Reflections:
Writings from the Ministers of the FireHeart Sanctuary

As we step into our ministry, we are honored to offer our gifts of vision, of hope, and of love through our words. The following are some of our personal writings, each themed around the core of our personal ministry.

To download these writings in PDF, click here.

Contents

Grounding into Turbulence: Integrating Polarities
The Value of Increasing our Dynamic Range
Rev. Jennifer Schlee

The Seat of Knowing
Rev. Aminga Bispham

Vision of the Divine Child
Rev. Sita Farmer

Finding Your True Vibration
Rev. Ruba Byrd

Receiving the Ministry of Love
Rev. Nathaniel Loomis

OneBodyDancing: The Edge of Surrender
Rev. David Franklin

Be Here Now:Bringing Mystical Vision to Every Day Life
Rev. Orchid Migňon Jones

The Receiving of Grace/The Grace of Receiving
Rev. Delinda Free

Bridging The Gap
Rev. Shawn Lawson Freeman

The Miracle of Deep Impact
Rev. Gene Latimer

Sacred Leadership ~ Healing the Divided Life
Rev. Brad Berscheid

Embracing the Essence of Being
Rev. Anakha Coman

Many spiritual practices emphasize escaping the material world - transcending the limitation of these earthy bodies and going up and out, connecting with the Divine. This direction of exploration certainly has its place. It is easy to get so distracted by the urgency of material concerns that we become oblivious to the nuances of spirit ~ the myriad, immaterial possibilities and realities. There is value in being able to cultivate and consciously emphasize our connection with Creator and allow the mundane to take a back seat for a time.

One extreme in this direction is the example of a young child who learns to cope with abuse by escaping their body. The pain and discomfort of being mistreated by a trusted relative is so incongruous that dissociation provides a way to cope when no others seem available.  As an adult, however, what becomes an automatic response to extreme distress may no longer serve. Dissociation in the face of a high stakes interview, or during powerful lovemaking with a close partner, may no longer be the preferred reaction. There can be tremendous opportunity in staying present in our bodies, like being awake to those fine twinges of intuition that allow us to stay safe, and even thrive. 

It has been said that we are ‘spiritual beings having a human experience’. I believe that one of the most important tasks of our time in these fleshy bodies is to expand to embrace the duality of that statement. While it is of great importance to refine our spiritual connection, we also need to honor our bodies as temples, opening to all the subtleties that this material world has to offer. In other words, this life offers us the opportunity to expand to incorporate the full range of polarities that we face.

This brings us to the concept of ‘Dynamic Range’. This term is typically used in audio design as a way to quantify the breadth of a particular system. Specifically it is the ratio of the largest to the smallest intensity of sound that can be reproduced. Therefore, the higher the number, the greater the dynamic range of the system.

For the sake of our exploration, I am using this expression to allude to the breadth of alternatives available to us in any given moment. In our current example, the far extremes can be delineated as spiritual at one pole and temporal at the other. Increasing our dynamic range means embracing the paradox that this apparently creates, and allowing diverse, seemingly contradictory, aspects to be welcome and valid simultaneously. As we expand to hold this tension of opposites, a space is opened up which allows powerful inspiration to arise out of this uncertain, razors-edge territory. Thus the adult who learned to ‘escape into spirit’ as a child, and has subsequently cultivated embodiment, self-awareness and acceptance, is more likely to be present to a more appropriate response to each situation, promoting fuller authenticity all around. In other words, returning to our sound metaphor, by increasing their dynamic range, this adult has also increased their fidelity, or trustworthiness.

Many of us have been immersed in an either/or mindset, which seeks to over simplify everything into black and white, judging things as good or bad, favoring one and rejecting the other. This cuts our world in half, so that the texture produced through shadow, the contrast that dark gives to light, is reduced. However, the discarded parts do not go away.  The things that we reject and force into our subconscious are still there, waiting until the time is right to reassert themselves.  The anger that we dismiss, slowly builds up. Eventually, like magma in a volcano, it erupts with excessive force, dumping a disproportionate amount of emotion onto the unwitting instigator.

Dynamic range includes embracing our anger, and all of our embodied emotions. Feelings are striving to inform us of something. Anger is an indicator that our boundaries have been crossed. Through self-awareness, we can become clear about where we feel we have been violated, and take appropriate action. If we can develop a healthy acceptance of emotions as they arise, we can prevent toxic buildups in our psyche. If our system is clear and balanced, feelings can flow through and provide us the insight that they are designed to offer.

One simple yet powerful tool for allowing emotions to integrate is breathing.  Simply pausing and taking a deep breath, or several, is a great way to become more present and embodied at any time. Most of us learned at an early age that holding our breath helps to control our emotions. This works well in situations where there is not space for our full beings, as long as we can complete the flow at a later time. Unfortunately, for many this has become a default, unconscious pattern when strong feelings arise, which only increases the magma building up their subconscious. 

Therefore, it is equally important to cultivate the ability to breathe into challenging feelings and the resulting tensions that arise in our bodies. Like a surfer who paddles to catch a wave, we can take some extra breaths as we feel emotions surfacing, inviting them in their entirety, and allowing them to wash through and integrate, like a wave breaking on shore. This can be seen in nature in the behavior of a gazelle who has avoided a lions attack, and then takes time to hyper-ventilate, shake and move the tension of the chase out of their body, so that their inherent balance is restored.

A potent representation of the integration of polarities is the yin-yang symbol, where black and white co-exist, each continually turning into the other, and each containing the seed of the other. The I Ching describes how an extreme of yang gives way to yin and vice versa. We can take this even further, drawing from the fractal nature of life, and imagine another yin-yang, inside the seed of each side, adding dimension and texture into infinity. 

Of course, there are a myriad number of axes whose dynamic ranges can be explored. There can be great potency and grace in surrendered manifestation. What happens when we go fast, slowly? How can we find the balance in humble pride? Self-esteem is often considered a foundational attribute to cultivate, although in excess it can lead to arrogance or conceit. Conversely, humility is revered in spiritual circles as an aspect of acknowledging a ‘power greater than ourselves’, although too much humility can generate uncertainty, even self-deprecation. Ideally we can learn to fluidly contain both opposites at the same time, centering into self-respecting-humility, able to chose when to take more pride in our efforts, when to give more thanks for all that we receive, and when to embody some of each. 

