A Basket of Fresh Bread

A wonderful reminder from the poet Rumi. Everything we need, we already have.

A Basket of Fresh Bread

There is a basket of fresh bread on your head,
yet you go door to door asking for crusts.

Knock on the inner door. No other.
Sloshing knee-deep in clear streamwater,
you keep wanting a drink from other people's waterbags.

Water is everywhere around you,
but you see only barriers that keep you from water.

A horse is moving beneath the rider's thighs,
yet still he asks, Where is my horse?
Right there, under you. Yes, this is a horse,
but where's the horse? Can't you see? Yes,
I can see, but whoever saw such a horse?

Mad with thirst, he cannot drink from the stream
running so close by his face.

He is like a pearl on the deep bottom,
wondering, inside the shell. Where is the ocean?

His mental questionings form the barrier.
His physical eyesight bandages his knowing.
Self-consciousness plugs his ears.
Stay bewildered in God and only that.

RUMI

Holding the Space

Remember when you were in school and your friends would save you a seat in the lunch room, the auditorium, or in the movies. It was a sign of true friendship. A sign that you wanted to be together, and share the experiences together.

In that same vein, I think we still do that for each other. Now, I call it -holding the space for one another. It is not a physical space, but it certainly is a state of mind-a consciousness. So, this is what came to me as I was quiet this morning:

I am holding the space for your peace today.
I am holding the space for your love and joy.
I am holding the space for your spiritual practice to be realized.
I am holding the space for your prosperity and abundance.
I am holding the space for your perfect health.

I am holding the space for your perfection.
I am holding the space for your oneness and divinity.
I am holding this space - because I love you.
Please save me a space in your consciousness as well.

September 11th

The following prayer is the prayer I shared with a group of employees I was working with on 9/11/01. It was the prayer that Spirit lead me to then, so I wanted to share it again today. I knew then, and know even more now, that peace begins with me.

Prayer of St Francis

Lord, make me an instrument of your peace,
Where there is hatred, let me sow love;
where there is injury, pardon;
where there is doubt, faith;
where there is despair, hope;
where there is darkness, light;
where there is sadness, joy.

O Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to console;
to be understood as to understand;
to be loved as to love.

For it is in giving that we receive;
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned;
and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.

Yield and Overcome

Found this piece during my quiet time from Lao-tzu and wanted to share.

Yield and overcome;
Bend and be straight;
Empty and be full;
Wear out and be new;
Have little and gain;
Have much and be confused.

Therefore wise men embrace the one
And set an example to all.
Not putting on a display,
They shine forth.
Not justifying themselves,
They are distinguished.
Not boasting,
They receive recognition.
Not bragging,
They never falter.
They do not quarrel,
So no one quarrels with them.
Therefore the ancients say,
"Yield and overcome."
Is that an empty saying?
Be really whole,
And all things will come to you.

Lao-tzu