when the tide

When the tide goes out for the last time, all the shipwrecks will be waiting for us and the bones of the earth will shine bright white in the sun.
When the tide goes out for the last time, I'll meet you by the planes that never made it past Bermuda.
When the tide goes out for the last time, I swear, we will have nothing left to lose.
- I Wrote This For You

*I posted this Thursday before the news from Japan - the topic is a little eerie. My thoughts are with everyone affected.

you notice

You notice someone cutting you off in traffic.
But not that the earth is still here for one more day.

-I Wrote This For You

perspective

This isn't torture.
Torture happens in small, dark rooms in countries with names you struggle to spell.
This is just mildly unpleasant.
.
This isn't heroism.
Heroism happens in churches that are also schools, performed by teachers with no names and no place to stay.
This is just a good deed for the day.
.
This isn't loss.
Loss happens on fields filled with poppies, in hospitals buzzing with flies, in distant deserts and late at night when there's no good reason for the phone to ring.
This is just longing.
.
This isn't important.
Important happens on bended knees and is breathed on last breaths with hands clutched tight, hearts tighter.
This is just a distraction.

-I Wrote This for You

magic trees

Lost love is still love. It takes a different form, that's all.

.

Mitch Albom, The Five People You Meet in Heaven.

photo here.

doing

What your body is doing

is a reflection of what your life is about.

.

-Meditations from Conversations with God

emma and the rules

I tried like eight different HarryPotter joke titles but none of them really worked.

Please feel free to suggest some.

But I like the images.

Emma Watson Burberry Fall Ad Campaign by Mario Testino.

.

.

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June 9: I tell you this: you are your own rule-maker.

You set the guidelines.

And you decide how well you have done;

how well you are doing.

-Meditations from Conversations with God.

In the true order of things

one does not do something in order to be happy -

one is happy, and, hence, does something.

Meditations from Conversations with God.

You can choose to be a person

who has resulted simply from what has happened,

or from what you have chosen to be and do

about what has happened.

-Meditations from Conversations with God

"It might not be a bad goal in your life

to know the highest part of yourself,

and to stay centered in that."

.

Meditations from Conversations with God.

"Worry is the activity of a mind
which does not understand its connection with Me."

Meditations from Conversations with God.

poems

So I ran out of poems. The second half of the book got a little out there for me - not that they weren't really amazing poems... but just didn't grab me the way some of the others did.

But we need to keep our spiritual side satisfied, no? - from one of my favorite books, Meditations from Conversations with God. I found this whole line of books really interesting - basically this guy sits down and starts writing. And its God writing to him, through him. He thinks maybe its his imagination and God basically says 'maybe I am your imagination.'
I don't know, to each their own on your feeling about the books.

But regardless I love the messages - that basically it all boils down to love. Its not religion or opinions or unhappiness. Just love.

February 20. The world exists the way it exists - just as a snowflake exists the way it exists - quite by design. You have created it that way - just as you have created your life exactly as it is.

rumi's poems

A few more poems (thanks to Miss H for the poem shout out!)...these are by Rumi (1207-1273).

I like when the music happens like this:

.

Something in His eye grabs a hold of a tambourine in me,

.

then I turn and lift a violin in someone else.

and they turn, and this turning continues,

.

it has reached you now.

.

Isn't that something?

.

.

.

.

Great lions can find peace in a cage.

But we should only do that as a last resort.

.

So those bars I see that restrain your wings,

I guess you won't mind if I pry them open.

coloring books

Another poem - again by Meister Eckhart (1260-1328).
.

How long

will grown men and women in this world

keep drawing in their coloring books

an image of God that

makes them sad?

another poem

Two more poems. These are from Meister Eckhart (1260-1328).
.
.

It is a lie - any talk of God that does not comfort you.

.

.

Having lunch in a field one day,

I troubled an ant with some questions.

I asked of him humbly,

.

"Have you ever been to Paris?"

And he replied, "No, but I wouldn't mind going."

And then asked me if I had ever been to a famous ant city.

And I regretted that I hadn't, and was quick to add,

"I wouldn't mind, too!"

.

This led to a conclusion: there is life that we do not know of.

How aware are we of all consciousness

in this universe?

.

What percent of space is this earth in the infinite realm?

What percent of time is one second

in eternity?

.

Less than that is our knowledge of God

.

How then can we ever argue about Him?

the sun never says

Another favorite poem. This is by Hafiz (1320-1389)

Even after all this time

he sun never says to the earth,

"You owe me."

Look what happens

with a love like that-

it lights the whole world.

love poems

Another poem. This one is by St. Francis of Assisi (1182-1226).

No one knows his name -

a man who lives on the streets

and walks around in rags.

Once I saw that man in a dream.

He and God were constructing

an extraordinary temple.

love poems

So I've been reading this book a few pages at a time every night. Love Poems by God, Twelve Sacred Voices from the East and West by Daniel Ladinsky. A collection of poems from twelve different historical, spiritual writers. I really like the way some of these writers look at God.

I have an interesting relationship with religion. Husband says maybe I don't have religion, I just have faith. I was raised in a Methodist church and fundamentally believe along the lines they teach. However - I cannot say that someone who was raised Buddist or BaHai are 'wrong' for what they believe. Who's to say their version of how this whole world works isnt right - and I'm wrong? Or what if (and most likely) none of us are 'right'?

I'm generally just confused and open to the idea that we're all doing ok as long as we're doing the best we can to be a good person.

A lot of these poems, written a really long time ago, seem to share that theme. That the particulars don't necessarily matter as much as the basics - most importantly love.

Thought I'd share some of my favorites every once in a while. Starting with this one, short and sweet, by St. Thomas Aquinas.

One may never have heard the sacred word "Christ,"

but be closer to God than a priest or nun.