Morning Prayer

March 8, 2018July 23, 2018 becomingandbeholdingLeave a comment

MORNING PRAYER

Here I am again, Dearest God, embracing another new day which has been gifted to me. I thank you for all the possibilities ahead. I thank you for this moment I am taking to pause and remember You. Once my day gets going, I tend to forget you. Please forgive my inattention, my tendency to check the boxes of the day thoughtlessly, forgetting You as the Giver of each moment. May this day be different. May I focus on the goodness you offer so freely and universally. May I participate in its unfolding that I may see my part in making it happen. Free me from the usual distractions and wants which pull me away from the purposes You have put in place for me. Show me the way, dear God. Light me up with your Love and peace. Heal whatever needs mending. May it be so, today and every day. I am yours.

Amen and Amen

Be a Branch

February 17, 2018February 17, 2018 becomingandbeholding1 Comment

You come to me with searching eyes,

your shoulders slumped,

your breathing shallow.

“I need help,” you say.

I open my arms

and reach for you,

taking you into the Love,

ever-present.

Comfort flowers.

An elderly woman drops her grocery bag

and oranges and potatoes scatter

all over the road –

I run to her.

My hands get busy gathering her food.

Our eyes connect and

together we laugh.

There is no problem, anymore.

We are connected.

Everyday, situations show up

to wake us up to

who we are

and why we are here.

Most of the time,

we don’t notice.

We are too busy with ourselves,

living as if

we are on our own.

We forget that God needs us

in order to be seen,

to be realized –

and we need God.

“I am the vine.

You are the branches.”

The instruction is given:

We are deeply connected to God

and when we extend ourselves

in Love,

life blossoms as it should –

and God is at work

with us.

Nothing else makes more sense

or is as beautiful.

Be a branch.

Poem · Poetry

Eyes of Love

December 2, 2017 becomingandbeholding1 Comment

You look so put together

with everything in place

and sparkly.

You are a treat for tired eyes.

But I know better

than to be fooled by the surface of things.

Sometimes what appears on the outside

is the opposite

of what is on the inside.

We are crafty in our hiding ways.

So I open myself up

to the depths of you.

My eyes look past the veneer.

We could pretend –

play a game of make believe

and pretend the surface

is all there is.

It is, after all,

how most of us operate.

We barely even look at each other.

But who wants to live like that?

It makes my heart ache

at the thought

that what we see

is all there is.

No.

“Go deep!”

This is the call of the heart

and the work of Love

in our midst.

I will always be willing

to pull back the pretty curtain

and dare to see

what is true within.

Otherwise,

what is the point?

I am here for you,

ready to see

and to listen.

Poem · Poetry

Grateful Heart

November 18, 2017March 10, 2018 becomingandbeholding7 Comments

There is a lifting above

and a grounding below,

a warming at the center –

when I remember.

It is like the unexpected gift

presented with love

and perfect timing.

Or the lightness of being

that comes

with surrender

and trust –

even in the midst of

struggle or pain.

I hold onto it

even as I let go,

allowing the divine

to move through,

heal me with its dawning.

“I was born with a grateful heart,”

says the patient

on her dying bed.

I marvel at the gift she has

and how it fills her up at the end,

easing the way.

And then I remember,

so was I.

Poem · Poetry

This Heart

October 24, 2017October 24, 2017 becomingandbeholdingLeave a comment

I suppose I am
one of the lucky ones.
I got a heart that was loved
from the beginning –
despite imperfect parents,
with broken hearts of their own.

I knew from the beginning
that I was loved.

That is huge.

My heart had a grounding –
an ontological gift,
an understanding that
no matter what,
it was worthy of affection.

That grounding
has been my strength.
It has lifted me above the long
and bumpy road by
connecting me
to the Divine.
A kind of safety ladder…

Through many seasons of lack
and longing
have I arrived
finally
to a place of fullness –
even bursting!
I have been filled up
and pried open
with the gentle tool
of growing awareness
of what a heart can be –
what a heart can do.

This is my heart:
open and ready –
stretching to you.
Free!

Take and seal it.

Poem · Poetry

Interdisciplinary

October 18, 2017October 18, 2017 becomingandbeholdingLeave a comment

It takes all of us
to bring you home;
to follow your lead
while you demonstrate what you need –
how we can help.
Sometimes you don’t know.
After all,
this is a first for you.
We understand.
So we show you the way.

At first,
it is all about the pain
in all its potential forms
and impact.
Then it is
all about the Love –
given and received
over a lifetime
and in this moment.
We help unwrap
how Love endures
through it all.

We have travelled this road
with so many.
But no one is
exactly like you.

