everywhere

Close my eyes and raise my hands.
Breathing, feeling the hum of Gaia throbbing through me,
I am vibrating ever so slightly in and out of matter and energy,
wavering in my place here and now. 
I feel at one and yet shift back and forth to know all.
Releasing, letting go, 
to be present without attachment and landed without clinging,
One... yet celebrate diversity of creations of all that exists.


Close my eyes and feel space growing between my cells, 
getting further apart, spreading, 
particles and waves in prisms of rainbow light 
and I am only an image through fairy mist as I expand thinner, 
less dense, air flowing through bones that are no longer connected 
by ligaments no longer taut but 
floating loose and free as all parts of my body drift away into space and 
I am only vibrations spreading far and wide, 
passing through others who are still solid illusion.
To land--but lightly--each time the vibration changes,  
I become form and shape to revel in the wonders of the world.
No need to choose because nothing and our form are the same components 
only vibrating at different speeds yet not speed, 
rather frequency...levels...nothing.


Close my eyes and the bee is humming himself into existence and back out again 
for I hear him and then he is gone and I only assume he still exists yet 
I no longer exist for him because he can see me no more. 
Let go of preference and allow all experience to flow through this moment 
bringing each wave into a shower of blessing before it soaks into the earth of me and grounded being. 
Hear the songs of life, the rhythms that come through from plant and animal, 
from those things we've created and those we think are no more yet have left 
their chords strumming softly upon the strings of those same ligaments that connect our bones, 
feel the air flow through those bones and hollows as we become the flute and the 
song within the form that comes and goes. 
Feel the massage that disappears the body until 
only energy remains, a temporary cohesion, a pause where only 
rhythm of hands and flow of movement is real and 
all else falls away into a nothingness that is strong and true. 
There is this interconnection of matter and energy that we know through senses yet 
falls away the instant we no longer attach to those senses enforced in childhood and 
then we experience self and world through the innocence of 
new beginnings that are always here and 
each wave is an ocean and each particle a mountain. 
I am not here but am everywhere when 
release becomes the music of each breath. 
Only existing from moment to moment to 
become the nothing out of illusion in an instant of non-attachment and 
then weight rushes back into ground me. 
The wise ones of animal and plant wink in and out of existence 
without thought 
as they ebb and flow within the world where we are all One and 
they smile with us as we learn, joy of song in their shifting. 
There is no real or illusion because it is all the same. 
All one energy, one beautiful flow of vibration that plays a song of existence. 
Thousands of years from now 
when it is yesterday once more 
we all will know this perfect birth as death of illusion and 
joy will permeate all living as the emptiness that holds all love is now. 


Close my eyes again and become pure vibration, everywhere.
And when I open my eyes, for an instant, 
I am still everywhere ... 
One with 
the rocks, 
the trees, 
the bee buzzing, 
the bird singing, 
the dog barking, 
the sun shining, 
the air blowing 
moisture into nostrils that flare with the inhale as 
vitality passes throughout this body. 
And then I land. 
Here. 
Grounded once more in this body with feet planted. 
And we are One.
Everywhere.

Yucca and more

While exploring Arizona further south and east, I discovered more breathtakingly diverse scenery! The view in this photo is of Texas Canyon, so named because of all the Texans who settled this particular area.

A visit to the Amerind Foundation Museum yielded a wonderland of boulders, trees and the gorgeous Yucca elata. I have been enamored of this plant since my first trip to Bisbee, so imagine my delight in finding it so plentiful in another unique landscape. Unfortunately, I have yet to get a good photo of this yucca, but, trust me (or click HERE), they can grow big and bold--to a height of 10 to 18 feet, with a flower stalk growing 4 to 6 feet above its wild, palm-like head! Elegant flowers, wild wind-tossled 'hair', shaggy trunk ... fabulous.

Oh, anyway, back to the Amerind where I thoroughly enjoyed the professional exhibits. I particularly appreciated the main room where they clearly showed through artifacts, maps and notes the journey of the Apache/Navajo all the way from Alaska into the Southwest. Fascinating.

This trip also led us down the road to the nearly deserted town of Dragoon, named for its proximity to the Dragoon Mountains. So where did the name "Dragoon" come from? I had to google and found that before they were called the cavalry, they were called the dragoons following in the European tradition from before 1776. Interestingly, considering the persecution of the native people in the area by the United States military of the 1800s, wikipedia also says that dragoon means "to subjugate or persecute by the imposition of troops; and by extension to compel by any violent measures or threats." A sad but true history; recall yet move on with blessings upon those who suffered.

And yet, to end the day, a day of reflection and honor, joy in beauty, we stopped in at a cute little, brand new Mexican restaurant called Mi Casa in Benson. The food was fabulous and I highly recommend it; I will certainly be stopping there anytime I go that direction, whether for future trips to Bisbee, or on the upcoming trip down to the Chirachua National Monument.

It's one long journey of discovery here in Arizona!

Strength in Cycles

She rises strong and true from the depths of the earth where she was helping souls to know, to realize, to cross over into new beginnings. 
She knew that her place was among both worlds and she stood strong and solid in the wisdom of the cycles of all life.*


Accepting love and grace from all around yet also from within, cradling her own face in compassion and hugging her Self in all its beauty revealed to the world without shame or embarrassment. 
She stands in confidence and sincerity as she steps into the light once more. 
A gentle smile curves her mouth as the branches of the underworld, rooted in time, become the fingers of expansion that encourage her and 
welcome all she brings of life and beauty into the footsteps of allowing, 
her prints barely visible yet a slight impression left behind to hold a few drops of mirror-water, 
a seed or two of scattered potential, 
and petals fall in her wake of the ultimate knowing that all hold dear and share. 


