Putting Words Around the Unfolding
Here we are again.
You are You,
and I am learning to be me.
It’s funny…
this long road I have travelled
with all the detours along the way,
while You simply waited.
I thought I had a long way to go.
But I was wrong.
I just needed to stop
and allow myself
a different view.
Now I am on the vista.
I see your landscape
and my place in it.
It takes my breath away
as all the tension
of trying so hard
floats away.
Copyright© Cynthia Cady Stanton, 2020
That thing you have been dodging –
maybe for years,
could be your true gift.
We often hide
and shy away from
the reason we are here –
what we have to offer.
We don’t mean to…
In fact, we think we are doing the best we can.
But our inner restlessness
and discomfort with life,
is often a clue
that we are leaning in the wrong direction.
We are a flower
that hesitates to bloom –
being tight in the bud.
Eventually, we listen to inspiration
and we are nudged
to dare and turn toward the sunshine
to stretch our petals.
We open up.
As we stretch and grow,
stretch and grow,
we are quenched with grace
and a new freedom.
Finally, we are on the beam,
warmed by a dazzling light which
illuminates our path ahead.
We become a blessing for others
in the sharing of our gift.
We radiate.
This is what it means
to say “Yes!”
to the life and love
born within us.
Nothing is more beautiful
or so urgently needed.
Copyright© Cynthia Cady Stanton, 2020
The tree is lit
while loved ones slumber.
The house hums with anticipation
and joy.
Memories of Christmases past
dance in the heart.
We have reached Christmas again.
No matter what is under the tree,
no matter who gathers around it,
we are all joined together
to embrace the universal gift.
Love is born again.
It’s wrapped in mystery and grace
and sparkles with a glow
like moonlight on fresh snow.
Open this gift first.
Unwrap it and let it linger long
and ever present
in your hungry heart.
You are loved beyond measure.
Share the joy.
Copyright© Cynthia Cady Stanton, 2019
I lift up my eyes
and I look around.
There is blessedness here…
and it was there, too.
I see differently now –
my distorted vision finally giving way to clarity.
The work of letting go
has been harder than expected.
But now I can see that
the grip is the giver of pain
and its loosening,
is grace received.
So here I stand
at the bank of the river of gladness.
I am finally ready to move toward yes.
I let go again, and
surrender to the divine flow.
All is well as I learn
the nature of floating.
Copyright© Cynthia Cady Stanton, 2019
Like me,
I bet you don’t like to be
inconvenienced by illness or stress.
Like me,
you probably aim to control and manage
everything in front of you.
Like me,
sadness is not an option
you would choose.
Like me,
your busyness gets in the way
of your experience of peace and
even love.
Like me,
your striving and perfectionism
puts you in a box
which limits spontaneity and joy.
Like me,
your thoughts drive you
and mostly go unnoticed.
But also like me,
you are growing in awareness.
Like me,
you don’t give up.
Like me,
laughter and health
bubble forth, anyway.
Like me,
you are a Velveteen Rabbit,
and you are being loved
into being made more real.
Like me,
you are learning the
gift of surrender.
Like me,
grace finds you.
Like me,
you are grateful for it all.
In peace,
my spirit bows to your spirit.
We are one.
And you are like me.
Copyright© Cynthia Cady Stanton, 2019
Loving Presence of the Holy One, my one and only God, I rest in the newness of this day. The birds call and invite me to sing a song to you. I lift my voice and speak your name out loud, offering myself as a vehicle of your love and grace this day and every day. I know profoundly and more and more clearly that when I enter a day with this intention, that I begin in freedom. For when I am aligned with your being, I am being authentically me. Challenges may come today. My prayer is that whatever they may be, that they may serve my awakening. Therefore, blessed be this day! For my heart is full of gratitude for this beautiful life and I intend to live it with joy and extend myself in love to those who cross my path. I am awake. As I sing my song, know that I am here for you, my God. With my whole being, body and soul, I sing your praises. Thank you for this day.
