Tag: wisdom
The Body Knows
Oh, the tattletale that lives within
that whispers all my secrets!
I wear my thoughts and habits
visibly
and in the sea of tension
that seems at constant
high tide
filling up all my spaces
and flexing my muscles
long after their work is done.
Reversing this tide
and harnessing my inner moon
is a daily task
that calls –
like music calls to my heart,
or insight calls to my pen.
I have to ask myself:
What is this inner grip, this tension
really all about?
I have a magic tool
which will help me to know.
I stop. I breathe. I listen.
The body knows.
With amazing patience,
it waits for me.
Copyright@ Cynthia Cady Stanton, 2017
Blessed Assurance
No more a need
to solve, cling, or do.
I am done with all that.
Breathe.
Just be.
I turn my attention outward
trusting that inwardly,
I am whole.
This is an important shift
and not one that is
familiar –
a down shift,
into trust –
rather than constant acceleration.
True freedom comes in
letting go of the wheel,
not needing to see the road ahead.
Gradually, I am learning to be
more of a passenger.
It is strange how unfamiliar it feels.
I have learned so deeply
to be on my own,
driving solo.
But I repeatedly follow the wrong directions
being the simple human
I have learned to be,
confused by which GPS to heed.
Now I call upon my divine nature.
It has taken decades to
own it.
Such a beautiful feeling…
to know it is not all
up to me –
that no map is needed.
A look back
in the rear view mirror
confirms.
All is well –
and has been all along the way.
Blessed be.
Copyright © @Cynthia Cady Stanton, 2017
Inspiration
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.
Copyright © Cynthia Cady Stanton 2017
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
Becoming and Beholding 