tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-47299746511528566362024-03-12T19:59:02.804-04:00Wisdom for womenCreative Soulful Womanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01544165208876808443noreply@blogger.comBlogger119125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4729974651152856636.post-7576257587795857692020-10-06T11:33:00.005-04:002020-10-06T11:33:50.634-04:00FOR ONE WHO IS EXHAUSTED, John O’Donohue<div style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 22.5pt; text-align: left;"> <a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-nxMWFCudBxI/X3yOOizVTLI/AAAAAAABALM/Z1VAT-15MrMpvPkYS_jChVcM1yPzwbusACLcBGAsYHQ/s2048/heart%2Bfocus%2Bcard.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 14pt; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1258" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-nxMWFCudBxI/X3yOOizVTLI/AAAAAAABALM/Z1VAT-15MrMpvPkYS_jChVcM1yPzwbusACLcBGAsYHQ/s320/heart%2Bfocus%2Bcard.jpg" /></a></div><div style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 22.5pt; text-align: left;"><span style="color: #555555; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 18.6667px;">When the rhythm of the heart becomes hectic,</span><br /><span style="background-color: white; color: #555555; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 14pt;">Time takes on the strain until it breaks;<br /></span><span style="color: #555555; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">
Then all the unattended stress falls in<br /></span><span style="color: #555555; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">
On the mind like an endless, increasing weight.</span></div>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 22.5pt;"><span style="color: #555555; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">The
light in the mind becomes dim.<br /><br />
Things you could take in your stride before<br />
Now become laborsome events of will.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 22.5pt;"><span style="color: #555555; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Weariness
invades your spirit.<br />
Gravity begins falling inside you,<br />
Dragging down every bone.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 22.5pt;"><span style="color: #555555; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">The
tide you never valued has gone out.<br />
And you are marooned on unsure ground.<br />
Something within you has closed down;<br />
And you cannot push yourself back to life.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 22.5pt;"><span style="color: #555555; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">You
have been forced to enter empty time.<br />
The desire that drove you has relinquished.<br />
There is nothing else to do now but rest<br />
And patiently learn to receive the self<br />
You have forsaken in the race of days.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 22.5pt;"><span style="color: #555555; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">At
first your thinking will darken<br />
And sadness take over like listless weather.<br />
The flow of unwept tears will frighten you.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 22.5pt;"><span style="color: #555555; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">You
have traveled too fast over false ground;<br />
Now your soul has come to take you back.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 22.5pt;"><span style="color: #555555; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Take
refuge in your senses, open up<br />
To all the small miracles you rushed through.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 22.5pt;"><span style="color: #555555; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Become
inclined to watch the way of rain<br />
When it falls slow and free.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 22.5pt;"><span style="color: #555555; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Imitate
the habit of twilight,<br />
Taking time to open the well of color<br />
That fostered the brightness of day.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 22.5pt;"><span style="color: #555555; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Draw
alongside the silence of stone<br />
Until its calmness can claim you.<br />
Be excessively gentle with yourself.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 22.5pt;"><span style="color: #555555; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Stay
clear of those vexed in spirit.<br />
Learn to linger around someone of ease<br />
Who feels they have all the time in the world.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 22.5pt;"><span style="color: #555555; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Gradually,
you will return to yourself,<br />
Having learned a new respect for your heart<br />
And the joy that dwells far within slow time.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 22.5pt;"><span style="color: #555555; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br /></span></p>Creative Soulful Womanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01544165208876808443noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4729974651152856636.post-47590309592287518452020-10-06T11:31:00.004-04:002020-10-06T11:31:16.746-04:00THE MAYO TAO - DEREK MAHON <p> </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-outline-level: 3;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 14pt;">I have abandoned the
dream kitchens for a low fire</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">
and a prescriptive literature of the spirit;<br />
a storm snores on the desolate sea.<br />
The nearest shop is four miles away –<br />
when I walk there through the shambles<br />
of the morning for tea and firelighters<br />
the mountain paces me in a snow-lit silence.<br />
My days are spent in conversation<br />
with deer and blackbirds;<br />
at night fox and badger gather at my door.<br />
I have stood for hours<br />
watching a salmon doze in the tea-gold dark,<br />
for months listening to the sob story<br />
of a stone in the road, the best,<br />
most monotonous sob story I have ever heard.<br />
<br />
I am an expert on frost crystals<br />
and the silence of crickets, a confidant<br />
of the stinking shore, the stars in the mud –<br />
there is an immanence in these things<br />
which drives me, despite my scepticism,<br />
almost to the point of speech,<br />
like the sunlight cleaving the lake mist at morning<br />
or when tepid water<br />
runs cold at last from the tap.<br />
<br />
I have been working for years<br />
on a four-line poem<br />
about the life of a leaf;<br />
I think it might come out right this winter.<br />
<br />
Copyright: Derek Mahon, <i>Selected Poems</i>, Penguin, 2000.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><i><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Collected Poems</span></i><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">, Gallery Press, 1999.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>Creative Soulful Womanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01544165208876808443noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4729974651152856636.post-6191176126389051892014-11-06T15:58:00.003-05:002014-11-06T15:58:25.709-05:00Where is beauty? poem<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">WHERE IS BEAUTY?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">in the eye</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">or somewhere inside</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">the body</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">HUMMING</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">on its wheel</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">BASK</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">in sunlight</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Study the humility</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">of grass</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">the steadfast</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">trees</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Hold on to this breath-thread</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">reins</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">to calm my </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Restless</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">HEART</span><br />
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<br />Creative Soulful Womanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01544165208876808443noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4729974651152856636.post-53824788218775220682014-11-06T11:08:00.003-05:002018-05-10T08:44:46.154-04:00A Poem for Mothering Ourselves <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-L5AOdQINkgY/VFuctgYKxeI/AAAAAAAAAxE/ArCq_0vaB54/s1600/IMG_2735.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-L5AOdQINkgY/VFuctgYKxeI/AAAAAAAAAxE/ArCq_0vaB54/s1600/IMG_2735.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">I'm preparing a class for next week on the topic of Mothering Ourselves. I want to incorporate some beautiful serene music about the feminine face of god, and a visualization, imagining the Shekinah or female companion of God in spirit form wrapping her wings around me, or soothing my brow with the palm of her hand, or lying in the lap of Buddha....here is a poem to go with that self-compassion.</span><br />
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<span style="background: white; color: #333333; font-family: "tahoma" , "sans-serif";"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="background: white; color: #333333; font-family: "tahoma" , "sans-serif";">What If? <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background: white; color: #333333; font-family: "tahoma" , "sans-serif";">by Jena Strong.</span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "tahoma" , "sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br />
<br />
<span style="background: white;">What if you knew</span><br />
<span style="background: white;">that everything was going to be okay,</span><br />
<span style="background: white;">that something was in motion</span><br />
<span style="background: white;">beyond your field of vision,</span></span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "tahoma" , "sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">beyond even the
periphery<br />
of your knowing?<br />
<br />
What if you knew<br />
that everything you want,<br />
everything you’ve been seeking,<br />
trying to figure out, missing,<br />
is right here, already whole<br />
in your hands, in your life?<br />
What if taking in what is<br />
could satisfy your longing?<br />
<br />
What if you could rest your frantic, racing, busy mind<br />
and rest your neglected, tired body,<br />
put your head down in someone’s lap<br />
to have your hair stroked,<br />
like a cat, or a child?<br />
<br />
What if you didn’t need to understand<br />
how it works,<br />
but could enjoy the magic<br />
of how love shows itself<br />
in the most unexpected, simplest of gestures?<br />
What if everything is just it should be?<br />
<br />
What if nothing had to be better,<br />
bigger, different, or other?<br />
What would you do then?<br />
Who would you be?"<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-HkKXwfIrrRY/VFucsS33oPI/AAAAAAAAAw8/9r9aJzTHf14/s1600/IMG_2732.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-HkKXwfIrrRY/VFucsS33oPI/AAAAAAAAAw8/9r9aJzTHf14/s1600/IMG_2732.JPG" width="240" /></a></div>
