Resiliency through Poetry - by Michael Bridges

One of the things that helped me not just cope, but also make meaning and provide hope during this difficult year is poetry. When I was a very young man, I read Theodore Roethke’s poem “The Waking” and the following lines have provided a mantra and guidance throughout my life: I wake to sleep, and take my waking slow. I learn by going where I have to go. 

Well before the difficult days of COVID, I’ve made sure that I wake slowly, say a silent hallelujah to my first cup of coffee, and then settle in to read poets as diverse as Rumi, Roethke, Rilke, Mary Oliver and others. And then I allow myself to wait until the muse moves me to write what I’ve come to call my “Morning Prayers.” While not great works of art, these poetic ramblings have managed to get me through my days with a sense of purpose and humor. I’ve picked three poems from the past year to share that I hope, at the very least, bring a smile and will resonate with your own journey.    

Mumbling to Myself Becomes a Prayer by Michael Bridges (5/7/2020)

Oh God,

Oh, Great Spirit,

Oh Anyone?

Perhaps just me.

Once again, I’m lost.

So, help me

Find my way back

To this moment.

To all that is holy

In the everyday

In the commonplace 

The sunlight streaming

Through the windows 

The sound of someone

Hammering in the distance

Building something

I’ll never see.

Finally, 

Help me be quiet enough

To hear the song

My heart is singing.

Most of all,

Help me take

Each breath

With delight.

A Kind of Half Ass Carpe diem by Michael Bridges (8/29/2020)

This is where I am 
This is where I be 
Giving just enough 
Of a damn, 
To stay in the moment 
Watching my mind 
Start to flee. 
 
I remain grateful for 
Long dark dreams 
Where I meet strangers 
That read Flannery O’Conner. 
And gray, lush mornings 
Portending thunder storms 
On the way. 
 
The luxury of the moment 
And time to read poetry. 
Akin to the need 
Not to need 
To hurry towards 
The end of my days. 
 
Falling in love 
With the desire 
To seize the moment 
While letting go 
Of any desire 
To grasp it. 
   

Stumbling New Year’s Prayer 

by Michael Bridges (1/1/2021)

 

Let me be small 

      Let me be kind 

              Let me let go 

                     Remembering always 

                     This holy moment to find. 

  

Let me be up 

      Let me be down 

            Let me be empty 

                   Let me be found. 

  

Let me be high 

       Let me be low 

             Let me be less & less 

                    Always, on the go. 

  

Let me finally, 

       Find my way 

                From there 

                        To back here 

  

Again & again & again 

Amen. 

A Fire In The Head

 by Dean Solon

words are empty.

we infuse them with grace

and with grit.

they have no home

but what we give them.

i consider this,

i contemplate this.

what arises 

is grace,

an experience of who i was

before i was born

into this strange and awkward world.

when i was born,

i came into a light that welcomed me

as another stranger 

in a strange land.

my eyes opened to a terrain

brand new

and oddly familiar,

a land that breathed life

into my recently formed lungs.

i was born to be here,

blown by the winds of seeming chance

that have transfigured as i have grown older

to be something else:

an essence,

a vitality of living matter

infused with purpose and passion

to be an originality of form

and to be a singularity of spirit,

one soul among billions

teeming, streaming

on the planet.

i remember no other home 

but this one we call earth.

yet here I am

wondering out loud:

what brought me to this galaxy,

what took hold of me

to bring me here

and make these footprints 

in these sands of time and place

The Inner Ocean #6

by Dean Solon               

the quiet 

of the ocean’s thunder roar

is a stillpoint, 

a silent space amidst the turbulence

insisted upon to drown out the peace

we can feel and be living with.

the urgency of the waves

pounding upon the shore

is a cascading call to be merciful

in a world intent on

distraction and disturbance.

the quiet 

of the Big Sky

is a blue miracle

with its attendant wispy white companions

a reminder 

of what we fitfully and fortunately remember:

the sacred majesty of creation

and all that is included,

riches too many to be named and numbered,

riches yet to be discovered,

a mystery not to be solved

but a mystery to be savored and shared.    

we like to think we know what we are doing,

we like to believe we have a handle on all of this,

when what we know is life is short,

                                         love is possible,

                                         awe and wonder are exquisite.

