Take a moment.
Take a breath.
Find your own heart’s place,
Your own soul’s space.
Meditation
Let your hopes bud free
Now that sunny days sneak up
Behind cold rainy mornings
And layers get peeled open outdoors;
There’s a quickening of breath, action, planning:
Verdant peaks poke out of brown branches,
Sturdy shoots plow up from empty hard ground,
Tenacious flowers unfurl spunky petals–
Nature showing the way
To not hold back, not delay
Your own hesitant budding of hopes …
Find your path, gently plow your spirit to waken,
Stir your earth
Stow your fears,
Sow even your most tentative knowledge–
It, too, has potential for growing.
Give your dreams a good shake
Unclog plans from despair or stagnation
Stretch your soul
Clear your heart from worry, anger, dissuasion.
Plant your words in this world
Air your prayers to welcome the sun
Seek expression.
Sprinkle showers of hope upon your budding self
You will not be mistaken–
There is a world reawakened
With much worthy growth to be taken.
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What Deaf Can Hear And Blind Can See
Practice gentleness
Cultivate softness
Live care
Hold light
Speak kindness
Communicate love
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A Path To Peace
Peace is not made by force
Or guns
Or terror.
It is not reached through the infliction of an added pain
Unto another
In the name of God or righteousness.
Peace is not made
By fighting for it with hatred
Or another war.
Children everywhere are children
Worthy of far more.
May compassion multiply and kindness grow …
To put out the fires of hatred and division,
The smoldering of war and rage,
Of profiteering and apathy,
Of greed and power-hunger
Disguised as they can be by flag or faith or vocal moral lore.
May compassion multiple and kindness grow …
To pour cool peacefulness
On zealots and prejudiced
And remind them we have all been born
Under the same skies
In the same form
Onto the same blue-green shores.
May love flow through the wounded places
Through the broken walls and empty spaces,
To fill the shattered hearts with light,
To gently hold
Let light unfold.
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Quietude
Take some time to be quiet.
Quietude. Do you remember what it is?
“Impossible,” some say. “Unrealistic.”
“Maybe the next time I am on vacation,” others lament wistfully, “… don’t know when … maybe next year. If I can manage it. Somehow.”
In this world of ours, it may be difficult to imagine taking time for quiet. Maybe harder still to figure out how. Logistics, you know. The noise of churning plans.
If you must, make a quiet-date with yourself. And keep it. But if you can let yourself release a moment of control and grab a quiet moment, do so. Today. Now.
Just do it.
Take a minute. Take two breaths. Take five minutes if you can. A half-hour if you’re extra-lucky and the stars align. A few hours if you’ve won the My-Time-Lottery …
Find a bit of quietude. This day.
A bit tomorrow, when you can.
And the next …
Whatever brief respite you clear up in your mind–take it. Make it yours. Be quiet in it. This is worth it for you, but will also pricelessly teach others who need knowing, who forgot the way to be quiet, who maybe had never learned how.
Little ones, too, need quiet time.
Some of them do not know, either. About silence. Constant beeping, typing, video, screen time, phone time, entertainment, play-dates, lessons, coaching, characters and things that move and ping and chime and replay high-pitch recordings.
Brains need quiet like they need oxygen. Like they need love. Like they need soul.
Show them you believe that quietude is important. Show them you know how … begin now …
Oh, I know it is a rare thing; silence.
In this busy, hustle-bustle, to-do lists and beeping phones, email, texts, chats, calls, meetings, reports, social obligations, family events, work mingling, and information pouring in through every moment, every pore … there is noise just about everywhere. A hiss, a buzz, a murmur, background hum of electronics, cars, people, needs, demands, small children, needy neighbors, ailing parents, crises calls …
It is because of all of that that it is all the more important to take time for quiet.
To re-align your center. To restore the foundation of yourself–of who you are and where you’re going and what makes you who you are and what calms your body why and how. Yes, all that in a moment of quietude. For once not in words, but silence.
Take time for quiet.
Let quiet in. Allow it home, again.
Take time for a calm, clear breath and momentarily emptied mind.
A pause for calibrating a brief neutral.
Be silent. Lower volume on your inner critics (they can use a moment of silence, too!).
Just take a moment. Listen to nothing but the beating of your heart, the music of your soul, the nothingness that holds the breath of life around you.
The pulse of nature.
The space between the spaces.
Silent. Powerful. Whole.
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Today, be Still
Today,
find a point of stillness:
brief, but precious
slight, but full
small, but luminously real.
Find a point stillness
in the balance of all things
between the breathing out
and breathing in.
