BIRDWINGS
Your grief for what you've lost lifts a mirror up to where you're bravely working.

Expecting the worst, you look, and instead, here's the joyful face you've been wanting to see.

Your hand opens and closes and opens and closes. If it were always a fist or always stretched open, you would be paralyzed.

Your deepest presence is in every small contracting and expanding, the two as beautifully balanced and coordinated as birdwings.
Rumi

DARKNESS AND LIGHT
The lantern that I carry in my hand makes an enemy of the darkness of the farther road.

And this wayside becomes a terror to me, where even the flowering tree frowns like a spectre of scowling menace; and the sounds of my steps comes back to me in the echo of muffled suspicion.

Therefore, I pray for Your own morning light, when the far and the near will kiss each other, and life will be one in love.

Tagore

http://www.jacquielawson.com:80/viewcard.asp?code=1761535693029&source=jl999
(Copy and paste to see this musical card.)

Thanks Sara. Much love, Lisa

Lisa Tate is celebrating her birthday today! Thanks Mom and Dad. All my love.

WHEN THE HEART IS HARD
When the heart is hard and parched, come upon me with a shower of mercy.

When grace is lost from life, come with a burst of song.

When tumultuous work raises its din on all sides, shutting me out from beyond, come to me, God of silence, with Your peace and rest.

When my beggarly heart sits crouched, shut up in a corner, break open the door, my God.

When desire blinds the mind with delusion and dust, O Holy One, come with Your light and Your thunder.
Tagore

Jill Bolte Taylor, a brain scientist, experienced a massive stroke. And recovered. She speaks of her experience and recovery. It's startlingly similar to the experience of the mystics.

A KING INSIDE WHO LISTENS

There are many people with their eyes open
whose hearts are shut. What do they see?
Matter.
But someone whose love is alert,
even if the eyes go to sleep,
he or she will be waking up thousands of others.

If you are not one of those light-filled lovers,
restrain your desire-body's intensity.
Put limits on how much you eat
and how long you lie down.

But if you are awake here in the chest,
sleep long and soundly.

Your spirit will be out roaming and working,
even on the seventh level.

Muhammad says, I close my eyes and rest in sleep,
but my love never needs rest.

The guard at the gate drowses.
The king stays awake.

You have a king inside who listens
for what delights the soul.

That king's wakefulness
cannot be described in a poem.

Rumi

Blessings to you, President Obama