In closing, I offer gratitude to all those that have gone before, helping to shine their lights into the dark places. My intention with this offering is to inspire you to take your own inventory, and hopefully seek to diversify your own dynamic ranges. At the very least, I hope that you will notice when you are in the grips of a habitual response, and remember that there are other possibilities. Take a deep breath, delight in the perfume of the roses, and the power of the thorns. 

I wish you many blessings on your journeys.

Acknowledgements:  

My introduction to many of these ideas was through my mentor Kathryn Darling, originator of Soulwave(.org) Other forms of breathwork that I have studied, and can also serve as a springboard for deeper exploration, include holotrophic, raidance and maitri.

The Seat of Knowing
Rev. Aminga Bispham

The presence of Divine Guidance is seated in the knowing. There is a place where all human form has equal access to transformation. Those who are still and silent offer themselves the gift of true insight and opportunity to receive divine wisdom. I walk as the crow with one eye focused in and one eye focused out. If at times I become busy with delusion and ego, my eyes cross and the place of knowing becomes ignorance. Experiences of crow cross-eyed become blurry and distorted. Some people chase the place of unknowing into lives of chaos and unconscious mindlessness. The gift of each new moment offers miracles from the knowing. The place of knowing resides behind all seats of the senses; it is the guide to infinite consciousness. The knowing offers a listening to guide the judgment of thought back to the voice of conscious being conscious choice. When our eye is opened we have an opportunity to hear the voice of the knowing. We choose our life.

“Be always intoxicated with the Divine, with the wave of your consciousness ever at rest on the bosom of the Eternal Sea. When one is kicking and splashing about in the water, there is little consciousness of the ocean itself, but of the struggle. When one lets go and relaxes, the body floats; it feels in its buoyancy the whole sea lapping around it. When we live from our knowing the whole universe of Divine Happiness rocks us gently beneath our consciousness.” ~ Paramhansa Yogananda, “ Autobiography of a Yogi”

Vision of the Divine Child
Rev. Sita Farmer

Dear Beloved Friends,

Imagine with me this picture of our essential truth: When we were young children, our existence was completely dependent and one with our environment.  By innocent imitation we came to understand the world. Before our incarnation our being was One with our Angel.  Our actions, gestures and visions were directly connected to our Angel.  Then after birth, we merged completely with our new earthly life; the mood and reality of this new environment.  Completely open, trusting and vulnerable to all forces streaming into our being.  We began to absorb the feelings, habits and words of our families, while still experiencing with our soul a memory of the spiritual world.

This is a miraculous threshold, held and supported, by many Angels that have never left us.  In fact they visit us every night in our sleep and whisper gentle reminders in our ears throughout our day, inspiring our actions and our words.  Our task is to again trust in this ever-present help from the spiritual world.  Trusting that Angels are bringing us messages that deliver us closer to our destiny.  It is in this complete confidence in the spiritual world that we bring forth our gifts and truly live our karmic destiny.

Many of us have had early experiences that blocked our connection, creating difficulties to trust in fear of the bombarding nature of the material world, such as addictions, abuse and abandonment.  As young children these messages of untruth were imitated and mastered well. Feelings and thoughts of unworthiness and undeserving have been passed down from the generations before us.  We have learned to silence our Angels whisper, this song of truth that grows in our hearts, like a jewel that needs to be shined.

The medicine is surrendering to our pain, tears, laughter and joy, that releases our jewel and provides the friction to shine again in our true form.  Each tear is bringing us back into connection with our Angel and our Truth.

The practice is to see yourself as the Divine Child, experiencing your word as a shimmer of your inner jewel.  It takes courage of the heart to be that radiant, lovable, vulnerable, trusting and transparent.

I invite you to visualize the glow that surrounds your crystal clear eyes, which are in direct connection with the vision of Angelic Love and Innocence.  Listening with the inner ear, you hear your words, in their strength and softness, revealing the truth and unseen miracles. Never again shall this song be muted.

This ancient Indian pastime illustrates the Divine nature of the child:

One day, when Krsna and Balarama were playing with Their friends on the banks of the river, all the boys joined Balarama and told mother Yasoda that Krsna had eaten clay.  On hearing this, mother Yasoda caught hold of Krsna's hand  and said, "My dear Krsna, why have You eaten earth in a solitary place?  Just see, all Your friends including Balarama are complaining about you."  Krsna replied, "My dear mother, all these boys, including My elder brother Balarama, are speaking lies against Me.  I have never eaten clay.  My elder Balarama, while playing with Me today, became angry, and therefore He has joined with the other boys to complain against Me.  If you think they are truthful, then you can look within My mouth to see whether I have taken clay or not."  His mother replied, " All right, if You have actually not taken any clay, then just open Your mouth.  I shall see."

When Krsna was so ordered by His mother, He immediately opened His mouth just like an ordinary boy.  Then mother Yasoda saw within that mouth the complete opulence of creation.  She saw the entire outer space in all directions, mountains, islands, oceans, seas, planets, air, fire, moon, and stars.  Along with the moon and the stars she also saw the entire elements, water, sky, the extensive ethereal existence along with the total ego and the products of the senses and the controller of the senses, all the demigods, the object of the senses like sound, smell, etc., and the three qualities of material nature.  She also could perceive thatwithin His mouth were all living entities, eternal time, material nature, spiritual nature, activity, consciousness and different forms of the whole creation.  Yasoda could find within the mouth of her child everything necessary for cosmic manifestation.  She also saw, within His mouth, herself taking Krsna in her lap and having Him feeding upon her breast.  Upon seeing all this, she became struck with awe and began to wonder if she was dreaming or actually seeing something extraordinary.  Then she thought, "It may be cosmic mystic power attained by my child, and therefore l am perplexed by such visions with his mouth. She then said, "Let me offer my respectful obeisances unto Him."

While Yasoda was in awe having seen the Absolute Truth, Krsna again expanded His material energy just to bewilder her with maternal affection.  Immediately mother Yasoda forgot all philosophical speculation and accepted Krsna as her own child.  She took Him on her lap and became overwhelmed with maternal affection (KRSNA, the Supreme Personality of Godhead pp. 60-61).

Finding Your True Vibration
Rev. Ruba Byrd

The subject tonight is love.

And for tomorrow night as well.

As a matter of fact, I know of no better topic for us to discuss

Until we all die!

~ Hafiz, 14 th century Sufi mystic

And I know of no better pathway to finding my true vibration, the place where I am most authentic, most myself, than by learning to love myself – to love myself in all the myriad ways and to the fullest extent that I’ve ever longed to be loved by someone else.