Amen and amen.
Copyright© Cynthia Cady Stanton, 2019
My heart is working hard these days
with loss and loneliness.
I am an orphan seeking home.
The grief of moving through the landscape which
is my life
tugs at the ways I have
stitched myself together.
This waking up is painful –
but as I move forward,
I open my heart to it.
It is a time of deepening –
of allowing the mystery to instruct
and show me
the location of my true belonging.
The older I get,
the more acquainted I am
with this type of deep reckoning.
It is familiar terrain and
I have visited it often.
When I look back, I can see this.
But in this moment,
choosing to be present
feels like valor.
I gradually take on the challenge
as little pieces of me mend.
I begin to hear again the
warm and forgiving invitation.
It calls to me like
a song over the hillside,
sending music to my ears and heart.
I allow this embrace of mystery which
wells up within my very soul.
This is the place which
connects me to the beauty of it all
and the realization of belonging.
I find my way home again
and I learn to dwell in a sweet peace.
I dare to hold everything –
all the precious pain and longing.
Thanksgiving visits me –
I am surprised as it wells up like a wave
and invites me to rest in a beautiful tenderness.
This is Life and Grace
given and received.
They had never left.
Copyright© Cynthia Cady Stanton, 2019
“Secret work is being done in us of which we have no inkling.” John O’Donahue
When one of us is lost,
all that is needed is the touch of another
whether to tender skin or the wounded heart.
For none of us are perfectly on track
all the time, are we?
So we help one another to steer and soften.
When one of us is sick,
it is time for a cup of Big Love –
we fill it with grace mixed with empathy
so the sickness cannot take root,
causing the soul to wither,
in a feeling of aloneness.
If disconnection broadens,
it is time to seek your teacher –
that wiser one who loves as God loves,
without measure, and
while nurturing the current lesson to birth.
A good teacher mirrors your imminent Spring
as you struggle to blossom
and see.
This is what Big Love looks like –
its embrace feels like freedom on the wing.
Its presence is grace realized
as sibling souls open and
reach out to you,
sparking Truth and Light
so you can be healed.
Copyright© Cynthia Cady Stanton, 2019
Photo credit to Gary Stanton, my husband, who also gave me the mug recently when I was sick – the inspiration for this poem. Thank you, Honey! xoxo
Don’t despair the soul season
when all the green is gone
and you feel darkened
and bare.
These are the times when
you stand alone, while
everyone looks past you
to escape to the horizon beyond.
You feel planted in place
with nowhere to grow, and
the present brittleness
makes you snap easily.
Though unpleasant and cold –
while in this raw nakedness,
please be reminded that
you are in a good position.
You are in the right place –
the proper season.
You are ripe for grace.
A season of cold and dark
is a gift like no other.
For when the white glow arrives,
softly blanketing and
offering beauty and peace –
healing is gifted.
You are born again with the
verdant seeds needed
to bloom again
and commune with others.
Copyright© Cynthia Cady Stanton, 2019
On the other side
and over the hump,
I catch a vision of the new
before me,
and within me.
It was a rough season –
all the falling and stumbling
behind me.
I look back –
and though I do not want
to go back again,
my heart sings –
for I am grateful.
The lessons have arrived –
some like a ton of bricks…
but after getting knocked down,
I got up –
again and again.
You assisted –
helping my legs remember their strength
and teaching me to rest, too.
I surrendered to the season –
reluctantly at first…
but as I let go,
healing arrived.
Now here I stand.
I am firmly grounded
in a whole new way of being.
Thank you.
Thank you from the bottom of my feet
through my heart and
radiating upward
and outward
from every pore of life in me.
May the lessons gained
root deeply in my soul.
Understanding has blessed me, and
I am fashioned anew.
Thanks be to the One
who gives beyond measure!
Holy is your name.
Your creation of me continues
with deepening grace.
I am in awe.
Copyright© Cynthia Cady Stanton, 2018
Becoming and Beholding 