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<o:p> (SoulCollage cards representing Rest, on top, and the Great Mother).</o:p></div>
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<o:p><br /></o:p></div>
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<o:p>Jennifer/Musemother</o:p></div>
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<o:p><br /></o:p></div>
Creative Soulful Womanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01544165208876808443noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4729974651152856636.post-26192382242562500372014-01-06T17:42:00.000-05:002014-01-06T17:42:01.028-05:00It’s Dawning on Me<div class="MsoNormal">
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<i><span style="font-family: "Batang","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">If we do everything else
but that one thing, we will be lost. And if we do <o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "Batang","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">nothing else but that one
thing, we will have lived a glorious life. Rumi<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Batang","serif";">In my solitary quest
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Batang","serif";">for a silent
Sunday morning<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Batang","serif";">free of phones
and idle chatter<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Batang","serif";">and hungry for
connection,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Batang","serif";">I watch the hazy
sky at dawn.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Batang","serif";">Then seek the
bronze/gold sun<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Batang","serif";">of the inner
sunrise,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Batang","serif";">under the rich
cashmere shawl<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Batang","serif";">of breath.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Batang","serif";">Where thoughts
are thrown back <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Batang","serif";">into the lake
like fish<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Batang","serif";">too small to
keep.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Batang","serif";">I am after bigger
fish,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Batang","serif";">the One Voice
that purrs<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Batang","serif";">and picks me up,
kitten<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Batang","serif";">in its mouth.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Batang","serif";">Held by the wide
Mothercomfort,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Batang","serif";">awe in the face
of such deep<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Batang","serif";">nourishment, a
seed <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Batang","serif";">reawakens-- the
passion<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Batang","serif";">for living
inside-out.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Batang","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;"><br clear="all" style="mso-special-character: line-break; page-break-before: always;" /></span>Creative Soulful Womanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01544165208876808443noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4729974651152856636.post-81412100539133367802013-11-19T15:24:00.000-05:002013-11-19T15:24:15.179-05:00Women's Stories<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">the
ones we tell each other,</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">late
at night or early in the morning</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">over
coffee & a cigarette,</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">more
than one if it's a story we've told</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">over
and over like chain smoking, like</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">dirty
laundry soaking in the tub, stains</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">evoking
lost memories of teething, cut </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">lips,
blood on the sweatshirt where</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">you
held his head & he bled all over you</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">&
you want to speak about this love</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">you
have for other women who listen</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">intently,
with their own pain showing</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">&
many cigarettes to carry them</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">through
the telling.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">a
compassionate voice or ear,</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">the
closeness we feel yet cannot say</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">because
we're afraid of a label</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">but
what we really want, I want,</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">is
someone fearless, a weaver of words</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">or
truthteller, someone who's not afraid</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">of
hurting while resetting a bone.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">to
talk about the helplessness of being</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">stuck
in a house with a sick child,</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">the
boredom that strikes,</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">the
complaining we do, being called martyr</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">when
all I really want is to tell someone</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">how
unfair it is that I'm the only one</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">they
call for in the middle of the night</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">&
it's my ears hear them coughing</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">at
3 a.m. & I can't just lie there.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">how
to find out what our own needs are</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">&
how to take care of ourselves,</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">not
just wait for him to come home, take over,</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">pick
up the toys and the pieces, mop up our spills,</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">how
to find a quiet time, time alone,</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">time
to think & write.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">our
need to be replenished with each other,</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">filling
up our bowls with sugar & coffee</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">so
we can tell our stories</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">not
just talking over fences in the backyard</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">but
actually getting out & seeing women</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">doing
the same hard work,</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">no
pay, no thanks, just their little faces</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">when
one least expects it, smiling & asking</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">me
to sing a song about I love you</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;"> or
making up a song about superman</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">all
by himself in the living room.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">he
says, go away mom, don't talk (meaning</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">I
have to do this alone, don't listen</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">cause
it might not be perfect the first time).</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">I
send you this in guise of a letter</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">because
that's the way the words are falling out</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">of
my fingers. in my mind I hear</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">the
tapping on keys and it comforts me</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">at
least I can listen to myself talk</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">without
talking out loud (for that's</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">what
crazy women do).</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">so
I keep on writing & dreaming</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">trying
to live truthfully</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">with
my emotions, in my body</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">and
I hope you do the same.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">from
Little Mother, Jennifer Boire</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">published 1997</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<br /></div>
Creative Soulful Womanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01544165208876808443noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4729974651152856636.post-26129081147800063522013-10-10T11:42:00.002-04:002013-10-10T11:42:23.797-04:00Autumn Poem by John Keats, 1819<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-ddTekJ46n8c/UlbKE9XBsuI/AAAAAAAAAo4/y-bljtINYm8/s1600/IMG_1610.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-ddTekJ46n8c/UlbKE9XBsuI/AAAAAAAAAo4/y-bljtINYm8/s320/IMG_1610.JPG" width="240" /></a></div>
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<b><br /></b></div>
<div style="background-color: #aaccaa;">
<b>TO AUTUMN.</b></div>
<div style="background-color: #aaccaa;">
<i>1.</i></div>
<div style="background-color: #aaccaa;">
S<span>EASON</span> of mists and mellow fruitfulness,<br /> Close bosom-friend of the maturing sun;<br /> Conspiring with him how to load and bless<br /> With fruit the vines that round the thatch-eves run;<br /> To bend with apples the moss’d cottage-trees,<br /> And fill all fruit with ripeness to the core;<br /> To swell the gourd, and plump the hazel shells<br /> With a sweet kernel; to set budding more,<br /> And still more, later flowers for the bees,<br /> Until they think warm days will never cease,<br /> For Summer has o’er-brimm’d their clammy cells.</div>
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<i>2.</i></div>
<div style="background-color: #aaccaa;">
Who hath not seen thee oft amid thy store?<br /> Sometimes whoever seeks abroad may find<br /> Thee sitting careless on a granary floor,<br /> Thy hair soft-lifted by the winnowing wind;<br /> Or on a half-reap’d furrow sound asleep,<br /> Drows’d with the fume of poppies, while thy hook<br /> Spares the next swath and all its twined flowers:<br /> And sometimes like a gleaner thou dost keep<br /> Steady thy laden head across a brook;<br /> Or by a cyder-press, with patient look,<br /> Thou watchest the last oozings hours by hours.</div>
<div style="background-color: #aaccaa;">
<i>3.</i></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-cDZ8aJ867vs/UlbKaSxNNUI/AAAAAAAAApI/69vI-SzZ4nA/s1600/IMG_1642.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-cDZ8aJ867vs/UlbKaSxNNUI/AAAAAAAAApI/69vI-SzZ4nA/s400/IMG_1642.JPG" width="400" /></a></div>