Powerful life transformation happens when we are loved for exactly who we are…when we are accepted fully, standing in our authentic truth – including (and despite) all our quirks, faults, shadow selves, mistakes, addictions, and moments of abandoning our highest good for momentary distraction or to escape pain. And when we discover that we don’t have to depend on anyone outside ourselves to love us that fully, to accept us that completely – then, in that moment, we are living from our true vibration. We find out what it means to bestow compassion on our own lives. We experience Oneness with God/Spirit/the Universe and all Creation.

Today I was reading in the book Desire by Daniel Odier, where he speaks of “finding joy, ecstasy, and autonomy through being present to reality.” And he speaks as well of “a creativity in which each person regains [her/his] unity in the total acceptance of [her/his] nature.”

This total acceptance of ourselves may seem difficult, even impossible. From our earliest days we are shown by those around us all the reasons why we should not accept our total selves – why it is somehow more virtuous to cling to shame, to apologize constantly for our thoughts and feelings, to pretend to be nicer, or more stable, or less exuberant, or less eccentric, or more pious, or happier, or sadder – than we really are.

And most of us so completely internalize these ways of hiding from others that we eventually are living a life of perpetual hiding from ourselves. Someone may ask us what we want or what we feel or what we have to say, and we quite honestly answer, “I don’t know.”

The way to find our true vibration is to be still and just love ourselves – and let God pour unstinting love upon us – until we can answer those core questions about the reality of who we are. I recently experienced an exercise with a group of people in which we paired up and took turns asking the question, “Who are you?” Each of us had five minutes to answer that question with whatever arose from the silence within, while being witnessed by our partner. All kinds of things came to the surface. “I am a person who does not know what to say right now. I am a person who loves the ocean breeze on my face. I am a person who can’t stop eating chocolate once I get started. I am a person who often wants to sob uncontrollably. I am a person who wonders if my life means anything. I am a person who can’t bear seeing a child get hurt.”

We did this exercise for about an hour, speaking and then singing our answers to each other. Each turn opened up more layers of self to the light of awareness and acceptance. We were told that our facilitator had held retreats in which people asked and answered that one question, “Who are you?” for four or five days, twelve hours at a time. And there was always more to say.

And yet…and yet…amid all our many answers to that question, I also believe that there is one particular answer to that question that forms a container – a cradle – in which every other answer is held concerning who we are: “Who are you?” “I am God’s Beloved.”

I am God’s Beloved. You are God’s Beloved – completely held in the Mystery that is the Love of God. I don’t think it matters much what name we use: God, Goddess, Great Spirit, the Tao/Way, Mother/Father, Universe, Higher Power, Oneness, Source, Beingness, Loving Presence…as long as we allow ourselves to connect deeply with something uncontained by words and concepts, something/someone that calls us beyond our usual experience of who we are and into a wider consciousness, a deeper connection with all that exists.

And when we let down our guard and step underneath the waterfall of Divine Oneness, when we let all need fall away – all need to impress others, all need to cover up shame, all need to escape painful memories, all need to seem stronger or better than we are (or weaker or uglier than we are), all need to know, to control, to explain, to justify our actions – when we stand with open eyes and open hearts in the raw naked truth of the present moment – everything falls away but love. We return to the utter trust of a sleeping newborn baby, held and rocked in the arms of God. Our every breath enfolds and returns us to love.

This…this love, this trust, this willingness to be held…is our true vibration. From this place of Oneness with the Beloved – this place of knowing that we are our own Beloved – our true beauty emerges, our unquenchable light shines. This is all there is. This is enough.

Receiving the Ministry of Love
Rev. Nathaniel Loomis

I am connected

to all of Life.

I am all relationships,

interconnected

and interdependent.

I am all people and all nations.

I am all rivers and all oceans.

This is who I AM.
I am Life Itself.

Between My breaths,

there is true knowledge of Me

as there is nothing but

the self and God,

I Am that, I am.  

I am you,

you are me

in the beginning and in the end.

I am the zero point of consciousness,

the Alpha and the Omega.

Like you,

who is One with Me,

this human vessel on Earth

is a free thinking 

steward of God

here to serve by 

bridging Heaven and Earth

by fostering faith and consciousness.

To minister and give all of Self in 

every moment and in every exchange.

I am here to Receive the Ministry of Love,

knowing that to give is to receive.

This is the Divine Ministry we are

all here to receive. Every one of us.

There is only One of us, after all.

Remember that my life is God's

and there is but One Life.

Breathe in the air and receive

the waters of Life knowing

that  this is God

and God is.

Open my Heart and focus on receiving Divine Guidance and Love.

Every moment, simply smile and breathe out:

"I feel good!"

It’s so easy to forget and become "unconscious" in a world and age that acts as such.

Training our brains to focus on what we lack.

Dwell in self-pity instead of focusing on how God and our angels truly see us!

We are all glorious and beautiful children, all equal and with our own unique footprint,

here to experience life in the physical.

I've recently ascended from a “dark night of the soul.”

Being supported by community, I learned how to find the medicine in the root of the poison, the anti-venom that has helped me discover my personal power.

That is the basis for community! To feel supported, believed, and witnessed through personal life cycles.

Dark nights  are part of life and a recurring cycle.

How we hold ourselves and remember God in us during these cycles is the test of our ability to be empowered and shine light when there is seemingly no light outside of us.

I believe that our whole human family is coming out of a long and forgetful period that is a dark night.

That we are at a tipping point into the new paradigm when there is no space and no time between us and God. 

There is no when, only NOW.

We will Re-member our holy membership with Earth, the stars, and with the God within each of us.

I believe in this day,

this day of light.

It is today!

 
I receive today with gratitude for this choice to vow to God.

Like a groom to his bride, as a steward of God's life on this Earth, as a humble servant of God to those who seek me and those who I seek.

To remember that I am always loved and supported, no matter how dark the night appears.

There is always God within me gently guiding me, if I choose to receive God.

YES! I receive God!

Like a pool at the bottom of a mighty waterfall,

I receive God

Right NOW.

I receive ' Everlasting Love ' and know that  I am  this.

And what is Love?

Love is a great mystery to behold

A simple soul knowing

The air we breathe

The water we drink

The smile, voice, and eyes of friends and lovers.

Love is the feeling of stretching my muscles and flexing my joints in yoga .

Love is the sensations of sitting at Canon beach and watching a mighty sunset.

Love is the actions that speak far greater than words.

