Poems of Unalome

  Right Here DANE ANTHONY Stop moving. Stand in one place – this place. Breathe slowly; in, then out. Repeat. Repeat again. Let your shoulders sink and relax. Unclench your jaw; slowly close your eyes. Listen for your heartbeat; really listen. Feel it pulse in your fingertips. Lessen expectations. Under-do all your efforts. Requisition the time for your soul to catch up. Lean into the wind; feel it like a tree and test the ground. Learn to trust the resilience. It would be treason to move quickly – left or right – from this place. It is alright to be exactly what you are, who you are, where you are. Right here, right now.

  Lost DAVID WAGONER Stand still. The trees ahead and bushes beside you Are not lost. Wherever you are is called Here, And you must treat it as a powerful stranger, Must ask permission to know it and be known. The forest breathes. Listen. It answers, I have made this place around you. If you leave it, you may come back again, saying Here. No two trees are the same to Raven. No two branches are the same to Wren. If what a tree or a bush does is lost on you, You are surely lost. Stand still. The forest knows Where you are. You must let it find you.

 Gift ~ by Czeslaw Milosz A day so happy. Fog lifted early. I worked in the garden. Hummingbirds were stopping over the honeysuckle flowers. There was no thing on earth I wanted to possess. I knew no one worth my envying him. Whatever evil I had suffered, I forgot. To think that once I was the same man did not embarrass me. In my body I felt no pain. When straightening up, I saw blue sea and sails.

Begin with Boldness Until one is committed, there is hesitancy, the chance to draw back. Concerning all acts of initiative (and creation), there is one elementary truth, the ignorance of which kills countless ideas and splendid plans: that the moment one definitely commits oneself, then Providence moves too. All sorts of things occur to help one that would never otherwise have occurred. A whole stream of events issues from the decision, raising in one's favor all manner of unforeseen incidents and meetings and material assistance, which no man could have dreamed would have come his way.  Whatever you can do, or dream you can do, begin it. Boldness has genius, power, and magic in it. Begin it now. Text  Commonly attributed to Goethe

It's All Right by William Stafford Someone you trusted has treated you bad. Someone has used you to vent their ill temper. Did you expect anything different? Your work--better than some others'--has languished, neglected. Or a job you tried was too hard, and you failed. Maybe weather or bad luck spoiled what you did. That grudge, held against you for years after you patched up, has flared, and you've lost a friend for a time. Things at home aren't so good; on the job your spirits have sunk. But just when the worst bears down you find a pretty bubble in your soup at noon, and outside at work a bird says, "Hi!" Slowly the sun creeps along the floor; it is coming your way. It touches your shoe.

  Mountains by Sangharakshita Golden in laughing sunlight, Silver in mist and rain, I see thee, mighty mountains. Tower heavenward from the plain. And pray my heart unmoved by Sweet joys or sufferings dire. Like thee through cloud and sunlight May upward still aspire.

Dedication ceremony (morning dedication) For the benefit of all beings For the happiness of all beings With body, speech and mind, I dedicate this day. Abandoning harmfulness, To kindness I dedicate this day. Abandoning selfishness, To sharing I dedicate this day. Abandoning indulgence, To contentment I dedicate this day. Abandoning false speech, To truth I dedicate this day. Abandoning intoxication, To clear awareness I dedicate this day. To Buddhahood, To Dharma, To Sangha, With the blessings of the Bodhisattvas, For the benefit of all, I dedicate this day. (from  https://thebuddhistcentre.com/project/text/exercises-and-reflections-monday-working-reminders-remembering-remember )

Five Vows By Joanna Macy I vow to myself and to each of you: To commit myself daily to the healing of our world and the welfare of all beings. To live on Earth more lightly and less violently in the food, products, and energy I consume. To draw strength and guidance from the living Earth, the ancestors, the future beings, and my brothers and sisters of all species. To support others in their work for the world and to ask for help when I feel the need. To pursue a daily spiritual practice that clarifies my mind, strengthens my heart, and supports me in observing these vows.

Take Care From Reconciliation: Healing the Inner Child, by Thich Nhat Hanh Go back and take care of yourself. Your body needs you, your feelings need you, your perceptions need you. Your suffering needs you to acknowledge it. Go home and be there for all these things. https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/9814155-go-back-and-take-care-of-yourself-your-body-needs

Meditation on a Grapefruit  By Craig Arnold To wake when all is possible before the agitations of the day have gripped you                     To come to the kitchen and peel a little basketball for breakfast               To tear the husk like cotton padding        a cloud of oil misting out of its pinprick pores clean and sharp as pepper                              To ease each pale pink section out of its case so carefully       without breaking a single pearly cell                     To slide each piece into a cold blue china bowl the juice pooling       until the whole fruit is divided from its skin and only then to eat                   so sweet     ...

Sometimes, I Am Startled Out of Myself BARBARA CROOKER like this morning, when the wild geese came squawking, flapping their rusty hinges, and something about their trek across the sky made me think about my life, the places of brokenness, the places of sorrow, the places where grief has strung me out to dry. And then the geese come calling, the leader falling back when tired, another taking her place. Hope is borne on wings. Look at the trees. They turn to gold for a brief while, then lose it all each November. Through the cold months, they stand, take the worst weather has to offer. And still, they put out shy green leaves come April, come May. The geese glide over the cornfields, land on the pond with its sedges and reeds. You do not have to be wise. Even a goose knows how to find shelter, where the corn still lies in the stubble and dried stalks. All we do is pass through here, the best way we can. They stitch up the sky, and it is whole again. https://gratefulness.org/resour...

Daily Lens by Nicoletta Baumeister Gratefulness thoughts in the morning light are about the setting of the daily lens. What will we take in, what will we seek and what is today's sense of self

  Forms of Love by Daniel Baylis  Sometimes I wonder:  What's the point?  Why be good? Why care? Why try to change things?  Why - when we continue to wreck each other?  Yet, I keep moving forward.  Not because I am confident in my outcomes.  But because I am still susceptible to sweet things:  a sunset,  a cup of coffee,  a warm blanket,  the smell of lilacs,  the sound of my mother's laughter -  and all the other forms of love.  Sometimes I wonder:  what would the world look like if each of us decided to become  a form of love?

Initiation Song by Ursula K. Le Guin Please bring strange things. Please come bringing new things. Let very old things come into your hands. Let what you do not know come into your eyes. Let desert sand harden your feet. Let the arch of your feet be the mountains. Let the paths of your fingertips be your maps and the ways you go be the lines of your palms. Let there be deep snow in your inbreathing and your outbreath be the shining of ice. May your mouth contain the shapes of strange words. May you smell food cooking you have not eaten. May the spring of a foreign river be your navel. May your soul be at home where there are no houses. Walk carefully, well-loved one, Walk mindfully, well-loved one, Walk fearlessly, well-loved one. Return with us, return to us, be always coming home .

  Unalome - a poem by Laughing-Soul - All Poetry It all starts within, quest for peace, unwinding every spiral, piece by piece. Twists and turns a path so queer, yet to spirituality we must adhere. Awakens the Soul as unfurls the Lotus whole, Quenches the nectar shalom once attains the fragile mind Unalome.