Breath

I wrote this a few years ago and came across it this morning. An interesting coincidence as I have begun writing again after a very long silence as I dealt with amongst many other things, a progressive deterioration in my breathing. Breath, life, creativity - a potent mix and one I have never before been so aware of. I started on an inhaler on Friday and already I am breathing more easily. Breath is life and breath is power. I look forward to the continuing pleasure of the former and the joy of taking back the latter.

I breathe out upon this paper,
The beating of my heart,
Out into the wondering world,
A butterfly breath.

It shakes the forests of the Amazon,
Thunders on the mountain peak,
Stirs the distant oceanic deep,
One sacred breath, one heart beat.

I breathe out upon this paper,
In Black words etching
The whiteness of the universe,
Butterfly breath, breathing worlds.

Gratitude

Sometimes life presents you with a series of experiences which conspire to weave darkness into your soul. The last year has been like that for me.

What has saved me and continues to save me from slipping into that darkness, is the simple observation of the practice of gratitude. In the midst of every living nightmare there is a way to anchor reality in beauty and not in the stagnant shadows.

Each day begins with a blessing, a prayer of appreciation for the greatest gifts in my life, the fact that I am still breathing, that I have another day on this earth, for my beloveds, for the roof over my head. It isn't always easy to practice such mindfulness but it is a very powerful transformative process.

It is always about the observation of the beauty in our lives. Even in the darkest of dark nights of the soul, there is light to be found.

Healing words

Once I scorched the earth with the yearning aching of my heart.
Once I breathed out my tortured soul upon these pages.
Once my pulse beat out my fearful anger into the world.

Word by word I dripped red blood against the pristine white,
And as I wrote my bloody words, my heart was healed.
My pulse slowed to the steady beat of a greater love.
My breath became the whisper of my peace filled soul.

My voice rang out in truth and love
My words became the living beauty
That transcends all.

New beginnings.

Every day is a new beginning if we would just realise it.

In this sense I am always a beginner, always renewing my resolve, always that fragile flower unfurling.

Beginner, begin, be born.

Always open to the rebirth in each moment, the potential for all manner of things to renew themselves. Life is full of new beginnings. How am I any different from the new born lamb in the spring field, dazzled by that first clear strong light of day?

How are my eyes any more attuned to the beauty of the light after the long darkness of the incubating womb?

How are my legs more steady than that first struggle to find the delightful pleasure of balance and movement and joyful skipping through fresh green fields?

All life is a new beginning and I am as unsteady on my feet as that new born lamb.

Although I may stumble, I am filled with the same delight that blesses him as he leaps into the curious exploration of his new world.

What will you allow to be re-born today? What will you see, hear, sense differently?

Beauty

I touch the beauty deep within me
Standing in speechless wonder
Drinking in the light and life
With every sense quivering in tune

I see a richness of colour, shape, form
Breathtaking in its endless flow

I feel the beauty of my own intrinsic balance
And connection to all that is

I gaze upon the suspension of heaven and earth
The sky, the sea, the land
Tantalising glimpses of the magic of Source
From which all creation flows

I hear my own beauty in the falling of the rain
Giving life to the soil from which
All nurture springs.