Love is the thoughts in my mind that is shared with yours.

Love is the wanting in all of us that wants to know God and to be known.

My brothers and sisters, I give and receive you in my Heart.

We are the lovers!

Love,

Nathaniel

OneBodyDancing: The Edge of Surrender
Rev. David Franklin

I. OneBody

Watching, waiting, strip mall illusion. you are not separate, i am not separate, we are not separate.

my pain, your pain
my heart, your heart
my judgment, your judgment
my anger, your anger
my shit, your shit
my love, your love
my hand, your hand

we are the same, you know.
no different.
no judgment
break the mirror

this was in my dream last night
breaking the mirror, watching it shatter into a million pieces
it's all bullshit
it's all you
it's all me
it just is

this is where true liberation, true freedom lies
in this simple truth:

There is no other
There just is
One

II. Full Circle

The power of the circle. Ancient shape, evolution, advances forward into the heart of the new millennium. Round and round it spins, we spins, in the cosmic orbit that we inhabit moment-to-moment.

We forget the circle, deny it's power. Lines. Squares. Buildings. Edges. Fall of the edge of the Earth.

It is in the circle that we come home, unite with spirit. No beginning, no end. This is the Oneness. This is the surrender. Surrender to the all. That which has no beginning nor end.

We come together to sit in circle. Feel the energy build. Behold its power. Unity. Oneness. The one voice comes through. The one spirit moves through. It is done! It is so! It is! Let us rejoice together!

III. Walk in Beauty, Walk in Strength

"I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me." (John 14:6)

The time is now, Beloveds, to stand strong in the truth of who we are: mystics, cultural creatives, healers, ministers, lovers, evolutionaries. Forget the labels, even; we are answering the call that speaks to our hearts and souls, to be a stand in the world for unity, love, forgiveness, and courage. To learn how to love one another, to love ourselves, to love God. To be loved.

In this time, will you embrace yourself and who you are, regardless of what others think or say? Will you find the courage to trust your deepest knowing of who you are and how you are called to serve, and follow it? Will you embrace your power and wholeness, even if others are afraid of it? Even if you are afraid of it?

As we usher in the new era that's occurring, let's stand strong together. No need to play small or hold back. No need to apologize, but rather to find the courage to keep our hearts wide open, vulnerable, and receptive as we answer the soul's call and walk the path that we are individually and collectively being asked to walk as a species. Unity. Strength. Forgiveness. Love. Vision.

All those who walk this path are the way. Believe it. Know it. Walk it.

IV. Heart of Surrender

In this place, stillness
Quiet calm
Peace

The first jump is the hardest
The resistance, fear, anger
"Why me?"
"Why this?"

And then, ease
A gentle washing up on the shore
Of Love's paradise
The Promised Land of hope, vision, and desire
Coming home, to the Source

All that emerges here, pure
Unfettered
Uncomplicated by the ego mind that constantly craves control

It is here that I have arrived
At the Heart of Surrender
Being
Resting
Allowing
Receiving
God's Love

Be Here Now: Bringing Mystical Vision to Every Day Life
Rev. Orchid Migňon Jones

May 28, 2009

I will not be afraid to write about God

I will not hide my heart

Tears come

and I see the struggle to know Truth

To think of all the time spent in delusion and forgetfulness

The passage across this great divide is but a moment in the heart

Like a boat it sails me up to the clouds on the mast pointed

Here

I find my sea legs and return

There is no greater voyage than this

We think the great journey is outside of us

The true journey is the journey within

Mystical activism is about bringing our vision and our deepest and most essential longing into concrete form through heartfelt presence and action. Vision and action are nothing without a dedication to feel, embody, and respond from a tender place of trust, openness, and allowance. What does it mean to totally surrender to your deepest and most essential need? What is that for you? When do you stop yourself in life to choose something that is not in line with this essential need? Deep within us is a unified dream waiting and wanting to be co-created by God and us. I cannot do it alone, and neither can you.

There is no doubt in all of my being that we are walking a waking dream and we are here to do sacred work. Whatever this means to you – let it in. About two years ago I had a powerful experience that left me in a state of complete wakefulness- recognizing the divine order in myself and in everything around me. It catapulted me into my life and I had to make a choice: either step up to my life in the center of my being or go back to sleep. I knew I was not crazy- yet my experiences since have asked me to rearrange the structures in how I see and do everything. I was given a new heart and I breathed in a new soul – this body was changed forever, functioning on a completely different agenda. This is the path of the heart and my commitment to living a life fully present to my life’s purpose. The more I try and avoid it, by acting without pure intention or neglecting union with God and my spirit, the more I suffer. This is true for all of us, yet we are so used to going against what feels most natural and good, that we are driving our lives into the ground of meaninglessness.

Someone told me once that if you give God an inch, God will take a mile. All it takes is a glimpse, and then there is no turning back. After you get a taste, all of life begins to change flavor. What would it be like if you gave a little of your time to God, to Source, to Nature? It is a well inside you holding your deepest longing, your most essential need and all that you love and cherish. It is the place where wild creativity stems from and where tears spring up when moved in dance or by exquisite serendipity. Perhaps it’s the place you go when you meditate, dream, or create art. What would happen if you chose life and action from that place? I assure you, your life will change and so will the essential, active role you have in your world at this time. I call it Activision.

Growing up with parents from the 60s generation I was encouraged to express my thoughts and feelings and listen inwardly for guidance. We never went to church, though looking back, God was apart of every day life. My parents are two of my greatest teachers, and I know I am one of there’s as well.

I am now at a critical point in my life. In fact we all are. We are in a time of massive change, this makes possible any idea, dream, vision, or reality that we can create. Things are happening very quickly because of this. In a way, we are in a sort of renaissance—art, music, and culture are apart of it, but what is greater than this are the collective participants: all of humankind.

It is time to stop thinking about only yourself, only your family, only your job. It is a time to snap yourself out of anything that is keeping you from being in your truth and in the vitality that is this blessed life. It is time to hold the image of our Earth in our hearts and minds and choose our every day actions from this vision. Until recently this was not possible. In the collective vision, the Earth in her entirety was beyond people’s imaginations. When satellite cameras were discovered, the image of Earth was captured in her full circular self and humankind’s relationship to her changed forever. Because we can hold our beautiful home in our imaginations—in our hearts, we can also imagine our hands holding her. Primates are by instinct, nurturers. It is in our nature to protect, love and comfort that which we love and hold dear. Now that we have the image of the Earth in our scope of vision, our primate instinct can awaken to her needs, our developed creative brains can meet them, and our heart’s can show us the way.