Being Love

by Elizabeth Venart

When I reflect on the topic of falling in love, my heart opens to experiences of being love. Yes, I said that intentionally. To me, being love is transcendent and transformative, moments of exquisite presence that give meaning to life. When I am being love, I am filled with a feeling of radiant peace and deep appreciation for the present moment and the beauty and connection within it.

I remember the day I fell in love with Rumi’s poetry. At a break while attending a spiritual retreat, I wandered over to a table of poetry books and picked one up at random. The words entranced and washed over me. Music started again and the program resumed, but Rumi and I sat together for hours more, in the deep, riding waves of emotion, surrendering to the invitation for Union and the profound acknowledgement of the agony and ecstasy of Divine Connection, human suffering, longing, and Love.

Last year, I traveled to Iceland in January. I fell in love with the sunsets and sunrises visible during Iceland’s winter. The day is short and the pink sky that welcomes and closes each day lingers close to the horizon. I experienced such joy at the seeing of it – cotton candy pink draping the volcanic mountains.  We also saw Northern Lights on two evenings during our stay. The dance of shimmering green across the star-filled sky mesmerized and awed me.

Finally, I cannot possibly consider the topic of love without marveling at my good fortune in finding love with my husband. On our wedding day, we chose a collection of favorite readings as an invocation for our new life together as a married couple. They were perfect then and have grown even sweeter since, as our love has deepened through the hard-won affection of miles walked, laughter and tears shared, and storms weathered. Actively choosing to stand beside one another and be love together  – moment after moment, day after day, and year after passing year – deepens and enriches my life. Reflecting today on our wedding ceremony readings, I am reminded that being love requires deep and mindful presence – with ourselves and each other – and the ability see through eyes of love, act with love, and bring forward all facets of ourselves with an open heart, curiosity, and compassion. 

The minute I heard my first love story

I started looking for you, not knowing

how blind that was.

Lovers don’t finally meet somewhere.

They’re in each other all along.

            - Rumi

We must look deeply in order to see and understand the needs, aspirations, and suffering of the person we love.  This is the ground for real love.  You cannot resist loving another person when you really understand him or her. . . .  True love needs understanding.  With understanding, the one we love will certainly flower.

            - Thich Nhat Hanh in Peace is every step

the quiet thoughts

of two people a long time in love

touch lightly

like birds nesting in each other’s warmth

you will know them by their laughter

but to each other

they speak mostly through their solitude

if they find themselves apart

they may dream of sitting undisturbed

in each other’s presence

of wrapping themselves warmly

in each other’s ease.

            - Hugh Prather in Notes on Love and Courage

“What is REAL?" asked the Rabbit one day, when they were lying side by side near the nursery fender, before Nana came to tidy the room. "Does it mean having things that buzz inside you and a stick-out handle?"

“Real isn't how you are made," said the Skin Horse. "It's a thing that happens to you. When a child loves you for a long, long time, not just to play with, but Really loves you, then you become Real.”

- Margery Williams in The Velveteen Rabbit. Read More

Elizabeth Venart, LPC,  is the Founder of The Resiliency Center. She is a Certified EMDR Therapist and Approved Consultant who specializes in providing counseling and mentorship to other therapists and working to empower Highly Sensitive Persons to heal the wounds of the past so that they can embrace their gifts more fully and experience greater joy. She also hosts a monthly Spiritual Poetry Evening at the center. Learn more .

-->

Open the Window

Source: Love’s Ripening: Rumi on the Heart’s Journey (2008), Translated by Kabir Helminsky & Ahmad Rezwani, pp.94-95.

There’s a street where the Beautiful One

is known to take a stroll.

When a certain radiance is noticed

through the latticed windows

of that neighborhood,

People whisper, The Beloved

must be near.

Listen: open a window to God

and breathe. Delight yourself

with what comes through that opening.

The work of love is to create

a window in the heart,

for the breast is illumined

by the beauty of the Beloved.

Gaze incessantly on that Face!

Listen, this is in your power, my friend!

Find a way to your innermost secret.

Let no other perception distract you.

You, yourself, possess the elixir,

so rub it into your skin,

and by this alchemy

your inner enemies will become friends.

And as you are made beautiful,

the Beautiful One will become your own,

the intimate of your once lonely spirit.