<div style="background-color: #aaccaa;">
Where are the songs of Spring? Ay, where are they?<br /> Think not of them, thou hast thy music too,—<br /> While barred clouds bloom the soft-dying day,<br /> And touch the stubble plains with rosy hue;<br /> Then in a wailful choir the small gnats mourn<br /> Among the river sallows, borne aloft<br /> Or sinking as the light wind lives or dies;<br /> And full-grown lambs loud bleat from hilly bourn;<br /> Hedge-crickets sing; and now with treble soft<br /> The red-breast whistles from a garden-croft;<br /> And gathering swallows twitter in the skies.</div>
Creative Soulful Womanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01544165208876808443noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4729974651152856636.post-27227036473430789062013-10-04T10:18:00.005-04:002020-10-06T11:34:40.030-04:00Empowering the Feminine within: A woman who follows her own heart <div class="MsoNormal">
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Yi4HWIX7kpo/Uk7N-wbGdeI/AAAAAAAAAoQ/zrYyfdzEI1I/s1600/IMG_1083.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Yi4HWIX7kpo/Uk7N-wbGdeI/AAAAAAAAAoQ/zrYyfdzEI1I/s320/IMG_1083.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
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SoulCollage(R) Card Shamanic Healer & Storyteller</div>
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<i><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 10pt;">“</span><span face="Arial, sans-serif">The things women are most yearning for---such
as deeper connection, spiritual awakening, self-expression, creativity, right
livelihood, creating an enlightened world for generations to come---all require
a new level of </span></i><em><span face="Arial, sans-serif"><b>Feminine Power</b></span></em><i><span face="Arial, sans-serif"> to bring them forth</span></i><span face="Arial, sans-serif">.” Jean Houston</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span face="Arial, sans-serif">A woman who follows her
own heart has learned to listen to her intuition.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span face="Arial, sans-serif">A woman who follows her
own heart listens to her body guidance.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span face="Arial, sans-serif">A woman who follows her
own heart shares deeply, listens deeply, is present with others.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span face="Arial, sans-serif">A woman who follows her
own heart feels her fear, acknowledges it, but is not held back by it.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span face="Arial, sans-serif">A woman who follows her
own heart is always expanding, growing, learning.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span face="Arial, sans-serif">A woman who follows her
own heart discovers her true desires and interests.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span face="Arial, sans-serif">A woman who follows her
own heart is impatient to get started.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span face="Arial, sans-serif">A woman who follows her
own heart believes in herself, and her creative powers.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span face="Arial, sans-serif">A woman who follows her
own heart is able to say no, and speak her truth.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span face="Arial, sans-serif">A woman who follows her
own heart knows the value of doing nothing, of rest and recuperation.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span face="Arial, sans-serif">A woman who follows her
own heart knows that to go down and in is preparation for coming out and up.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span face="Arial, sans-serif">A woman who follows her
own heart is a source of calm, a balm for others.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span face="Arial, sans-serif">A woman who follows her
own heart leans inward in times of trouble, but is not afraid to ask for help.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span face="Arial, sans-serif">A woman who follows her
own heart knows that angels and guides are watching over her.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span face="Arial, sans-serif">A woman who follows her
own heart knows her own value.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span face="Arial, sans-serif">A woman who follows her
own heart accepts herself as she is, flawed but fabulous.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span face="Arial, sans-serif">A woman who follows her
own heart lets her children be flawed and fabulous too.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span face="Arial, sans-serif">A woman who follows her
own heart stands her ground.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span face="Arial, sans-serif">A woman who follows her
own heart knows how to be grounded in root energy.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span face="Arial, sans-serif">A woman who follows her
own heart lets go to the flow of synchronicity.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span face="Arial, sans-serif">A woman who follows her
own heart trusts the Universe and knows she is loved.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span face="Arial, sans-serif">A woman who follows her
own heart has a constant companion and Friend within.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span face="Arial, sans-serif">A woman who follows her
own heart reaches out in compassion to those who suffer, she has been there
too.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span face="Arial, sans-serif">A woman who follows her
own heart creates an atmosphere of love and caring around her.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span face="Arial, sans-serif">A woman who follows her
own heart remembers where her Joy is.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span face="Arial, sans-serif">A woman who follows her
own heart laughs from the belly.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span face="Arial, sans-serif">A woman who follows her
own heart loves her body and knows she is beautiful within and without.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span face="Arial, sans-serif">A woman who follows her
own heart forgives herself for her mistakes.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span face="Arial, sans-serif">A woman who follows her
own heart is in love with Beauty.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span face="Arial, sans-serif">A woman who follows her
own heart is in touch with her feminine power.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span face="Arial, sans-serif">Any woman who follows
her own heart can learn to be this woman.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span face="Arial, sans-serif">Any woman who is aware
of where she is and how she feels, and doesn’t try to pretend to be something
different, can be this woman.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span face="Arial, sans-serif">You are that woman with
heart, unfolding, becoming, and realizing herself as the goal. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span face="Arial, sans-serif">Heart is the Hearth and
Home of you. Come home to your heart!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div>
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<br /></div>
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<br /></div>
Creative Soulful Womanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01544165208876808443noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4729974651152856636.post-32108884427998811642013-07-08T15:16:00.005-04:002013-07-08T15:17:38.886-04:00Suddenly in two worlds<span style="background-color: white; color: #37404e; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"> <i>with apologies to Wallace Stevens</i></span><br />
<i><br style="background-color: white; color: #37404e; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;" /></i><span style="background-color: white; color: #37404e; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">A woman is always suddenly in two worlds,</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #37404e; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">over the morning's breakfast plates</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #37404e; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">jammed up knives, amid soccer behind the hedge,</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #37404e; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">screaming, thuds, kicked leather.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #37404e; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">The wind calls her to write: birds at the </span><span class="text_exposed_show" style="background-color: white; color: #37404e; display: inline; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">feeder<br />startle when the big black dog runs out<br />and her poems are suddenly startled, fleeing<br />before she can grab paper and pen.<br />The kids come in: one tries her flute, he opens<br />the side gate to greet the barking lab.<br /><br />We are many worlds wrapped up in<br />this green space, the (good) Mom she tries to be<br />while the Poet skulks back into the slow cooker<br />left on simmer all day, closes the notepad<br />and pads in socking feet back<br />to the kitchen. </span>Creative Soulful Womanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01544165208876808443noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4729974651152856636.post-36498629493009659372013-07-08T14:27:00.003-04:002013-07-08T14:27:44.002-04:00Eve reimagines her beginning<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><i>“I permit no woman to teach or to have authority over
man: she is to keep silent. For Adam was formed first, then Eve; and Adam was
not deceived, but the woman was deceived, and became a transgressor.” </i></b>(I Tim 2:11-14) </div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<h4>
<span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Batang","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Naming Adam<o:p></o:p></span></h4>
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<i><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Batang","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">“She desires herself alone, fulfills her desire</span></i></div>
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<i><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Batang","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">becomes pregnant from that desire.”<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Batang","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"> <b>Reinventing