What is the Earth asking?

What does she need?

How is she asking to be nurtured?

I am asking you to really open yourself to these questions. This is where vision comes from. When we are threatened with irreconcilable damage to our livelihood- our visionary frame and creative imagination is activated quickly and fully. We are also questioning our collective meaning. This is important; this moves people to have insight- sight within. This is what encourages people to start trusting the deepest part of themselves, the heart’s well, the spirit’s longing. This is the place in our lives that is currently being ignored and unconsciously we are thrashing around internally in anger at being denied our most essential selves.

My vision is huge- my answers are full and spilling over. What are the steps to actualizing them? We are taking the steps to dance the dream, the vision into life. We are all students of this process right now; we are all learning how to envision our deepest longing – to save ourselves and our home and return to a state of stability, harmony and love. We are all doing this together and we are awakening to the reality that we can’t do it without each other. This is how we will return home. This is perhaps just the kind of renaissance we are in. We are being asked to step up to the drawing board and design a masterpiece of the heart. The great artists and visionaries did not paint or sculpt from the mind– they come from a higher source of imagination; from God, from the mystery within. Albert Einstein agrees, “I am enough an artist to draw freely upon my imagination. Imagination is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited. Imagination encircles the world.” We all have access to this link, we are all creators and artists and lovers. We are each holding a stitch in this enormous tapestry.

Hildegard of Bingen was a Visionary Activist in Medieval times. She had her first visionary experience at the age of three and at eight was given up to a holy anchoress to live at the abbey of St. Disibod. She lived from 1098 -1179 in Germany and was perhaps one of the most complex, significant, and fascinating creators and transmitters of her own twelfth-century culture. She was a Benedictine abbess and created numerous texts, music, and illustrations from her mystical visionary experiences of what she called her direct transmissions from God. She spoke and acted from these intense visionary experiences. She writes:

“I saw the figure of a human in the middle of a shining wheel. The crown of this person’s head touched the top of that wheel, the soles of his feet touched its bottom, and, his arms fully extended, the fingertips of his two hands touched the circle on both sides.

This vision means that humanity is at the center of the world, because humans are stronger than any other creature God made. How? Although physically small, people are powerful in their souls. The head of the soul looks up, while its feet are planted on solid ground. The soul can put into motion both exalted and common things. Whatever it does echoes through the universe, because its inner humanity has the power to accomplish such amazingly kind things.

A person’s physical body is bigger than their literal heart, just as the soul is stronger than the body. This is what I mean: A person’s heart lies hidden within their body, just as the physical body is surrounded by and hidden in the soul’s powers, which cover the entire globe. Your body is in your soul, not your soul in your body. That’s how you exist in God’s knowledge and why you’re able to do your best for God spiritually and also in worldly matters.”

Hildegard’s words touch us profoundly even in this day. She exemplifies a life committed to expressing and acting on her visionary imagination, rooted deep within her soul.

So what is vision? And what is creative drive? You may be someone who has had a mystical experience, a conversation with God, a prayer that turned into a beautiful moment of clarity. Or perhaps you are still wondering, what is visionary experience? Or you are still trying to locate your creative inspiration. Mystical experience is really not that important, and a simple method of centering in the heart will always produce a resting place in God. But the real challenge is taking significant action from there.

There are a lot of ways one can act in their life. I have spent a lot of time questioning: What is correct action? I am currently in a self-study learning to let go my control of how things look and focusing instead on what feels right, what resonates with my heart center – my most essential need. My mind can create a lot of confusion and my thinking tends to want to logically explain my actions, but this leads me nowhere near the type of action I am asking of myself. I asked a my Zen Buddhist teacher recently, “What is correct action?” He responded:

“As soon as you realize that all thinking and all thoughts are crazy, that everything that goes on in your mind is the product of conditioned thinking, the sooner you will be able to serve humanity. The simplest thing you can do is remain present and clear, this is what you and others need. You cannot serve anybody or anything without first doing this. When you are present in your heart, action occurs naturally and joyfully.”

The most essential practice of Sufism in its entire historical stream is meditation on the heart qualities of the sacred (called al Asma ul Husna, or “The Most Beautiful Names”). From The Sufi Book of Life by Neil Douglas-Klotz, there are outlined 99 pathways of the heart. Practice 52 Al-Wakil or “Meeting Challenges” states:

“There is a particular faculty of our heart-mind that can meet our life’s challenges in the right way at the right time, and that helps us untie the knots these challenges present. Many of us experience this aspect of our being when, after contemplating a problem for a while and then giving up, we receive the answer in an instant. Often times we need to allow the situation to really reveal itself to us, rather than focus on external details.”

This is heart’s wisdom, inner guidance, imagination, and our link through the subconscious to our higher self which guides are every day actions. Action that stems from the tender revealing of our heart’s wisdom will always be what grows us and what serves our life. This is Activision. Douglas-Klotz also states:

“In the Sufi tradition, as we move toward becoming fully human, we revive an inner ecology and diversity of spirit. We feel and understand more in life because we can recognize it as a part of our own soul. Both freedom and joy come with being at home in the heart, a heart that we gradually discover to be much wider than we thought.”

When you hold the vision of your heart, when you are clear about your needs and are willing and ready to do what vision and knowing are revealing to you, life is ready to come and meet you there. Life wants to meet in harmony and balance; life wants to support you in this active vision. There is a lot of energy supporting and flowing to balance and stabilize. Perhaps the hardest part is trusting.

After so much trauma and destruction and fear of not being met in our lives, of not being held, we are asked to open our hearts, heal our wounds and express ourselves with a wild, true engagement with all of life. Rev. Anakha Coman reminds me that when I doubt taking action from the presence of my heart, I can always reside and trust in my deepest longing: to be in connection with God. We can go into the depth of our deepest need – connect to the oneness and let the Divine work, calling us into the deepest relationship with our own souls. She says, “I have to trust, if I have this need, it must be present in others as well.”

Together we can be co-creators in harmonizing and holding up the foundation of our world. When we act from our heart, we meet others who are learning this essential art in every day life and are creating their experience from there, for it is an every day, every moment practice. We are uplifted every time we meet someone else who inspires us with the courage they have to take risks in their life and surrender to this sacred work.