Beauty in darkness

by Tracie Nichols (2015)

the moon

a ripe peach

suspended

delicately

momentary

flare of

orbed

artistry

succulent

tithe

to the

violet sky

offered

on the

laced fingers

of distant

trees

Emerging from a deep winter night

by Tracie Nichols (2016)

rich scent of

coffee

distant

chickadee glee

yellow leaves

against

mother-of-pearl

sky

and my heart

all scars and exquisiteness

beguiled by morning

cascades into

love

all over

again

A Generosity of Spirit

by Dean Solon

Gentleness with self opens to and reveals a wonderful “secret” teaching: you are perfectly all right as you are

You are perfectly all right as you are.

This gentleness and generosity with yourself unfolds to a feeling and to a sharing of light and warmth, of compassion and lovingkindness, with other living beings.

And so your perception of life and of the world begins to change and to expand…and so the world changes, too.

Sitting…in this moment…in this present and precious moment.

The concoction and connection is already residing inside you.

The concoction and connection is already and always breathing, already and always living, inside you…

waiting to be released,

waiting to be revealed,

waiting to be shared freely.

Dean Solon leads meditation groups on Monday mornings and Thursday evenings at the Resiliency Center.  He has been practicing for over 45 years and facilitating meditation groups since 2003.  He encourages a personal, gentle, non-rigid approach to mindfulness-and- heartfulness meditation.

Clarity

by Dean Solon

perhaps:  when a relationship with a Master is cleared and clear---
                     clear of regret,
                     clear of shame,
                     clear of wrestling,
                     clear of projection,
                     clear of any and all obstruction---
                     then all is clear.

there is clarity.

After Visiting The Meher Baba Spiritual Center

by Dean Solon

today i am back home, no longer in the space of the everything and the nothing.
today i am here, here where all of this experience that we call life, and living, and reality, is.
.
today i am home, am here, am there, am in the two worlds that are one world, am a suburban shaman of the time, the age, we call the 21st century.
today i am holding on, today i am letting go, today i am releasing, today i am receiving, today is timely and is timeless.

today i am living in the peace and the love and the mercy, today i am living in a world of activity and phenomena, in a world that is harsh and stricken and merciless.

i live in this world.  i live in these worlds.  i am shattered, i am whole;  am restless, and resting in Your arms.  i find You any where that i am, with the wisdom of no escape and the great good fortune of no escaping from You.  a life unbelievable, a life beyond belief, a life clear, so very clear, so simply and astonishingly clear.

another day on earth when and where confusion reigns,
yet you need not be confused, and i am not confused.
life may be clear, so simply and astonishingly clear.
clear to the most distant horizon.
clear to, and through, the center of your big heart.

Living In Interesting Times

by Dean Solon

tibetan buddhist teacher Chogyam Trungpa:
"the basic point of mindfulness is to be completely, totally in touch with what happens in your body and the environment around you.  you are not reduced to an inanimate clod of earth while you are meditating.  you may feel your pulse or your heartbeat.  you feel your breathing.  you hear sounds and see sights.  you feel vividly that you are alive."

Confucius is said to have said 2500 years ago:
"may you live in interesting times."
this is an insight to be seen and felt:
these are interesting times that i am living in.
these are interesting times you are living in.

how fine it would be, how present we would be, if we experienced the fullness---and emptiness--- of Living In and With These Interesting Times.
these are fascinating times, fascinating days, hours minutes seconds...moments!
...crazy times, wild times, terrible times, thrilling times...                                  
           how interesting to be experiencing
           this interesting life
           in these interesting times
           directly, presently, clearly.

how about here and now stating a vow of intention of this?...
           to be experiencing
           this interesting life
           in these interesting times
          directly,
          presently,
          clearly.

sit with this...
life becomes vivid.
life becomes clear.
no strain, no strife, no restrictions.
just seeing what there is, all there is, to see.
just feeling what there is, all there is, to feel.
sitting with this...
              

Receding...and a Reseeding

by Dean Solon


sitting...

with the quiet,
in the deep.
with allowing the world to come to me,
with being in this world with You.

a peace prevails,
a peace abides and resides.
allowing the world to come to me,
allowing a surrendering to Your will and whim...
cravings recede.  cravings for anything and anyone,
cravings for outcome, cravings for life and how to live it,
cravings for human beings to be other than who they are.

so, this is who i am, now.
so, this is a sweet spot,
a great good fortune life.
so, all of this is the same as it ever was
...everything changing in each and every moment.
so, everything is play in the House of the Lord.

resting, in the center of the cyclone,
the whirlwind tour strangely and surprisingly quieting,
i am nearly silenced
and all in
and already gone

