~
Go to the door laughing
And invite them in.

Be grateful for whoever comes.
For each has been sent
As a guide from beyond.

Jelaluddin Rumi {1207~1273}

Honorable Mention

There is very little talk of honor these days. It barely rates a mention in most conversations. It is seldom demostrated in daily life. It seems to be an out-moded concept in today's fast-paced world. Honor means respect. High regard. Integrity. Honor is the acknowledgement of greatness and worthiness as seen and demostrated in others. It is the reason for genuflection. It is the reason for sincere gifting. It is the reason hands are kissed. Honor is lacking in today's world because we allow very little time to know one another, understand one another and peer into each other's souls. To feel genuine honor for another person, we must have witnessed the God-energy that resides within them. And we must have witnessed it first in ourselves.

Honor begins at home. The bodily home our souls reside in. If honor is scarce and turmoil is rife, collectively, we are dishonoring ourselves. We are willfully ignoring the needs of our bodies, minds, emotions and spirits. We are willfully caught in the web of illusion that permeates this planet. The illusion that encourages us to abuse our bodies with unhealthy food and drink. The illusion that encourages us to separate from each other instead of joining together. The illusion that washes our brains with visual bombardment to keep us numb and dumb. We are encouraged, from one society to the next, to hold ourselves in low regard and serve the financial titanism of the few.

Honor of the self is a choice. It requires action and perseverance. It requires healthier food and drink to flood the organs and tissues of our soul's home. It requires less visual stimulation and more reflection. It requires loving kindness directed at ourselves. Daily. Hourly. Moment by moment.

We have no honor to give if we think very little of ourselves. If we cannot feel our greatness and worthiness. If we cannot see our own God-energy through the societal haze. Honor, like love, is something we cannot give if it is something we do not possess.



{Winged lions, as seen on North Street in downtown Buffalo, NY.}
All words and images Copyright(c)2007 Graciel

Your Hands

Poetry by, Pablo Neruda

All the years of my life

I walked around looking for them.

I went up the stairs,

I crossed the roads,

trains carried me,

waters brought me

and in the skin of the grapes,

I thought I touched you.

The wood suddenly brought me your touch,

the almond announced to me your secret softness,

until your hands closed on my chest

and there like two wings

they ended their journey.

The Great Shift

For thousands of years, men have needed to dominate women. In the 21st century, that need is still being met. Dominance of one aspect of God over another is found in every corner of the globe. In every country, every state, every city, every neighborhood. In one form or another. Both overt and subtle. The need for dominance of men over women has shaped all existing societies. That need is in the process of destroying the planet we live on. If humanity wants to save itself, if global warming can be slowed to a crawl, there must be a shift in the balance between men and women. There must be a great shift.

The need for dominance over anyone or anything is based, at its core, on fear. Fear of being overtaken, lost and crushed like a bug. Fear that the other is actually more powerful and more wise. In the case of the feminine, the masculine is correct in its fearful suspicions. Women are more powerul than men. In certain aspects. In needful aspects. In aspects that hold the keys to saving our species, saving our planet and saving our souls.

Women hold the keys to compassion, fairness, healing and love. Women are the embodiment of love. But the powers inherent in the feminine aspect of God only flower when conditions are ripe to support those powers. Those conditions and that support are the responsibility of the masculine to create and hold the space for the feminine to work its magic. It is the responsibility of the masculine to use its needful warrior energy to ensure the feminine is honored and revered. To ensure God's womb of creation is safe.

With that responsibility, with that devotional level of support comes everything the masculine could possibly need: freedom. True freedom to be whomever God made them to be. True freedom that only comes when untold levels of nurturing and healing and love are unleashed on every country and state and city and neighborhood.

It is the responsibility of the feminine to receive that honor. To use the warrior energy as a platform to launch a campaign of healing around the globe. It is the responsibility of the feminine to first and foremost believe it is equal in importance to that of the masculine. To believe its own power exists, to embrace that power and share it with those in need. It is the responsibility of the feminine to steadily wean itself of the lesser role, the dominated role, the helpless role.

The key to everyone's betterment, the key to respecting and saving our planetary home lies in the hearts and minds of men and women. We must agree that balance, not dominance, is the foundation of lasting freedom for all. We must agree to dedicate ourselves to accomplishing a great shift, a do-or-die shift in the relations of men and women. We must honor ourselves and honor each other. We will then automatically honor our planet. We will not be overtaken. We will not be lost. We will instead be loved.

The Death Mask

In the depths of winter, a quiet form of despair can seep into our minds. A weighted apathy can slow our pace. A disinterest in the world can shut us away. We wonder where our enthusiasm went. We wonder where our passion went. Friends don't satisfy us. Books don't satisfy us. Food is always on our minds. We feel stuck. Bloated. Impatient. We worry this will not pass.

In the depths of winter, we put on the death mask. The mask is an opportunity to turn away from the world and look within. It is an opportunity to embrace stillness. In that stillness of the death-mask experience, we are invited to look at our true selves. We are invited to relinquish our false and fearful selves. We are invited to die to all that holds us back from realizing our full potential.

The death mask, with its accompanying despair and apathy and disinterest, is a divine tool of transformation. The only way to transform and move towards greater levels of happiness, is to see ourselves clearly as we are~ beings deserving of joy and goodness and loving kindness. We must turn away from the world and its distractions to see and hear the truth of ourselves. We must turn away for a time, to uncover new worlds within. To know ourselves more intimately. To attend to the rage and the shame that holds us back. To feel how beautiful we are.

We must die to the false beliefs we have stubbornly held about ourselves. We must die to the idea we are less than others because of our life circumstances. We must die to the notion our every life-affirming wish cannot come true.

The death mask is ours to embrace. We are not stuck. We are transforming. Through the gifts of despair and apathy, we can choose to turn inwards. We can choose to use winter's opportunity to heal our darkness and reveal our light.

{Egyptian death masks, from the Egyptian Museum in Berlin, Germany, discovered during my glorious light-revealing trip in the spring of 2006.}