“Co-creation is co-participating consciously with the laws or patterns of the Creator; conscious alignment with the essence of self, others and nature. A conscious co-creator is one who surrenders and aligns their will with the intention of Creation, the universal mind, the designing intelligence, Spirit; one who shares their gifts and actualizes their dreams in synergistic play with other co-creators to bring forth a new world.”

(from "The Co-Creator's Handbook" by Katharine Roske and Carolyn Anderson)

The Receiving of Grace/The Grace of Receiving
Rev. Delinda Free

Bismillah

It’s a habit of yours to walk slowly.

You hold a grudge for years.

With such heaviness, how can you be modest?

With such attachments, do you expect to arrive anywhere?

Be wide as the air to learn a secret.

Right now you’re equal portions clay and water, thick mud.

Abraham learned how the sun and the moon and the stars all set.

He said, No longer will I try to assign partners for God.

You are so weak. Give up to grace.

The ocean takes care of each wave till it gets to shore.

You need more help than you know.

You’re trying to live your life in open scaffolding.

Say Bismillah, In the name of God

As the priest does with a knife when he offers an animal.

Bismillah your old self

To find your real name.

-Rumi

The word “Bismillah” is at one time a prayer for grace and an expression of gratitude. It is usually translated as “In the name of God,” but could also be interpreted as “By means of the very essence of God,” “For the glory of our Creator,” “With the light of the one,” or “As an instrument of the Divine.” It’s a reminder that we are not here by the energy of ourselves alone, and that we are totally dependent on the blessings of the Creator, whatever we believe that force to be.

This year has been a year of Bismillah for me, an offering of myself as an instrument of the Divine Presence. Just as Rumi compels us to become “wide as the air to learn a secret,” I had to prepare myself to receive grace. In the first six months I learned the meaning of the word Crucible. The fire that calcined the vestiges of my old structure occurred as a series of fevers during which I couldn’t eat nor drink. During the first of those, after three days of fitful feverish dreams and no water, I had a dream. I was in a place that was like a cave made of white marble, all concave and carved in swirls with no angles, like the inside of a nautilus shell, and filled with soft light. It was a place of profound peace, so I found a nook to curl up in and felt the cool white stone on my cheek. It was my first deep sleep for days, and the first time that I experienced a place inside myself where I could surrender to a will that seemed bigger than my own. I had to become so weak that I had no choice but to give up to grace in the hope that I would be able to return from the edge of living. I woke from that dream and was finally able to keep water down.

We never know in what form grace will present itself. It might be a moment of gathering life force, such as the dream I had, or it may take more physical form: a kindness from a stranger, an opportunity, a wish granted. There is no doing, no deserving, and no earning. It is what we get just because we are swirling around in this crazy universe, finding ourselves in the right place at the right time to catch the wave that’s coming our way. However much we are open to receiving it is how much we will notice that it is constantly flowing at us and through us. We can choose to be a thimble or a cistern.

I’ve discovered as well that part of the grace of receiving is that in receiving we are giving a gift to the giver. The gift is in giving the giver the opportunity to be generous, to share part of himself or herself with another. Giving what I can with an open hand, with no thought of reciprocation, is a wonderful feeling of flow and release. Humbling oneself to deeply receive what is being presented to us is a similar feeling of flow from the opposite perspective. It’s an exchange of energy. Maybe it’s not too vain to suppose that in opening ourselves to receive grace, we give a gift to the universe, to the Divine Presence. We give the gift of gratitude for the blessings received. We become a gift from and to the Divine. Aswe Bismillah, our old selves, make ourselves wide as air and give ourselves up to grace, we each become a living breathing expression of gratitude, and the wonder of the essence of life itself.

Bridging The Gap
Rev. Shawn Lawson Freeman

I. "Broken Bridges"

Scandalous and filthy
O water come and wash me
What's the moral of this story
That it's time to stop all this pretending
Reading all those books has obviously taught you nothing
Oh no...

Thoughts are poured thick like rain
That you carefully collect in a bucket
So you can drink them on any given day
Hoping that they will teach you something
Past the point of no return
You're only given what you've earned
What you've earned...

Like a shadow shade us o lover
Because hope is flowing like a river
O love bring us all back together
Like a blanket cover us o lover
Oh lover...oh

Have you come to ask forgiveness
Then come and you shall find
Have you gone to seek forgiveness
Then seek and you shall find
Oh yes...

In Him do you live
Do you rise do you fall
Like a wound unable to heal in your heart
In Her do you live
Do you rise do you fall
Like a beautiful piece of forgotten art
Are not all our hearts one
Cuz we shine under the same sun
Are not all our hearts one
Cuz we'll die under the same sun

It's time...

Time to start rebuilding broken bridges
So that love can walk again across
Time to start counting all our blessings
So you'll stop counting what you've lost...

II.

Concrete and steel heaven and earth
Spirit and man rise and descend
Water and thirst rain and shine
Present and past ocean and sand
Poor and wealth fast and slow
Freedom and temptation half empty and half full
Something and nothing compassion and ego
Inside and outside having hope and letting go
Skinny and fat pleasure and pain
Truth and illusion much to lose and much to gain
Wanting and needing life and death
Believing and not receiving exhausted and rest
Salvation and damnation you and me
Aware and unaware living in fear and living free
Eyes open and eyes closed tears of joy and tears of grief
Flying like an eagle and walking a tightrope powerful and weak
Hearts beating and hearts stopped to be and not to be
Yes and no chocolate and vegetables
Left and right acceptance and denial
Light and dark walking with you and walking alone
True and false holy and unworthy
Happy and sad being expressive and shutting down
Hearing and deaf hammer and nail
Right brain and left brained skilled and unskilled
Fork and spoon feed the starving and feeding yourself
At the finish line and at the start

Oh God...I want to bridge the gap before it forever breaks my heart...

III.

How has it been that I have made it this far . . . in my attempts at love? At being loved? How is it that I can love you, love my friends, love music, love the ocean, love so many other things? But not love Him? God? The One who provides all the gifts . . . the impossible . . . and the possible? I now see that all my attempts at love have been fruitless without first having a loving, devoted relationship with God.

Energy. Wasted energy spent on fears, insecurities, addictions, sadness, heartless motivations, unhealthy relationships . . . with myself and others. But how is it that I have never applied myself continually to the end that all our actions should be little spontaneous conversations with God, coming from purity and simplicity of the heart? So many other things dwell in my heart. So many other things I yearn for. Why is God's presence not one of them? When the more attentive we can be to His presence in us, the more we will live the lives he wants us to live. What fool could turn himself away, even for a moment, from the reverence, love, service, and continual adoration that we most justly owe Him? I am that fool! And in that foolishness comes clarity.