What We Sat With This Past Week In The Meditation Classes

by Dean Solon

Pema Chodron:  "Meditation is about seeing clearly the body that we have, the mind that we have, the domestic situation that we have, the job that we have, and the people who are in our lives.  It's about seeing how we react to all these things.  It's seeing our emotions and thoughts just as they are right now, in this very moment, in this very room, on this very seat.  It's about not trying to make them go away, not trying to become better than we are, but just seeing clearly with precision and gentleness."

in this life you have been given this body,
in this life you have been given this mind,
in this life you have been given this heart,
in this life you have been given this experience,
in this life you have been given this path and this possibility,
in this life you have been given this mystery and this surprise.

(with this being easter week, let us add these words):
in this life you have been given this grace,
in this life you have been given this great good fortune.

since you are alive, here is what to do,
                                         here is who to be:
be awake.

since we are alive,
let us be awake.




   

Mindfulness---Heartfulness

by Dean Solon

Ram Dass:  "We are all just walking each other home."

In my lifetime, mindfulness---in its multitude of forms---has become one of the most popular indoor sports in the United States.
It is a sport, it is a practice, that comes with many instructions.
Yet there are no rules...other than this, perhaps:  A heart of the practice is being kind and gentle with yourself.

Meditation is a personal journey, is a path of discovery.
Each of us is born into this life,
without a visible road map,
and told to explore.
Exploring, it can be easy to forget you are are exploring.
Experimenting, it it can be easy to forget you are experimenting.
Exploring and experimenting, it may be easy to forget---in this world with a nearly infinite possibility of activities, of experiences, of dramas and distractions---that within each of is is a nearly infinite ocean of possibility.
Within you is a world of mystery and surprise, is a world of awe and splendor.
Within you is a possibility of experiencing connection.  Within you is who you were as you came into this life, and who you are now:  A being of light and warmth.  A being who is, in your heart of hearts, loving and kind, compassionate and merciful, peaceful and joyful.  A being who is mindful and heartful.
Each of us an explorer.
Each of us an experiment.

During an interview published in early 2015, Jon Kabat-Zinn (the originator of the Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction program more than 35 years ago) said:  "In Asian languages, the word for 'mind' and the word for 'heart' tend to be the same word.  So if you're not hearing the word 'heartfulness' when you're hearing the word 'mindfulness', you're really not understanding what it's all about.  You're going into thought, and you're going into your concept of mindfulness, but mindfulness is pointing at something beyond words, underneath words, underneath thinking."

So, be sitting with this.
Be sitting with this...
with this body, with this mind, with this heart,
with this life, with this breath.
Simply, taking in this moment...
Simply, breathing in this moment...
Simply, being in this moment...

Eyes closed, heart beating,
breath rising and falling, doing nothing.

It is lovely this may be all that is required:
A place to sit, a place to be quiet,
a place to be alive and alert and awake.

So, be sitting with this, mindfully, heartfully...

His Holiness the Dalai Lama:  "The initiative must come from the individual.  In a change from the warrior-like society to a peaceful one at the world-wide level, the more peaceful world starts with the individual.  Why?  It wakes an emotional change:  Compassion."

Sitting, lightly and gently aware of the breath, moving in and through and out of the body.
Allowing an easing of the body, an easing of the spirit.  Allowing a feeling of being comfortable, as you are sitting, here, now, in the space we call a planet, we call the earth.
Allowing a feeling of being gentle and kind with yourself, a core of this practice and of this life.
Allowing feelings of gentleness and kindness for living beings, who are near and dear to you in this life.
Allowing feelings of gentleness and kindness for living beings, numbered in the many billions, who are not yet near and dear to you in this life.

Simply, taking in this moment...
Simply, breathing in this moment...
Simply, being in this moment...

A New Life

by Dean Solon
(with nods of gratitude to Ken Wilber and Kim Stanley Robinson)

closing your eyes, lightly and gently, allowing the activities of the brain, the activities of this life, to subside, to quiet within you.
allowing a silence to envelop you, to touch you, to permeate you...

in the inner landscape of your mind's eye, looking around, you may see the great tapestry of the universe woven and weaving with a wondrous ebb and flow, you may be honoring the natural rhythms and cycles of your nature.
we are told the entire cosmos is pulsating like our hearts are pulsating, and like microcosmic atoms are vibrating within us.

to be feeling the rhythm of life is to be dancing to the greatest symphony of all, and to be denying its pulsing is to be missing the essence of all expression.  life...living...is about changes, growth, retreat, activity, rest, unfolding, going inward, participating in the outwards.

a new day beginning, a new day dawning.
who am i, today?  who am i, now?
who are you, today?  who are you, now?
a new being...a new version...a new vision, a new life.

encountering a new day.
engaging with a new day.
encountering and engaging with a new life,
encountering and engaging as a new life.

any and all thought-forms,
like clouds passing across the big sky.
as clouds passing across the big sky...
.