(Quote by Na’ama Yehuda)
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Hello Spring!
It is spring!
The birds sing, and people walk around with the odd and gladdened smile of no-more-winter, raising eyes to the blue sky.
It is Spring!
The forsythia will bloom, the cherry trees will blossom, little buds will poke their heads up from the ground without a sound to boom a verdant glow.
It is Spring!
Nests will fill with fuzz and wooing birds and new twigs splendor, and perfect eggs will follow, curling hatchlings deep in dreams of endless worms.
It is Spring!
Open windows. Open jackets. Green grass reappearing under browning frost and bits of winter’s snow.
It is Spring!
Lambs will bleat, ducklings waddle, kids will scamper ‘cross new meadows, as their mothers languid, follow, sated by the younglings’ joy.
It is Spring!
Can you feel it? There’s a buzz, a distinct glitter. Light has changed–now amplified–and not only by the angle of the sun finally resuming duty, back to glory, hastening beauty.
It is Spring!
Don’t worry if some gray dreary days will come and try to turn the tide. Spring would not abide–it has come now, and it will forge paths in frozen soil to melt remaining cold.
Time’s come.
Winter has grown old. Its shift has ended. Spring sprung. Let’s welcome it aboard!
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Listen
It is the voice of heart
The voice of care
Of here and then and everywhere.
Listen. It is there.
It is the voice that speaks the wind that rustles
Through the branches
From the smallest trees
Into the clouds.
Listen. Find its sound.
It is the voice of oceans ebbing surf
And twirling foam and shells
Onto changing sands
And sparkling sun.
Listen. All is one.
It is the voice of all that does not need
Explaining
And has no demand.
Listen. Understand.
It is the voice of who you’re meant to be
And are
And have never quite forgotten.
The voice that hears the broken places
It is the voice that heals.
Listen. Breathe it in, and feel.
It is the voice of calm
And nature
The voice of reason that does not hold cause
Or fault
Or worry
Just is.
Listen. Welcome ease.
It is the voice without words
That carries worlds within it
The voice of souls connected
Hope restored
The voice of light in flow
tenderly weaving earth and sky above.
Listen. It is the endless call of love.
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Let it be
Let your soul speak
Words of wisdom, words of beauty
Let it be
Let your heart find
Words of courage, words of hope
Let it be
Let your mind know
Words of comfort, words of peace
Worlds of ease
Let it be
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Rest in Peace, Dear Carol
Carol H.
ברוך דיין אמת
May you rest in peace now, Carol, having completed your work on this earth, in this body; and having done so utterly spectacularly, as evidenced by the many people who love you so dearly, the lives you changed and enriched, the truth you spoke, the healing you provided, the open-mind and open-heart you lived by.
I miss you already.
I also know you’re going to be with us, always; if in a different way. But no less loving.
Am not worried for you being lonely over there, in Soul Heaven. Oh, not at all, for you have a welcoming committee with you! I can feel it. Kathryn, surely. She’s been moving front and center in the last month, preparing to receive you and ready for reconnecting. I can almost see your hand in hers as she shows you the path to new tomorrows. Others are there to welcome you, too … from recently departing friends to longer lost kin of heart and family. A multitude. A community of souls. A tribe. All holding you in love and light.
Am relieved that you are no longer suffering and that your body no longer limits your soul from soaring. You have blessed us all.
And you are a Blessed One.
I will be taking time off in your honor, to sit in prayer and meditation, to hold you in my heart fully, to be with you during this process of you moving on to a different path of being, to support your family.
There’s a candle lit for you here, as is the tradition in my family and upbringing, to ‘hold’ and ‘light the way’ and keep in thoughts and blessing a dear one who is walking a new path. Though knowing you, Carol, you are probably flying. Walking’s too slow. And you sure had enough of ‘slow’ for a while now…
I said goodbye to you when I went to sleep last night, having felt you getting close to passing since Friday and even more so all day yesterday, and I knew that something shifted in the early morning: a release, a relief, a letting go. You had let me know.
The deep love of those close to you–your dear husband, children, siblings, friends–I know it helped you through this most difficult last year, and helped you know it was okay to finally let go. Love held you. May it hold you still and hold us all now as sorrow flows and gratitude fills memories with the honor of knowing you and loving you. I love you so!
It has been an honor for me. Still is. Will remain so and only grow.
You have enriched my life, nourished me indelibly on levels that are hard to put in words, changed who I had the possibility to become. I cannot imagine my life without you. A gift. A blessing.
Carol, you are a part of my heart and always will be so.
You are family to me.
My love always — Na’ama
Na'ama Yehuda 
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