Eve, </b>Kim Chernin<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Batang","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Some say she was pulled from his rib<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Batang","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">golden in the leaves of paradise<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Batang","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">or rose from the spermy sea on a shell<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Batang","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">foam on the salt waves.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Batang","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">But the first woman entered like lightning <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Batang","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">from the wet red cave<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Batang","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">a sea of milk in her breasts<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Batang","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">rich menstrual blood in her womb.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Batang","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">She took of her blood<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Batang","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">mixed it with clay, then swallowed it,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Batang","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">dancing, churned the moonblood<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Batang","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">in her belly to a child.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Batang","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">From the cleft of light, the sacred<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Batang","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">opening, the first man was born.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Batang","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">She licked her blood from the clay-wet form<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Batang","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">breathed life into his mouth.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Batang","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">He called her Eve, because she was the mother<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Batang","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">of all living beings.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Batang","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">She named him Adam, for the red earth<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Batang","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">from which he was made.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p>
</o:p></div>
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<span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Batang","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">(published, Poetry Canada, 1990)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Batang","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><br /></span></div>
Creative Soulful Womanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01544165208876808443noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4729974651152856636.post-13346936065281075302012-11-05T11:07:00.000-05:002012-11-05T11:09:47.096-05:00Poem for the soul<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://www.nlmaritimesociety.org/inner_ear_bone_of_whale.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="213" src="http://www.nlmaritimesociety.org/inner_ear_bone_of_whale.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<b>Bone</b>,
from <i>Why I Wake Early</i> (2004) <o:p></o:p></div>
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<i>by Mary Oliver</i><o:p></o:p></div>
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<i><br /></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
1.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<span style="font-size: 10pt;"> </span>Understand, I am always trying to figure out<o:p></o:p></div>
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what the soul is,<o:p></o:p></div>
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and where hidden,<o:p></o:p></div>
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and what shape <o:p></o:p></div>
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and so, last week,<o:p></o:p></div>
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when I found on the beach<o:p></o:p></div>
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the ear bone<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
of a pilot whale that may have
died<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
hundreds of years ago, I thought<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
maybe I was close<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
to discovering something <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
for the ear bone<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
2.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
is the portion that lasts longest<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
in any of us, man or whale; shaped<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
like a squat spoon<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
with a pink scoop where<o:p></o:p></div>
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once, in the lively swimmer's
head,<o:p></o:p></div>
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it joined its two sisters<o:p></o:p></div>
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in the house of hearing,<o:p></o:p></div>
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it was only<o:p></o:p></div>
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two inches long <o:p></o:p></div>
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and I thought: the soul<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
might be like this <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
so hard, so necessary <o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
3.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
yet almost nothing.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Beside me<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
the gray sea<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
was opening and shutting its
wave-doors,<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
unfolding over and over<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
its time-ridiculing roar;<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I looked but I couldn't see
anything<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
through its dark-knit glare;<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
yet don't we all know, the golden
sand<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
is there at the bottom,<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
though our eyes have never seen
it,<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
nor can our hands ever catch it<o:p></o:p></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
4.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
lest we would sift it down<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
into fractions, and facts <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
certainties <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
and what the soul is, also<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I believe I will never quite know.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Though I play at the edges of
knowing,<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
truly I know<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
our part is not knowing,<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
but looking, and touching, and
loving,<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
which is the way I walked on,<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
softly,<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
through the pale-pink morning
light.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
Creative Soulful Womanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01544165208876808443noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4729974651152856636.post-58876033507486064992012-10-15T11:05:00.002-04:002018-05-10T08:43:45.110-04:00Give me Birdsong<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-goubtej8-2o/UHwm2y9--CI/AAAAAAAAAYc/1jyasAvG2dU/s1600/IMG_2132.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="239" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-goubtej8-2o/UHwm2y9--CI/AAAAAAAAAYc/1jyasAvG2dU/s320/IMG_2132.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
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<i><br /></i>
<i><br /></i>
<i><br /></i>
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<i><br /></i><br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>In the dark times will there also be singing?</i><br />
<i>Yes, there will be singing. About the dark times.</i><br />
Bertolt Brecht<br />
<br />
Give me bird song<br />
to lighten the sadness,<br />
the coming dark.<br />
<br />
Give me rainfall<br />
to sweeten November grass.<br />
<br />
Give me long summer nights<br />
and Danish choirs singing<br />
into the light that lasts<br />
until September.<br />
<br />
Give me a woman in black<br />
playing piano in the shadows<br />
where we cannot see her.<br />
Let the melody and music<br />
float down to us below,<br />
beside the crooked house<br />
with tilting stairs,<br />
white linens.<br />
<br />
Give me what is broken, but true.<br />
For I have grown to hate<br />
a song that hits all the right noes<br />
but has no blackedged heart.<br />
<br />
Let my brokenness<br />
be bird song.<br />
<br />
Jennifer Boire<br />
<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-n_MMiLLb4ec/UHwmi_v9SbI/AAAAAAAAAYU/Q_GeDLgI9Kg/s1600/fall+2012+230.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="239" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-n_MMiLLb4ec/UHwmi_v9SbI/AAAAAAAAAYU/Q_GeDLgI9Kg/s320/fall+2012+230.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
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<br />Creative Soulful Womanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01544165208876808443noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4729974651152856636.post-60894289943546830442012-09-17T22:43:00.002-04:002012-09-17T22:43:36.846-04:00Be Where You Are<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<em><span lang="EN-CA" style="color: #0d0d0d; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.0pt; font-style: normal; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Tami Kent<o:p></o:p></span></em></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<em><span lang="EN-CA" style="color: #0d0d0d; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.0pt; font-style: normal; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br />
Whether sunlight streams through the window<br />
or the rain drops down,<br />
be where you are.<o:p></o:p></span></em></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<em><span lang="EN-CA" style="color: #0d0d0d; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.0pt; font-style: normal; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">At times you will be weary<br />
confounded by mixed signals or crossed signs.<br />
Reaching and striving<br />
will produce only dead ends.<o:p></o:p></span></em></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<em><span lang="EN-CA" style="color: #0d0d0d; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.0pt; font-style: normal; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">So be where you are<br />
back in your center<br />
where there is always<br />
air and light<br />
time and peace<br />
and possibility.<o:p></o:p></span></em></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<em><span lang="EN-CA" style="color: #0d0d0d; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.0pt; font-style: normal; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Leave the phone calls<br />