12-13-15 by Dean Solon

the back story is...in the early sunday morning, i am dreaming---
i am with a community, am speaking in the community:  "how do i live?
                                                                                                                     how do i sit?
                                                                                                                     how do i move?"
the words seem to be meaningful to the others, and to me.
awaking from the dreaming, am chanting inside:  how do i live?
                                                                                                     how do i sit?
                                                                                                     how do i move?
at 4 a.m., i am writing...

i spoke my despair.
i shared my despair.
by expressing, i walk the path,
walk through the door,
as always i have done,
crying and laughing.
how do i live?
as spirit, as body, as mystery,
as receiver and as transmitter,
as witness,
as companion,
lying on the killing floor,
born again
and again
                                           and again

how do i sit?
as wandering jew,
as one whose name is bliss,
as one whose bliss is God.
i sit in the darkness,
touching the earth, touching the sky,
radiant, luminous,
surrendering

how do i move?
how do i rise from the killing floor?
washed ashore,
am crawling on the sand,
pathetic
                               and                                as phoenix
rising
as survivor,
as spiritwalker, as shapeshifter,
as shaman-self.

how do i live...
how do i sit...
how do i move?
blown open
with no direction home
whereabouts known                 

A Place To Be by Dean Solon

you may be closing your eyes,
a way of turning off the lights.

now you may be seeing more clearly, more astutely.
now you may be quieter.
now you may be feeling more yourself, and may be feeling more connected.
it is lovely this may be all that is required:
a place to sit, a place to be quiet,
a place to be alive and alert and awake.

there may be many times in this life you have felt this is all you need
to be presently happy, to be happily present.

the near-silence, a gift of the gods. 

For A Moment by Dean Solon

i imagined:  one day i will be me.
today, i am me.
what i imagined is who i am, now.
a journey undertaken, under-consciously,
a journey realized
and recognized.
homeward bound, homeward found.

the ten thousand rays of the sun
shining silently bright.
the ten thousand arrows shooting skyward
falling in undiscovered lands beyond the horizon.
we live there as much as we live here.
our vision is uninhibited.
our reach is unlimited.
our home of all homes
is anywhere.

you, a castle in the sand.
i, a watcher, a witness
to your feats,
loving you,
missing you,
wishing you well on your way home.

blown open,
whereabouts known
...if only for a moment.

NYC Writings by Dean Solon

am the one who is awake, early.  am the one who begins to read Wondering Who You Are (by Sonya Lea), a book given to my friend by her son.

each of us being one who creates a myth, who lives a legend, who travels near and far to get to where he/she is.
each of us a trailblazer and a cautionary tale to others who witness and follow and keep on trucking, or not.

it is a special thing, is it not, to be a human being?
it is a strange and wondrous thing, is it not?  it can be great good fortune and/or it can be death delivered slowly.
it can be an infinite number of things.  it can be next to nothing.
it can bring you everything you needed, everything you might have wanted if you had known what you wanted.  it can bring you nothing but heartaches.

we learn so much...don't we?  we lose so much...don't we?
we are left so much by those who leave us behind, and we leave it all behind when we go, as we must.

carol tells a story.  she is 86 and i am 88 and i am rubbing her feet as she is dying.  i grieve her passing, for a time, and meet a sweet woman with whom i have a loving relationship.  then i am lying down, quietly, and am meditating, and i die.

Benevolence by Dean Solon

there is a Benevolence on the life journey,
on the spiritual path.
spirit does have your back.
spirit always has your back.
sometimes, it does not feel real, does not feel true,
that spirit has your back.
because we can and do experience life to be harsh and hard,
to be challenging and chaotic,
to be frustrating, disappointing, heart-breaking.

     all ye who enter here, give up hope.
     all ye who live in the here and now,
     give up all attachment to outcome.

spirit has our back(s).
there is a Benevolence presence
in this life.