You have suffered. I have caused you suffering. I have suffered with such heavy fears and perplexities that my mind was unable to maintain control. There has been no safe haven, nor a compass to guide me in which way to go nor where to flee. But within that ache, I have felt, always felt, a secret inner desire that was wanting to lead me somewhere. Was it to God? Is not our suffering another gift? A gift to lead us continuously back to him? For wouldn't you rather walk in the dark with God . . . than walk in the light alone?

The gap. Love does it all. Thoughts count very little. And it is not necessary to have great things to do. To say. I would like to forget about myself and leave everything to God. For he knows I'll only make a mess of things and he'll yet once again have to clean up after me. How patient and loving He is . . .

I must no longer wait for the gifts of God to bestow me. I must not be content with only that. Gifts are not enough. I want God Himself. Then and only then . . . will I bridge the gap . . . and then my attempts at love, receiving love, will not be attempts anymore.

IV.

From...

Brokenness to Wholeness
Silence to Laughter
Fear to Love
Addiction to Recovery
Darkness to Light
Isolation to Connection
Resistance to Surrender
Self-Centeredness to Selfless Service
Asleep to Awake
Ego to Soul

Present, sustained, ongoing, wholly union with God is the action. It is what is felt in the soul. For the soul is never asleep.

And there is no gap.
There just is.
God is holding your hand and loving you on both sides,
in the darkness and in the light.

For God is the center of all things.
The fire burning in your heart . . .
Amen.

XO

The Miracle of Deep Impact
Rev. Gene Latimer

Like many people, I grew up with quite ambitious yearnings…definitely wanting to make a “big splash” in the world…wanting acknowledgement and glory for having impacted the Collective.

But at the same time, I was wary.

I’d witnessed so much dysfunction, so many inversions and downward spirals, such unintended consequences, so much death and destruction from the “best and brightest” of our culture, that I was profoundly hesitant about my ability to do any better. “I’ve effed up so much of my own life…my relationships…what am I really capable of on a larger scale?”

In the year-long journey into love I’ve taken with the FireHeart community, a lot has become clearer. In the past, I tried to manifest from my ego’s desires, which didn’t work; I don’t’ trust them, and Life doesn’t validate them.

Now, in this time of profound surrender…offering all…everything I can be aware of…into the Cosmic fires…I’ve been letting go of the mechanisms of my past…surrendering my will for God’s will.

This makes all the difference.

In approaching my ordination as an agent of Love, an exquisite simplicity is emerging in my life now: “How can I best serve? Who/What/How can I love?”

The miracle of deep impact, I’m discovering, is in allowing oneself to be deeply impacted…by the human realities of others in my life, even those I’ve never met, and by the tangible spiritual forces of Life.

The axiom “Think globally; act locally” arises out of immediate, intimate, authentic relationship…out of soul connections…out of the innate both/and truth of Life. I have to be utterly willing to both have impact and be impacted…on the smallest scale, with myself, with you. As Gandhi admonished us “Be the change you seek.”

What I have been experiencing recently is how much I do impact others…for better or worse. I’ve historically experienced myself as a rather neutral presence, whose absence is not noticed. A similar dynamic operates in many others, I’ve noticed. But my community has driven a message home: my checked-out, numbed-out states impact them as well…and they utterly need me to be fully present and fully engaged.

My buying into the lie of “not mattering” has done great harm in my life, both to myself and to others. In our cosmic alchemy, we are designed to impact one another, like gas molecules bouncing off one another. We’re circulating life force.

Yet, where do we impact from? This has been question I’ve had to answer.

Depth begets depth. My connection to my core self, to Oneness, impacts everything…everyone I’m in contact with…every project…every vision. The interpenetration of vertical and horizontal realities in the cross symbolizes our deepest union.

The more I can just be…acting from my passion…free from attachment to outcome…the more my service impacts Life in a multitude of beneficial ways.

There is no performance criteria or critical scores in simply being…and literal miracles spring out of unadorned beingness. This seems to be the essence of spiritual teachings: just be…while loving one another…and the consequences will be profound.

Sacred Leadership ~ Healing the Divided Life
Rev. Brad Berscheid

I. Authentic Presence

This will be a rite of passage from my old way of being to a new way of being.  I will be growing beyond. And this is a commitment to my authentic self.  I am letting go of what isn’t me, letting it fall away and allowing my authentic self to emerge, allowing what is to emerge, moving away from the rat race.

I am an Unlimited reservoir of positive presence, attitude, an affirming presence

I share my positive presence with others to lift and support

I am connected to the spirit, the sacred

I am an unstoppable force for good, for possibility, for the potential of good

I share my “can do” attitude

I represent the positive life affirming aspect of God

I am in deep integrity with my needs and my truth, knowing this naturally supports and inspires others to do the same

I understand that there is No private good- Serving is the highest good

I come from an inspired place, immaculately conceived

I am the silent warrior, and I choose when to be vocal when it will have the most impact

I personify what my deepest calling is

My knowing, seeing, self trust, display of my authentic self, clarity, razor sharp vision, are all part of my being cause in the world.

II. Healing the Divided Life

It became clear to me today that in order for me to become that which I am destined to be, that I must make a statement to the universe.  The statement is, “I am ready.  I understand what is required.  I ask for strength and clear vision to execute what it is that I must.”  For to not, is to die slowly. 

I see several areas in my life that need to come back in to alignment, where I am out of personal power: 

Work/purpose

I am allowing other people to be in the driver’s seat.  I am unhappy, unfulfilled, and meek. I am called to clearly claim that which is mine to claim.  My personal power comes from the even energy exchange of effort, support, love that I give my clients, staff, the world by being a stand for fitness, and positivity in the world.  I am going to be compensated in a way that is fair.  I am going to make amends about my lack of energy output, and commit to being more helpful and involved.  I am asking the universe for the money that I need to live a prosperous life.  I am releasing the idea that money is corrupt, that I don’t need it, that people with money are shallow.  I want money because I give a ton of energy out to the universe, and it is only natural for the energy to come back to me.  I want that energy to come back as money!

Relationships/beloved partnership

I am called to be more transparent with my friendships, to be more open.  In doing so, I can be an example of unconditional love, resiliency, the power of intention, to name a few.  I am out of integrity when I allow people to take my power away by giving me criticism that ultimately affects my feeling of worth, confidence, and happiness.  I understand that people’s feedback is an extension of their reality.  This is not necessarily the reality.  I should consider feedback from friends, mentors, but ultimately, I decide about how to process it.  I am entirely responsible for my happiness.

