Tag: Ordinary life
Noticing
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.
Copyright © Cynthia Cady Stanton 2017
New Ground
The pull of patterns weighs me down
and sucks me in
to that space that agitates
and darkens the room
keeping me from the lightness
that beckons deeply.
Even with you,
though I longed to be next to you
after seasons apart,
what is new and better and different
struggles to shine.
We settle for old and familiar,
the constrictions
set long ago.
I want you to know me.
Not the me you think you know,
but the evolving me
that dares to bloom
even at my age,
when most settle for being set.
I’m not.
I am a dynamic canvas.
Copyright © 2017 Cynthia Cady Stanton
The Opening
It is the space between
what I hear
and how I receive it.
It is the time between
what I think
and what I do.
It is the moment of rest
I sometimes allow
before the next thing.
This is the place that needs enlarging.
But I tend to keep it small,
even though it beckons me
with sweet whispers
and gentle nudges.
I hear it in the rhythm of the waves
and the rustle of the dancing leaves.
I see it in the glide of the seagulls
and the ballet of the small shorebirds
as they float across the shoreline.
Be like us,
they seem to say.
Float through your day.
It is easy
if you let go
and feel the flow.
The invitation is always there,
expansive and inviting –
a huge place of calm and beauty
waiting to hold me
with a comforting embrace.
Waiting to lead me
to the unimaginable.
But I am distracted.
I know I am not alone in this.
Thankfully,
Grace is a beautiful and patient teacher.
She has taught me many things.
I finally know that
You are in the space that calls.
You are in each breath –
especially the deep ones.
You are in me.
You are around me.
You work through me.
You need me as much as
I need you.
I have learned that turning away from you
and ignoring your sweet beaconing
is akin to a slow and lonely death.
Opening to You –
and the spaces between,
is like coming home
to who I am.
Copyright© 2017 Cynthia Cady Stanton
The Way of the Cat
THE WAY OF THE CAT
Went to bed early
bathed, brushed –
equipped with melatonin
so I could rest.
But the restlessness came
right on time, anyway –
that 2 a.m. buzz
of mind
and senseless planning.
Now, you in my lap
purring at 4:15
while I take in my coffee
and gather myself.
How do you do it?
that deep plop of love and presence
you share to freely?
In this moment,
my heart relaxes.
Thank you.
Copyright© 2017 Cynthia Cady Stanton