We are here.
Right next to you.
Each of us tasked
with a different
aspect of you –
the whole picture of you
and the life you were given.

As witnesses to your
soul’s journey,
we catch merely a glimpse
of the mystery
ahead
that calls to us all.
Thank you for that.
The comfort flows both ways.

We will never forget you.

Poem · Poetry

What If?

October 18, 2017 becomingandbeholdingLeave a comment

You know that time
when you put your phone down
so you could attend to me instead?

Or that moment when I was starving,
and about to eat my 20 gram protein bar in the car
but saw a homeless man in the intersection,
and chose to go hungry –
handing him the bar through my open window
with a smile
and no regrets.

Or, how about
that day when I was terribly hurt and angry
and simply let it all go,
suddenly, and with faith and forgiveness
so I could refocus
on something larger than me,
beyond the anger
and the suffocating hurt.
Both just disappeared into a peaceful feeling.

There is a thread –
powerful in its connection
through these moments.
It seems to show
that when we step aside –
dare another way,
beautiful things can happen.

It makes me wonder…
What if?
What if God is the thread?
And the thread connects us to Love
And, well, everything that matters?

And what if God needs us?
Needs us to get out of our own way
and notice the thread?
What if
WE MAKE GOD HAPPEN?

Poem · Poetry

Inspiration

September 24, 2017September 24, 2017 becomingandbeholdingLeave a comment

Trying to coax you

feels dishonest – and yet,

I do not know how to proceed

without you with me.

I love our usual rhythm

when you bubble up like a fountain

or surprise me with a flash.

The light you bring leads the way.

It is as if, like an eager child,

you grab me by the wrist,

pulling me with all your might,

to see what your wide eyes see,

to open to what is being born right before me.

This is our ritual,

our occasional awkward dance.

I long to know you better,

to deepen the intimacy between us

with more regular meetings.

I get jazzed when we can be together –

You, the lightening bug-

Me, the catcher.

But you are an unpredictable one,

mysterious in your ways

and sneaky.

I never know when you will appear.

You are always in the driver’s seat

while I ride shotgun,

trying to trust in the route you put me on.

You show up,

and I am knocked out of my usual rhythm,

suddenly consumed by your presence.

I love those moments.

They are like electricity lighting me up

on all circuits.

It is as if

you give birth to me all over again,

but in little flashes of light

to direct my unfolding.

I dare not ignore your brilliance.

Poem · Poetry

Noticing

September 10, 2017 becomingandbeholding1 Comment

The way it feels

when I dare to step away from patterns

long held onto

with a tight knuckle grip

as a way to hold me up,

glue me together.

The look in your eyes

when I am really paying attention,

allowing my heart to open to you.

The soaring freedom that sends me

to new depths and heights

all at the same time

when I get out of my own way.

How pain disappears

when my attention turns in a divine direction

instead of towards my navel,

so clogged with repetitive angst.

How a long walk by the sea washes me

of all the garbage

I have allowed to enter my soul –

a baptism of surf and sound,

wind and grace.

The thunder of the surf rocking me,

holding me with an eternal embrace.

Oh, how healing that is!

How the voice of a great singer

sends my spirit soaring

and beckons me to use my voice

with full expression and power,

freeing it

and healing me from the multitude of ways

I have held it back.

How Love is present,

when I am present

whether with the dying,

my love,

or my cat.

Turning away from the moment

robs me,

robs us –

of God’s company.

Waking up is a beautiful thing –

a peeling of the layers –

that so strangle and constrict.

We think these layers are important

but they are all false construction.

I love the release as they fall away

allowing a deeper joy

to be found.

I am noticing

two openings:

my eyes with inspired vision,

my heart with a tender softening.

Both are wrapped up in deep peace.

Poem · Poetry

You See Me

September 6, 2017October 24, 2017 becomingandbeholdingLeave a comment

Beyond the ways I hide

from myself,

you see me.

Underneath the make up

and beneath the gray roots and wrinkles,

you see me.

Despite my busy ways,

my lists,

my problems with digestion,

my anxieties,

my crafty ways of avoidance

and inattention,

you see me.

You see all of me.

Sometimes when I look in your eyes,

I catch a glimpse

of the me

that you hold in your heart.

It is a beautiful vision.

When I catch its glimmer,

I feel a wholeness,

an unfamiliar peace –

about life,

about Love,

about being me.

So, I am thinking…

this must be what Love is –

to hold onto that larger picture of our beloved –

to cherish it for them

and to protect it from harm

as if it were a world class masterpiece.

A beloved allows for the dropping

of all that does not matter

so that we can hold onto each other

for dear life –

for a life that is dear.

Beloved,

I am yours.