and the work load<br />
worries, conflicts, and expectations<br />
lying where they may<br />
and be where you are.<o:p></o:p></span></em></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<em><span lang="EN-CA" style="color: #0d0d0d; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.0pt; font-style: normal; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">There with the crying child<br />
or the laundry pile<br />
and the nascent hopes and dreams.<br />
Whether lonely and afraid<br />
or simply noticing the spaces<br />
in between thoughts and words and actions.<o:p></o:p></span></em></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<em><span lang="EN-CA" style="color: #0d0d0d; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 13.0pt; font-style: normal; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Just be where you are<br />
with your breath in and out<br />
and the beauty in front of eyes that see.<br />
With potential in your hands reaching out<br />
and your heart open again to this mystery.<o:p></o:p></span></em></div>
Creative Soulful Womanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01544165208876808443noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4729974651152856636.post-38904130470976004862012-05-09T16:31:00.000-04:002012-05-09T16:31:06.672-04:00“The Muse Mother” (1982)<br />
by Eavan Boland<br />
<br />
My window pearls wet.<br />
The bare rowan tree<br />
berries rain.<br />
I can see<br />
from where I stand<br />
a woman hunkering –<br />
her busy hand<br />
worrying a child’s face,<br />
working a nappy liner<br />
over his sticky, loud<br />
round of a mouth.<br />
Her hand’s a cloud<br />
across his face,<br />
making light and rain,<br />
smiles and a frown,<br />
a smile again.<br />
She jockeys him to her hip,<br />
pockets the nappy liner,<br />
collars rain on her nape<br />
and moves away,<br />
but my mind stays fixed:<br />
If I could only decline her –<br />
Lost noun<br />
Out of context,<br />
Stray figure of speech –<br />
From this rainy street<br />
Again to her roots,<br />
She might teach me<br />
A new language:<br />
To be a sibyl<br />
Able to sing the past<br />
In pure syllables,<br />
Limning hymns sung<br />
To belly wheat or a woman,<br />
Able to speak at last<br />
My mother’s tongue.<br />
<br />
I had no idea there was another use for Muse Mother out there, let alone a poem!<br />
My other blog, Musemother is here: <a href="http://www.questinggirl.blogspot.com/">www.questinggirl.blogspot.com</a><br />
/jenn<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />Creative Soulful Womanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01544165208876808443noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4729974651152856636.post-84571308421943391252012-04-09T14:48:00.001-04:002013-07-08T07:49:00.715-04:00Love has to be felt<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Love has to be felt; it cannot be </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">a </span></span><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">definition in words. Drink </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">until </span><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">your thirst is quenched. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Eat until </span><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">your hunger is satisfied. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Sleep </span><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">until you are rested. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Search until </span><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">you have found peace </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">and then, </span><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">understand.</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">There is incense already burning </span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">in the house </span></span><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">of your body — smell it. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">It is the perfume of God.</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Smell it. And be satisfied, </span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">be content.</span><span style="font-family: AGaramondPro-Regular, serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">Excerpts from address </span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt;">by Prem Rawat </span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt;">w<a href="http://www.wopg.org/">www.wopg.</a>org </span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span>Creative Soulful Womanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01544165208876808443noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4729974651152856636.post-72200078351020461092012-02-03T15:46:00.000-05:002012-02-03T15:46:34.124-05:00More Menopause Poems<br />
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<span lang="EN-US">Soul Mate, after Twenty Years</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">Jennifer Boire</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">Sleepless in the night, you toss and I
turn.</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">Such a gentle man, even in your sleep</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">you laugh and chuckle, while I grind my
teeth.</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">Slow to anger, you are mute sometimes,</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">at other times eloquent as mint,</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">sharp as old cheddar.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">Husband and wife, we have shared</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">first a captain’s bed, then</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">a double, then a queen’s, now a bed </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">fit for a king, And blessed it with our
wandering</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">hands, enlivened it with our howling, </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">whispering, smooching.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">Ever since that first kiss of recognition</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">I felt you calling me home, </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">that feeling of two halves clicking in, </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">then struggle as we lit out, each on our
own paths,</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">and babies didn’t come as easily</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">as we had predicted, but we both got</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">a chance to finish our higher education</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">and find meaningful work</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">before the babies came.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">Long nights of walking up and down</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">halls with a colicky baby cradled on your
arm, </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">or me, sleepy, nursing or crawling after
toddlers, </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">and somehow we are still here, still
together, </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">ready for a new adventure, two teenagers</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">filling the house with their boisterous</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">love, and moody noise.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">O let us linger longer into old age. Let us
</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">Still hanker after each other, alive with
desire.</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">Let us not hamper each other.</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">Let us each fill our selves separately</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">and come together to share</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">what we have found.</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">In ups and downs and disappointing</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">tired, cranky, or high uplifted times</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">let us live, rooted, in love.</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><o:p><br /></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>Creative Soulful Womanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01544165208876808443noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4729974651152856636.post-81783446204688774062012-01-24T10:48:00.000-05:002012-01-24T10:49:20.870-05:002 Poems for Menopause<br />
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<b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">Conversation with a woman over forty<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<i><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 9pt;">Happiness is the best face-lift. </span></i><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 9pt;">Joni Mitchell<i><o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Why change your face?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<i><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">My mother had that gullet<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Fill the cup within - your husband <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">& sons will taste the sweetness.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"> <i>crow’s feet in the mirror<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"> <i>loose skin under the chin<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">I know, I know<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">a woman past forty needs reassurance <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">her beauty has not faded,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">that the body can perform <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">its usual tricks.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"> <i>I’d rather go under the scalpel<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
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<i><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"> than look like that<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Beyond your face, such depth <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">of wanting sears your skin – <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">they all would drink.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"><br clear="all" style="mso-special-character: line-break; page-break-before: always;" /></span><br />
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Jennifer Boire</span><br />
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"><br /></span><br />
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"></span><br />
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<b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 11pt;">A Poem written against Despair<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<i><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 9pt;">Before you know kindness as the deepest thing inside, <o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<i><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 9pt;">you must know sorrow as the other deepest thing.<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 9pt;">Naomi Shihab Nye<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 10pt;">She walked around the circular block of her