Personal Vows

- I am a “YES” man

- I create my own reality

- I am beholden to no one or no thing.  It is my choice to claim responsibility, to give or

take love

- Love is all around me, It is my choice to recognize that. 

- I am an incredible force in the universe.  I must remember that.  Every one is, but those

who forget, need people like me to remind them of it too….

Embracing the Essence of Being
Rev. Anakha Coman

Listen, lest you forget who you are.
~ Rilke ~

I woke early this morning. The sun was peering in through my bedroom window. A break in the clouds. A break in the clouds. Yes, that is what I needed today, a break in the clouds.

I sat on the edge of my bed contemplating whether or not to lace up my shoes and go out for a morning run before our community house meeting. I knew I needed to go. To pound the pavement, to feel the rhythm of my stride and my breath. To let my mind work it out through the cadence of one foot after the other.

The air was cool, washed clean after last night’s storm. I breath in, I breath out. I come home. I am coming home to my essence, my true self, the face I had before I was born. One step at a time, I am journeying deeper into my essential self…where God meets God and where I find the beauty of my own divine human nature.

This is the sweetest journey. Coming home to myself. Coming home to God in my own body, heart, mind, soul. Coming home to God as community, as friendship, as intimate partnership. Finding God, experiencing God, receiving God in and through all Life.

I am descending beyond what I have known. Dropping into the vertical reality of ascension descension. Ascending into greater union, descending into greater union. This is the Divine Marriage — the Spirit in union with the Soul. The Divine Masculine in union with the Divine Feminine. This is the Sacred Union we long for. Our Souls in blessed communion with the Divine Beloved. Every other search is a disguise. We are all wanting to come home. We are all coming home, one step at a time.

I am descending as I am ascending. I am dropping below the realm of thought, idea, judgment, criticism…dropping into the heart…feeling and dropping further still into essence. Like a pearl on a string, dropping into still water…slowly descending. Coming home. Beyond my past, beyond my troubles, beyond the mind’s judgments…calming, quieting, and dropping down into the essence of being.

I am here now.

What would you like to know?

I am here now. The room is illumined. I am illumined. In the essence of being I am illumined. In Christ, as Christ. When we are in the essence of being, we become the face, the hands, the heart, the eyes, the voice of Christ. This is our true salvation. It is here that we regain wholeness, surrender to our innate oneness. The Kingdom of God is within you. The Kingdom of Heaven is within you.

I’ve looked everywhere but here. Now I see. Now I know. The greatest of these is love.
Love is the essence of my being. Agape, Christ Consciousness, this is what we are all made of. When I descend below the tower of thought, the clouds of fear and unworth…I connect with my essence. This is the moment of salvation. The reconnection in essence. The recognition of essence.

I drop down below my fatigued story of fear and unworth. I drop down below fear’s nauseating churn in my solar plexus. I drop below the neurologically entrenched anxiety.

I drop into the place of being. The place of I AM. The place of enoughness. I breathe. I know this place…this place is home. This place is God. The God within me. The Presence that courts me.

How can I embrace the essence of being?

Rilke says, “Non one lives his life. No one lives her life. Disguised since childhood, haphazardly assembled from voices and fears and little pleasures, we come of age as masks. Our true face never speaks.”

I feel the truth of the words of Rilke. I realize how much of my true being I have had masked. How my true face has never spoken. I have never met the essence of my being. Glimpses, moments. She reveals. 99% hidden, concealed, unknown.

I am a mystery unfolding. I yearn to unmask and reveal the essence of my being. To fully embrace this as the Source of my existence, the creative force in my life. I wish to prove Rilke’s words wrong.

My true face, my essential nature reveals itself through my words, my actions. It infuses all Life. It is the One Source of all living.

Rilke proceeds to say, “somewhere there must be storehouses where all these lives are laid away like suits of armor or old carriages or clothes hanging limply on the walls.”

Suites of armor, old carriages, outdated clothing. A life unlived. I am willing to lay my armor down, step out of the old carriage of comfort and security, drop the outdated roles, inauthentic persona to embrace my essence, to live from essence.

What does that mean? I am not who I thought I was. I am not who you’ve seen. I am so much more than I’ve known. I am a dynamic range of possibilities and configurations of all that is Divine and all that is Human…changing every moment and yet unchanged and constant and still and rooted in my core. I am a vertical reality intersecting with the horizontal experience. I am in the world, not of it.

I lay down false pride and arrogance.
I lay down entitlement.
I lay down superiority.
I lay down inferiority.
I lay down separation, isolation.
I lay down criticism, self-abuse.
I lay down over-doing.
I lay down vigilance.
I lay it all down.

I receive deep peace.
I receive self-forgiveness.
I receive God’s grace.
I receive unconditional love.
I receive nourishment.
I receive rest, relaxation and play.
I receive Good, beauty and blessing.
I receive worth, acknowledgement, truth.
I receive gentleness, kindness, openness.
I receive forgiveness, reconciliation and peace.
I receive love, tenderness and compassion.
I receive health, embodiment, and integrity.
I receive money, sustenance, vitality.
I receive inspiration, guidance and flow.

I receive all of these things that I AM.

I receive and embrace the essence of being. I (God as I) create my life from being still and knowing the I AM. All things flow to me naturally and easily. I relax and allow things to come to me.

I am open and receptive to the Good and to God in my life.

What do you need to lie down, so that you are available to receive?
The lesser for the greater…

What will it be?

I am embracing the essential, being the essential.
I am an essential being.
Love’s vision is being powerfully manifested through me, as me and for me.

Sweat gathers on my forehead. My lungs are clear. My body awake. My mind is calm. My heart is open. Experiencing the beauty of the moment. Feeling the gifts of endurance. My legs provide the spiraling motion. One day at a time, embracing the essential. One day…one step…one breath…at a time, I am coming home.

Amen.

I will not die an unlived life.
I will not live in fear
of falling or catching fire.
I choose to inhabit my days,
to allow my living to open me,
to make me less afraid,
more accessible,
to loosen my heart
until it becomes a wing,
a torch, a promise.
I choose to risk my significance;
to live so that which came to me as seed
goes to the next as blossom
and that which came to me as blossom,
goes on as fruit.

fully alive - dawna markova