where the light begins

Peter Zumthor - Bruder Klaus Chapel

 

As we turn towards our yearly habit of ritualising the New Now, let’s pause for a breath or two and be reminded of our sacred mission.
Jan Richardson: Where the Light Begins
 

Perhaps it does not begin.
Perhaps it is always.

Perhaps it takes
a lifetime
to open our eyes,
to learn to see
what has forever
shimmered in front of us

the luminous line
of the map
in the dark

the vigil flame
in the house
of the heart,

the love
so searing
we cannot keep
from singing,

from crying out
in testimony
and praise.

Perhaps this day
will be the mountain
over which
the dawn breaks.

Perhaps we
will turn our face
toward it,
toward what has been
always.

Perhaps
our eyes
will finally open
in ancient recognition,
willingly dazzled,
illuminated at last.

Perhaps this day
the light begins
in us.

 – Jan Richardson, from Circle of Grace, Wanton Gospeller Press


Jan Richardson’s website

Circle of Grace on Amazon

Image and source: Peter Zumthor – Bruder Klaus Field Chapel.
For more information about this extraordinary sacred space see archdaily.com

Gratitude to Claire Beynon for sharing this timely poem on Facebook.


this is awesome, this is wondrous

A week ago I said goodbye to those tropical skies that smile and shower upon the red earth and the tall gums of Capricornia Australia.  I bade farewell to the cackling Kookaburras, the inquisitive geckos, the huge Huntsman spiders…

I said goodbye and they said – Why do you farewell us, You who create us with a simple glance?  A touch?  A sniff or a taste?  A thought?  Are you leaving your mind behind?

A week ago I said hello to the steely temperate skies that hover low, gusty and wet, over this soft green land, Aotearoa New Zealand.  I said hello to the flowering Kowhai and the Tuis probing deep for nectar.  I said hello to the spindly flax, the Toi Tois and the tall cabbage trees tossing in the wind.

And they said – Welcome to yet another empty canvas within Your ever-creative mind.  Welcome, and thank You for giving us existence, for causing us to appear!  Without Your incandescent mind we remain mere patterns of potential in the womb of Emptiness!

This is awesome, this is wondrous:  the knowingness that wherever One goes, there is always only OneSelf unfolding its display in OneMind.

And there’s more – this knowingness, dear One, wears your name-tag.  But don’t be mistaken – it isn’t yours, or mine.  It’s its own OneSelf.

OneSelf, OneMind:  One – and only One.

~ miriam louisa

.

my brilliant image

My Brilliant Image

One day the sun admitted,
I am just a shadow.
I wish I could show you
the Infinite Incandescence
that has cast my brilliant image!
I wish I could show you,
when you are lonely or in darkness,
the Astonishing Light
of your own Being

~ Hafiz

 


I Heard God Laughing: Poems of Hope and Joy
translated by Daniel Ladinsky