neighbourhood <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 10pt;">and saw that it was good. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 10pt;">She saw lawns newly cut, hedges neatly trimmed,
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 10pt;">gardens clipped and tidy.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 10pt;">She saw chrysanthemums flourishing in pots, <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 10pt;">purple and gold. She saw asters and brown-eyed <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 10pt;">Susan’s in abundance.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 10pt;">She saw three children in the playground.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 10pt;">One toddler, hands full of cookies, came to pat
Maggie. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 10pt;">(Maggie saw that it was good).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 10pt;">She saw the fresh pavement on the driveway, <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 10pt;">where a new family had just moved in. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 10pt;">She saw the sumacs flaming orange and red <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 10pt;">along the soccer field, maples’ tips torched <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 10pt;">with the same fire.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 10pt;">She saw houses, driveways and lawns,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 10pt;">each one more beautiful than the last. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 10pt;">She saw the sky was blue and the sun <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 10pt;">was warm, and she told herself<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 10pt;">that to be alive, right here and now, <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 10pt;">was good.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 10pt;">She took a deep breath, and told herself, <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 10pt;">just for today, all I can do <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 10pt;">is quiet the war inside of me,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 10pt;">give up the struggle in my own heart.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 10pt;">If just for today, one person gives up despair<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 10pt;">and practices opening her heart to hope,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 10pt;">then peace in the heart will be her gift. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><o:p> Jennifer Boire</o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><o:p><br /></o:p></span></div>Creative Soulful Womanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01544165208876808443noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4729974651152856636.post-56064174252875785302011-08-31T17:56:00.000-04:002011-08-31T17:56:26.968-04:00Woman in fog<br />
<div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 15px;">from <b>For the Birds,</b> Little Red Bird Press</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Batang;">If only she could, she would give her <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Batang;">heart to her husband, womb to her daughter, <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Batang;">arms to her son. But her body lies on the floor <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Batang;">awaiting rejuvenation, still breathing, broken.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Batang;">What to do on the days when tears drop <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Batang;">into her soup? It’s ok to do nothing, she thinks, <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Batang;">just simple tasks like laundry.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Batang;">She picks up a book of poems instead, reads <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Batang;">“trees lose parts of themselves inside <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Batang;">a circle of fog” * <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Batang;">She’s in a thick fog, has shed her leaves, </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Batang;">absorbed moisture till she has water on the <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Batang;">brain, disoriented by the shift that wakes <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Batang;">her at night, puts other parts of her to sleep,</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Batang;">brought to her knees in a wave of heat and </span>tears, </div><div class="MsoNormal">unable to exchange the chief’s hat</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Batang;">for the sombrero.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Batang;">Her feet feel heavy, her mind dull. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Batang;">She tells herself, it is only temporary,<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Batang;">lie fallow, compost.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Batang;">Oh the music she needs to comfort her, <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Batang;">and the long night she’ll travel through <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Batang;">until the bright dawn reclaims her. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Batang; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;"><br clear="all" style="page-break-before: always;" /> </span> <div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Batang;">Human, faulty, imperfect, <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Batang;">like the low thrum she hears in Cohen’s voice. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Batang;">Claiming darkness as its source<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Batang;">it rings true, full of light.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Batang;">*(Excerpted line from poem by Francis Ponge)<o:p></o:p></span></div>Creative Soulful Womanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01544165208876808443noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4729974651152856636.post-221109462840677522011-07-29T10:25:00.000-04:002011-07-29T10:25:31.760-04:00IF I HAD MY LIFE TO LIVE OVER - by Erma Bombeck<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:WordDocument> <w:View>Normal</w:View> <w:Zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:TrackMoves/> <w:TrackFormatting/> <w:PunctuationKerning/> <w:ValidateAgainstSchemas/> <w:SaveIfXMLInvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid> <w:IgnoreMixedContent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent> <w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText> <w:DoNotPromoteQF/> <w:LidThemeOther>EN-CA</w:LidThemeOther> <w:LidThemeAsian>X-NONE</w:LidThemeAsian> <w:LidThemeComplexScript>X-NONE</w:LidThemeComplexScript> <w:Compatibility> <w:BreakWrappedTables/> <w:SnapToGridInCell/> <w:WrapTextWithPunct/> <w:UseAsianBreakRules/> <w:DontGrowAutofit/> <w:SplitPgBreakAndParaMark/> <w:DontVertAlignCellWithSp/> <w:DontBreakConstrainedForcedTables/> <w:DontVertAlignInTxbx/> <w:Word11KerningPairs/> <w:CachedColBalance/> </w:Compatibility> <w:BrowserLevel>MicrosoftInternetExplorer4</w:BrowserLevel> <m:mathPr> <m:mathFont m:val="Cambria Math"/> <m:brkBin m:val="before"/> <m:brkBinSub m:val="--"/> <m:smallFrac m:val="off"/> <m:dispDef/> <m:lMargin m:val="0"/> <m:rMargin m:val="0"/> <m:defJc m:val="centerGroup"/> <m:wrapIndent m:val="1440"/> <m:intLim m:val="subSup"/> <m:naryLim m:val="undOvr"/> </m:mathPr></w:WordDocument> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:LatentStyles DefLockedState="false" DefUnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<div style="margin-bottom: 12.0pt;"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt;"> </span><span style="color: #040404; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">If I had my life to live over, I would have talked less and listened more.<br />
<br />
I would have invited friends over to dinner even if the carpet was stained and the sofa faded.<br />
<br />
I would have eaten the popcorn in the 'good' living room and worried much less about the dirt when someone wanted to light a fire in the fireplace.<br />
<br />
I would have taken the time to listen to my grandfather ramble about his youth.<br />
<br />
I would never have insisted the car windows be rolled up on a summer day because my hair had just been teased and sprayed.<br />
<br />
I would have burned the pink candle sculpted like a rose before it melted in storage.<br />
<br />
I would have sat cross-legged on the lawn with my children and not worried about grass stains.<br />
<br />
I would have cried and laughed less while watching television - and more while watching life.<br />
<br />
I would have shared more of the responsibility carried by my husband.<br />
<br />
I would have gone to bed when I was sick instead of pretending the earth would go into a holding pattern if I weren't there for the day.<br />
<br />
I would never have bought anything just because it was practical, wouldn't show soil or was guaranteed to last a lifetime.<br />
<br />
Instead of wishing away nine months of pregnancy, I'd have cherished every moment and realized that the wonderment growing inside me was the only chance in life to assist God in a miracle.<br />
<br />
When my kids kissed me impetuously, I would never have said, "Later. Now go get washed up for dinner."<br />
<br />
There would have been more "I love you's".. More "I'm sorrys" ...<br />
<br />
But mostly, given another shot at life, I would seize every minute... look at it and really see it ... live it...and never give it back.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: #040404; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-CA;">© Erma Bombeck</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: #040404; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">(various versions of this are floating on the web, but I think this one is close to the original)</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: #040404; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;"> </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div>Creative Soulful Womanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01544165208876808443noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4729974651152856636.post-42536332370315252392011-07-26T09:08:00.000-04:002011-07-26T09:08:38.281-04:00Women's Stories, a letter<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:WordDocument> <w:View>Normal</w:View> <w:Zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:TrackMoves/> <w:TrackFormatting/> <w:PunctuationKerning/> <w:ValidateAgainstSchemas/> <w:SaveIfXMLInvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid> <w:IgnoreMixedContent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent> <w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText> <w:DoNotPromoteQF/> <w:LidThemeOther>EN-CA</w:LidThemeOther> <w:LidThemeAsian>X-NONE</w:LidThemeAsian> <w:LidThemeComplexScript>X-NONE</w:LidThemeComplexScript> <w:Compatibility> <w:BreakWrappedTables/> <w:SnapToGridInCell/> <w:WrapTextWithPunct/> <w:UseAsianBreakRules/> <w:DontGrowAutofit/> <w:SplitPgBreakAndParaMark/> <w:DontVertAlignCellWithSp/> <w:DontBreakConstrainedForcedTables/> <w:DontVertAlignInTxbx/> <w:Word11KerningPairs/> <w:CachedColBalance/> </w:Compatibility> <w:BrowserLevel>MicrosoftInternetExplorer4</w:BrowserLevel> <m:mathPr> <m:mathFont m:val="Cambria Math"/> <m:brkBin m:val="before"/> <m:brkBinSub m:val="--"/> <m:smallFrac m:val="off"/> <m:dispDef/> <m:lMargin m:val="0"/> <m:rMargin m:val="0"/> <m:defJc m:val="centerGroup"/> <m:wrapIndent m:val="1440"/> <m:intLim m:val="subSup"/> <m:naryLim m:val="undOvr"/> </m:mathPr></w:WordDocument> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:LatentStyles DefLockedState="false" DefUnhideWhenUsed="true"