She is fullness and strength made of mud and water and warmed by sun, dried by air, held in space of infinite creativity. 
She brings a grace to every movement in each moment of now, for cycles can flow away before we are able to reveal ourselves and that moment is gone.
Yet in her solid form, she stands for each of us as guide and mother, sister and child. 
Where is the waxing and the waning of womb and wild? 
Right here.
She becomes our friend and Self as we feel her compassion for all.
Ever aware of the ebb and flow, she pauses. 
Her stillness envelops me and I am her, holding in loving arms the form that carries me through the cycles of world and these of inner growth or recession.


Once a statue shaped by loving hands, 
her eyes slowly open, dark and light the opposites of her orbs that see into my soul, 
and her smile widens, lips part to reveal strong white teeth reflecting her delight to chew upon the impressions of life before digesting their full flavor, 
as her arms drop away from her own form and she reaches out, open, inviting me into her embrace as the child becomes the mother and we come full circle.
Stepping out to honor. 
Climbing out of the womb of mother, out of the caves where lost soul-bits dwell in their dark nooks to heal or hide yet she makes them all whole to move on.
Child becomes mother as mother becomes crone until death and transformation borrow each of us from form and we settle into the expansiveness of space in a field of flowers where all is sweet and then we realize we never left at all.
For this aromatic pleasure dome is here all around us, we are indistinguishable from air and tree, fire and canyon, rushing rivers around tumbling boulders of former walls no longer blocking channels of love. 
We are already here. 
She smiles at our wonder. 
I have become her . . . I am beauty and grace and cycles of nowhere from here to there!
The impermanence swells within me and I give birth to new eyes, fresh vision, and the love of All rushes out upon the space around me in squiggles and lines, stories and experience, words of witness to all the joys of Light and Dark. 
I look down and I am her, made of mud and water, air drying in soft caress upon my heart and the sun warming my smile into realization. I have become the gift at the end of creativity, for I am the composition of life's cycles. I am her.


And I see her in all those beings around me, our vessels carrying sparks of love that shine through and all the colors of rainbow-clay around the world mix within the palette of her palm and . . . 
We are all her. 
We are One. 
Coming and going. 
Cycles.
__________________________
This piece was inspired by an image (top of this page) randomly chosen for a portal/prompt. The image is titled Persephone (c) Selina di Girolamo 1998 from We'Moon '00 --
*Also, while many people only know the patriarchal version of the myth of Persephone and Demeter, there is another version that is shared in Lost Goddesses of Early Greece by Charlene Spretnak that I had read well over a decade ago. That 'pre-hellenic' version of the myth is the one that emerged while I was writing the above.

Resonance of Community

See in the sunlight the spark of inspiration that saturates the sky, the atmosphere, with infinite potential. All of creation's inspiration is spread out before me when I look up! An entirely new infusion that is just as precious as the abundance of trees in other parts of the country that only yielded a small glimpse of the wide open blue expanse. Diversity that allows exploration of so many channels of heart and life. Here, there, all is precious. While walking and talking, I could feel my entire being opening up wider and wider, my form becoming thinner and less substantial, as I tried to express how the expanse inspires me further along the path of creativity. 


I inhale deeper. I want to inhale even more deeply all the way into the core of me, loving what was once daunting and enjoying the sensation of my channels all opening to profound breaths of Life! 


Where once there was a deepening of inner dives, where I sought to feel soul's depths and discover secrets of the darkness, to heal womb and hollows where shadows might still dwell, now--ah, now--that particular path of healing has come full circle, wholeness warming, cradling, and so I feel able and emboldened to see where else the journey of life may lead me. Where shall I pass and who shall I meet from all walks of life and all species of flora and fauna? Since coming here, opening, expansion is with every inhale and I delight in the flurry of ideas and feelings and sensations, like a flock of birds that dart in and out, their acrobatics mesmerizing...and then they pause, all alight upon the branches offered so graciously and the peace of stillness descends, the trees share their rootedness with the creatures of the air and within that space something new arises that has always been present. Look within the spaces, the gaps, and perceive the images that are created when earth and air are joined, and the light behind reveals the miracles of love and creativity and community.


It may seem strange for me to dwell upon community when I seem, to those who do not really know me, to exist in a solitary existence away from people. But that is because community is not about only people--community is Gaia--it is all forms of life and elementals, all seen and unseen beings and conscious energies, all spirit and substance. All are community because we are all One. This perception is what I sense more than I know. I feel it on all levels and it is a wisdom that I am coming to feel comfortable with--to feel a gift of this inner concept that is more heart-centered than anything I could study. I read other's words and resonate in familiarity that what they say is already here within on an energy level that is becoming brighter each moment. My journey from childhood to young adult to mature woman has presented me with opportunities to learn and grow and I have accepted their invitation more often than not and I am grateful. From traditional religion, to the 'nothing' of animal kingdom and nature, to esoteric and earth-centered, to the divinity of the feminine, to eastern traditions, to knowing that all reveal the same truths in their core yet are couched in different words of human-imposed structural controls yet to be stripped away. See the community there! And there! I slip and slide, too, as I humanly stumble along this path yet I see with eyes of Oneness and that is a comfort and a gift. A gift I receive gratefully. A gift I seek to remain humble with wrapped in its warmth. To share as a witness not as an 'expert'--to let go of ego and welcome One Vision, One Truth to be expressed. To simply share the subtle essence of what I feel.