THE GRASP OF YOUR HAND

Let me not pray to be sheltered from dangers,
but to be fearless in facing them.

Let me not beg for the stilling of my pain,
but for the heart to conquer it.

Let me not crave in anxious fear to be saved,
but hope for the patience to win my freedom.

Grant me that I may not be a coward, feeling
Your mercy in my success alone; but let me find
the grasp of Your hand in my failure.

Rabindranath Tagore

ACCEPT ME

Accept me, dear God, accept me for this while.

Let those orphaned days that passed without You be forgotten.

Only spread this little moment wide across Your lap, holding it under Your light.

I have wandered in pursuit of voices that drew me, yet led me nowhere.

Now let me sit in peace and listen to Your words in the soul of my silence.

Do not turn away Your face from my heart's dark secrets, but burn them till they are alight with Your fire.

Rabindranath Tagore

With That Moon Language

Admit something:

Everyone you see, you say to them,
"Love me."

Of course you do not do this out loud:
Otherwise,
Someone would call the cops.

Still though, think about this,
This great pull in us
To connect.

Why not become the one
Who lives with a full moon in each eye
That is always saying,

With that sweet moon
Language,

What every other eye in this world
Is dying to
Hear.

Hafiz

The Holy Longing

Tell a wise person, or else keep silent,
Because the massman will mock it right away.
I praise what is truly alive,
What longs to be burned to death.

In the calm water of the love-nights,
Where you were begotten, where you have begotten,
A strange feeling comes over you
When you see the silent candle burning.

Now you are no longer caught
In the obsession with darkness,
And a desire for higher love-making
Sweeps you upward.

Distance does not make you falter,
Now, arriving in magic, flying,
And, finally, insane for the light,
You are the butterfly and you are gone.

And so long as you haven't experienced
This: to die and so to grow,
You are only a troubled guest
On the dark earth.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

For Sara

I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, from whence cometh my help.
My help cometh from the LORD, which made heaven and earth.
He will not suffer thy foot to be moved: he that keepeth thee will not slumber.
Behold, he that keepeth Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep.
The LORD is thy keeper: the LORD is thy shade upon thy right hand.
The sun shall not smite thee by day, nor the moon by night.
The LORD shall preserve thee from all evil: he shall preserve thy soul.
The LORD shall preserve thy going out and thy coming in from this time forth, and even for evermore.
Psalm 121

A Cushion for Your Head
Just sit there right now
don't do a thing
Just rest.

For your separation from God,
From love,

Is the hardest work
In this
World.

Let me bring you trays of food
And something
That you like to
Drink.

You can use my soft words
As a cusion
For your
Head.

Hafiz

I've broken through to longing now,
filled with a grief I have felt before,
but never like this.

Rumi

"The Magnificent Giotto"

The "father of Western pictorial art" who ushered in the shift from the inward vision of the Medieval world to the outward vision of the Rennaissance.

"Without Brushing My Hair"

Hafiz

The closer I get to you, Beloved, the more I can see it is just You and I alone in this world.

I hear a knock at my door, who else could it be, so I rush without brushing my hair.

For too many nights I have begged for Your return.

And what is the use of vanity at this late hour, at this divine season, that has now come to my folded knees?

If your love letters are true dear God I will surrender myself to who You keep saying I am.

"The Swan"

Rainer Maria Rilke

This clumsy living that moves lumbering

as if in ropes through what is not done

reminds us of the awkward way the swan walks.

And to die, which is a letting go

of the ground we stand on and cling to every day,

is like the swan when he nervously lets himself down

into the water, which receives him gaily

and which flows joyfully under

and after him, wave after wave,

while the swan, unmoving and marvelously calm,

is pleased to be carried, each minute more fully grown,

more like a king, composed, farther and farther on.

This being human is a Guest House

Every morning a new arrival.

A joy, a Depression, a Meaness,

Some momentary awareness comes

As an Unexpected Visitor.

Welcome them All!

Even if they're a crowd of Sorrows

Who violently sweep your house

Empty of its furniture.

Still treat each Guest honorably.

He or She may be clearing you out

For some New Delight.

The Dark Thought, the Shame, the Malice,

Meet them at the door, Laughing,

And invite Them in,

Be grateful for whoever comes

Because each has been sent

As a Guide from Beyond.

Rumi

Inspired by the beautiful movie,
"The Secret Life of Bees"

"Lightening, your presence
from ground to sky.
No one knows what becomes of me,
when you take me so quickly."

Rumi

Renee Fleming
"O Mio Babbino Caro"
Giacomo Puccini

The first time I heard this aria I cried. I had no clue what she was singing, it was just beautiful and touched my heart so completely. Renee Fleming came to Baltimore in December 2007 and I heard her sing this live. And cried yet again. Gorgeous!

"Listen, are you breathing just a little, and calling it a life?"

Mary Oliver

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