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</style> <![endif]--> <div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">the ones we tell each other,</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">late at night or early in the morning</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">over coffee & a cigarette,</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">more than one if it's a story we've told</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">over and over like chain smoking, like</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">dirty laundry soaking in the tub, stains</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">evoking lost memories of teething, cut </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">lips, blood on the sweatshirt where</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">you held his head & he bled all over you</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">& you want to speak about this love</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">you have for other women who listen</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">intently, with their own pain showing</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">& many cigarettes to carry them</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">through the telling.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">a compassionate voice or ear,</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">the closeness we feel yet cannot say</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">because we're afraid of a label</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">but what we really want, I want,</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">is someone fearless, a weaver of words</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">or truthteller, someone who's not afraid</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">of hurting while resetting a bone.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">to talk about the helplessness of being</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">stuck in a house with a sick child,</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">the boredom that strikes,</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">the complaining we do, being called martyr</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">when all I really want is to tell someone</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">how unfair it is that I'm the only one</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">they call for in the middle of the night</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">& it's my ears hear them coughing</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">at 3 a.m. & I can't just lie there.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">how to find out what our own needs are</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">& how to take care of ourselves,</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">not just wait for him to come home, take over,</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">pick up the toys and the pieces, mop up our spills,</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">how to find a quiet time, time alone,</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">time to think & write.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">our need to be replenished with each other,</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">filling up our bowls with sugar & coffee</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">so we can tell our stories</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">not just talking over fences in the backyard</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">but actually getting out & seeing women</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">doing the same hard work,</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">no pay, no thanks, just their little faces</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">when one least expects it, smiling & asking</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">me to sing a song about I love you</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;"> or making up a song about superman</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">all by himself in the living room.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">he says, go away mom, don't talk (meaming</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">I have to do this alone, don't listen</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">cause it might not be perfect the first time).</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">I send you this in guise of a letter</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">because that's the way the words are falling out</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">of my fingers. in my mind I hear</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">the tapping on keys and it comforts me</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">at least I can listen to myself talk</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">without talking out loud (for that's</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">what crazy women do).</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">so I keep on writing & dreaming</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">trying to live truthfully</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">with my emotions, in my body</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">and I hope you do the same.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">from Little Mother, published 1997</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">Jennifer Boire</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;"> </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
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<div class="MsoNormal"># 67</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Excerpt</div><div class="MsoNormal"> </div><div class="MsoNormal">I have just three things to teach:</div><div class="MsoNormal">Simplicity, patience, compassion.</div><div class="MsoNormal">These three are your greatest treasures.</div><div class="MsoNormal">Simple in actions and in thoughts,</div><div class="MsoNormal">You return to the source of being.</div><div class="MsoNormal">Patient with both friends and enemies</div><div class="MsoNormal">You accord with the way things are.</div><div class="MsoNormal">Compassionate toward yourself,</div><div class="MsoNormal">You reconcile all beings in the world.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div>Creative Soulful Womanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01544165208876808443noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4729974651152856636.post-88090728326642394972011-04-08T08:34:00.002-04:002011-04-08T08:34:48.220-04:00Quebec in Spring<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:WordDocument> <w:View>Normal</w:View> <w:Zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:TrackMoves/> <w:TrackFormatting/> <w:PunctuationKerning/> <w:ValidateAgainstSchemas/> <w:SaveIfXMLInvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid> <w:IgnoreMixedContent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent> <w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText> <w:DoNotPromoteQF/> <w:LidThemeOther>EN-CA</w:LidThemeOther> <w:LidThemeAsian>X-NONE</w:LidThemeAsian> <w:LidThemeComplexScript>X-NONE</w:LidThemeComplexScript> <w:Compatibility> <w:BreakWrappedTables/> <w:SnapToGridInCell/> <w:WrapTextWithPunct/> <w:UseAsianBreakRules/> <w:DontGrowAutofit/> <w:SplitPgBreakAndParaMark/> <w:DontVertAlignCellWithSp/> <w:DontBreakConstrainedForcedTables/> <w:DontVertAlignInTxbx/> <w:Word11KerningPairs/> <w:CachedColBalance/> </w:Compatibility> <m:mathPr> <m:mathFont m:val="Cambria Math"/> <m:brkBin m:val="before"/> <m:brkBinSub m:val="--"/> <m:smallFrac m:val="off"/> <m:dispDef/> <m:lMargin m:val="0"/> <m:rMargin m:val="0"/> <m:defJc m:val="centerGroup"/> <m:wrapIndent m:val="1440"/> <m:intLim m:val="subSup"/> <m:naryLim m:val="undOvr"/> </m:mathPr></w:WordDocument> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:LatentStyles DefLockedState="false" DefUnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Batang","serif";">Radio announces 22 degree high </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Batang","serif";">only 12 this morning</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Batang","serif";">(a boy refuses to wear a jacket to school).</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Batang","serif";">Tomorrow, snow flurries.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Batang","serif";">Warming sun sinks her down into a lawn chair.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Batang","serif";">Bird chatter up in the white ash, </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Batang","serif";">silence of winter broken.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Batang","serif";">Black lab rushes birds to the cedar hedge,</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Batang","serif";">seeds brim over the feeder, swarms of bugs.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Batang","serif";">Drying out wet boxes, soggy winter dirt. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Batang","serif";">Skis, bikes & roller blades clutter the garage.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Batang","serif";">Big oil slick on the paving stone. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Batang","serif";">When will the honeysuckle bloom?</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Batang","serif";">so far only dried twigs.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Batang","serif";">She waits in her lawn chair.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div>Creative Soulful Womanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01544165208876808443noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4729974651152856636.post-90135020961310675622011-03-16T16:51:00.002-04:002011-03-16T17:00:11.751-04:00Hopi Quote<div style="line-height: 1.5em; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><div style="margin: 0px;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #b45f06;"><br />
</span> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #b45f06;"> </span></b></div></div><div style="line-height: 1.5em; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><div style="margin: 0px;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #b45f06;">"There is a river flowing now very fast.</span></span></b></div></div><div style="line-height: 1.5em; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><div style="margin: 0px;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #b45f06;">It is so great and swift that there are those who will be afraid.</span></span></b></div></div><div style="line-height: 1.5em; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><div style="margin: 0px;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #b45f06;">They will try to hold on to the shore.</span></span></b></div></div><div style="line-height: 1.5em; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><div style="margin: 0px;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #b45f06;">They will feel they are being torn apart and will suffer greatly.</span></span></b></div></div><div style="line-height: 1.5em; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><div style="margin: 0px;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #b45f06;"> </span></span></b><br />
<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #b45f06;">Know the river has its destination.</span></span></b></div></div><div style="line-height: 1.5em; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><div style="margin: 0px;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #b45f06;">The elders say we must let go of the shore, push off into the middle of the river, keep our eyes open, and our heads above the water.</span></span></b></div></div><div style="line-height: 1.5em; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><div style="margin: 0px;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #b45f06;">See who is in there with you and celebrate.</span></span></b></div><div style="margin: 0px;"></div><div style="margin: 0px;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #b45f06;"></span></span></span></b><br />
<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #b45f06;"><br />
</span></span></b></div></div><div style="line-height: 1.5em; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><div style="margin: 0px;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #b45f06;">At this time in history, we are to take nothing personally. Least of all, ourselves.</span></span></b></div></div><div style="line-height: 1.5em; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><div style="margin: 0px;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #b45f06;">For the moment that we do, our spiritual growth and journey comes to a halt. The time of the lone wolf is over.</span></span></b></div></div><div style="line-height: 1.5em; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><div style="margin: 0px;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #b45f06;">Gather yourselves!</span></span></b></div></div><div style="line-height: 1.5em; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><div style="margin: 0px;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #b45f06;">Banish the word struggle from your attitude and your vocabulary.</span></span></b></div></div><div style="line-height: 1.5em; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><div style="margin: 0px;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #b45f06;">All that we do now must be done in a sacred manner and in celebration.</span></span></b></div></div><div style="line-height: 1.5em; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><div style="margin: 0px;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #b45f06;">We are the ones we've been waiting for."</span></span></b></div><div style="margin: 0px;"><br />
<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #b45f06;">Oraibi, ArizonaHopi Nation</span></span></span></b><br />
<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #b45f06;"> </span></span></span></b><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #b45f06;"> </span></span></b></div></div><br />
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="390" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/A6PoHCLtjko" title="YouTube video player" width="480"></iframe>Creative Soulful Womanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01544165208876808443noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4729974651152856636.post-5978253719987120162011-03-10T16:22:00.000-05:002011-03-10T16:22:34.476-05:00Mother of Heaven<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:WordDocument> <w:View>Normal</w:View> <w:Zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:TrackMoves/> <w:TrackFormatting/> <w:PunctuationKerning/> <w:ValidateAgainstSchemas/> <w:SaveIfXMLInvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid> <w:IgnoreMixedContent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent> <w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText> <w:DoNotPromoteQF/> <w:LidThemeOther>EN-CA</w:LidThemeOther> <w:LidThemeAsian>X-NONE</w:LidThemeAsian> <w:LidThemeComplexScript>X-NONE</w:LidThemeComplexScript> <w:Compatibility> <w:BreakWrappedTables/> <w:SnapToGridInCell/> <w:WrapTextWithPunct/> <w:UseAsianBreakRules/> <w:DontGrowAutofit/> <w:SplitPgBreakAndParaMark/> <w:DontVertAlignCellWithSp/> <w:DontBreakConstrainedForcedTables/> <w:DontVertAlignInTxbx/> <w:Word11KerningPairs/> <w:CachedColBalance/> </w:Compatibility> <w:BrowserLevel>MicrosoftInternetExplorer4</w:BrowserLevel> <m:mathPr> <m:mathFont m:val="Cambria Math"/> <m:brkBin m:val="before"/> <m:brkBinSub m:val="--"/> <m:smallFrac m:val="off"/> <m:dispDef/> <m:lMargin m:val="0"/> <m:rMargin m:val="0"/> <m:defJc m:val="centerGroup"/> <m:wrapIndent m:val="1440"/> <m:intLim m:val="subSup"/> <m:naryLim m:val="undOvr"/> </m:mathPr></w:WordDocument> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:LatentStyles DefLockedState="false" DefUnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<div class="MsoNormal"><cite><b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 13pt; font-variant: small-caps; letter-spacing: 0pt;">You are more lovely</span></b></cite><b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 9pt; font-variant: small-caps;"><br />
</span></b><cite><b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 13pt; font-variant: small-caps; letter-spacing: 0pt;">than the sun and moon</span></b></cite><b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 9pt; font-variant: small-caps;"><br />
</span></b><cite><b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 13pt; font-variant: small-caps; letter-spacing: 0pt;">shining in the sky together.</span></b></cite><b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 9pt; font-variant: small-caps;"><br />
<br />
</span></b><cite><b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 13pt; font-variant: small-caps; letter-spacing: 0pt;">MOTHER of heaven,</span></b></cite><b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 9pt; font-variant: small-caps;"><br />
</span></b><cite><b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 13pt; font-variant: small-caps; letter-spacing: 0pt;">Your wonders are sung</span></b></cite><b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 9pt; font-variant: small-caps;"><br />
</span></b><cite><b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 13pt; font-variant: small-caps; letter-spacing: 0pt;">by those above and those below.</span></b></cite></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US">From Thunder, Perfect Mind (Gnostic gospels)</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Batang","serif";">Do not be ignorant of me. Be on your guard!</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Batang","serif";">For I am the first and the last.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Batang","serif";">I am the honored one and the scorned one.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Batang","serif";">I am the whore and the holy one</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Batang","serif";">I am the wife and the virgin</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Batang","serif";">I am the mother and the daughter</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Batang","serif";">I am the members of my mother.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Batang","serif";">I am the barren one</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Batang","serif";">And many are her sons.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Batang","serif";">I am she whose wedding is great</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Batang","serif";">And I have not taken a husband.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Batang","serif";">I am the midwife and she who does not bear.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Batang","serif";">I am the solace of my labour pains.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Batang","serif";">I am the bride and the bridegroom.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Batang","serif";">And it is my husband who begot me</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Batang","serif";">I am the mother of my father.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><br clear="all" style="page-break-before: always;" /> </span>Creative Soulful Womanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01544165208876808443noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4729974651152856636.post-39336941205740786662011-03-07T12:31:00.002-05:002011-03-07T12:38:04.291-05:00Heart CenteredSince October I have been living with a frozen shoulder, and seriously questioning the source of its restricted movement - was I being asked to do less, to rest more? Yes, partly. Was I being asked to relinquish my self-stated role as Overarching Boss of Everything (at least in my household)? yes, partly. Was it about surrendering to my left side, my receptive, feminine side and letting go of the yang, masculine active side? yes, partly. But today I heard another piece of the message.<br />
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A friend of mine, Lauren Young <a href="http://ascendingenergies.com/">http://ascendingenergies.com/</a> had set up an interview with me over the phone as practice for a class he is doing at the NHC (<a href="http://www.nhcinstitute.com/">http://www.nhcinstitute.com/</a>). He began by asking me if I had any questions - and the only thing that really popped up for me was a question relating to the shoulder injury. He told me it was not related to doing too much, but more related to the heart energy and its expression being stuck. He suggested it was an energetic blockage, like a bunch of tangled knots in my shoulder, but coming from my heart's desire for full expression. (I first typed this as 'nots' in my shoulder....hmmm)<br />
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While listening to him, I was getting an internal message that this might also be linked to my desire to be more public, more out there in the world with my message for women, with a new book I'm writing, the retreats and workshops I lead and need to publicize better. And also aboutthe need to protect myself, the push-pull conflict of wanting to be more available for new opportunities, and yet fearful of how much I want my private time for myself, for quiet reading, reflection and resting. It could also be about how I manifest my energy in the world - as loving energetically flowing person, or as fearful of being judged, vulnerable, unloveable person. Finally, what I learned is that the most important power I have within me is the power of my intention. What do I truly want?<br />
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This was an important new understanding for me, and I look forward to exploring it some more.<br />
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It was very helpful to have a trained, intuitive counsellor bring clarity and guidance on this issue. Thanks Lauren!<br />
<br />
nameste<br />
musemother/jennCreative Soulful Womanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01544165208876808443noreply@blogger.com0