Like an Elephant

Like an Elephant
Spring flowers,
Rain Showers
Bunnies,
Robins, and
Butterflies
are some of the things we tend to think about
when we think spring.
Spring, at least this year for me,
is reminding to move forward
with strength and calmness.
To move forward
in a way that is creating a path
for growth, stability and joy.
This spring I am moving forward
like an elephant
using my spiritual and physical size
to radiate and share my spiritual energy with others.
I am moving forward
with the qualities of my inner elephant
showing empathy,
celebrating and creating community,
showing compassion to and for others.
I am moving forward
to address all the elephants in the room
with the courage of the elephant within me.
I am facing the uncomfortable and the obstacles
with the courage which runs internally.
I am moving forward
with the peace I gain from
breathing like an elephant.
Doing so gives me steadiness,
patience,
and strength.
I move forward this spring
with all of the qualities of the elephant
which speaks to me and through me,
removing all obstacles
and springing forth in renewal and rejuvenation.

100% of our donations go to support our ability to provide low and no cost offerings to those seeking to grow and evolve spiritually.

Donate

My Legacy

My Legacy

You can do nothing about the legacy you inherited,
but you can do something about the legacy you leave behind.
That is part of the legacy
my friend Alan Johnson left behind.
What am I leaving behind?
I would like to believe my legacy
is more about qualities
then things.
I doubt it will be about material wealth,
but more about spiritual wealth.
I would like to think my legacy
will be about the love and kindness
I have shown others.
I would like to think my legacy
will be about the wisdom I share with others
that my ancestors and those who came before me,
shared with me.
I would like to think my legacy
will be the advice and guidance
that I have offered to help others on their journey.
I would like to think my legacy
is in the poems and prose I have offered to the world.
I would like to think it is in my stories,
the ones I enjoyed learning
and those that were difficult, but transformative.
In the years I have left on this earth,
I am developing my spiritual estate,
with an inheritance to those who come after me
or who have walked with me
that my spirit and wisdom
might walk with them
and live in them
as all the teachers in my life
have done so in me.

100% of our donations go to support our ability to provide low and no cost offerings to those seeking to grow and evolve spiritually.

Donate

Simmering

Simmering

It was one of those cooking show lessons,
about meats that are tough
and need to spend hours simmering.
Over time of simmering in broths or juices
they become tender, juicy, and full of flavor.
It is the process that I enjoy.
Most people I know,
do not simmer,
but perhaps we should,
Simmering requires us to slow down,
to plan,
and to allow time and space
for transformation.
It means we step away from
the fast, rapid and instant prep
and take time to simmer
not just in our food prep
but in our spiritual transformation.
Sometimes we need to simmer
in the wisdom and mystery
the Ultimate puts before us.
Sometimes we need the time to
sit with it and simmer.
There is a time for microwave magic,
and a time for us to sit and simmer.

100% of our donations go to support our ability to provide low and no cost offerings to those seeking to grow and evolve spiritually.

Donate

From My Divers

From My Divers

Words from others,
readers of my poems,
have used words such as
heartfelt,
beautiful, and inspiring.
Then there have been those,
who have made me dive with them
preachable,
paintable,
Negro spiritual,
and Wicked.
They showed me where their dives took them,
allowing me to hear the sermons
and see the paintings.
Then there were those
who said like Negro spirituals
there were messages
beyond the poems.
The poem was a message,
but there was a message
only those knowing the code
and would hear with their own dive.
Then their was my wife,
who hates poetry,
and at the end of Wicked said
these songs are like your poems.
They don’t rhyme,
they don’t follow rules,
they don’t have one meter,
they just are,
but you come to appreciate
the courage and honesty
when you sing your songs
of authenticity and honesty
and dive into a deeper relationship with you
through them.
What a blessing it is
to hear from those who dive
with and because of you and
invite you to dive with them.

100% of our donations go to support our ability to provide low and no cost offerings to those seeking to grow and evolve spiritually.

Sophia

Sophia

Sophia, who is she?
My students ask me this every semester
and then I educate them about how
Sophia is not a person to me.
Sophia
is about divine wisdom.
about how wisdom is female.
I explain that Sophia for some
is the female personification of the Divine.
For others Sophia is
the female twin of Jesus.
About how for others
Sophia is the Holy Spirit.
Proverbs tells us that Sophia
came before any human being
and was through whom all was created.
Sophia
is who I call upon and think about
as I celebrate all the wisdom that came before me.
Sophia
is who I move through
as I share my wisdom with others and
Sophia
is whom I introduce others to
so the honoring of all wisdom
is celebrated in all times.
When you are in need of wisdom,
invite Sophia in and
allow her wisdom to flow in and through..

100% of our donations go to support our ability to provide low and no cost offerings to those seeking to grow and evolve spiritually.

Donate

Interfacing

Interfacing

Anyone who knows me well,
knows I spend hours a day,
most of my days,
on the computer.
I use it to teach,
to build my business,
to help others heal,
to read,
to write,
to grade,
to do so many things.
Yet, how often do I give thanks
for the computer,
the phone,
the kindle,
and other forms of technology
which keep me connected
and independent.
Do I say good morning,
good night
or even say thanks or
I love you.
What if I did?
What if I looked at all the technology
in my life and treated it as if it is as
important to me as it is.
What else do I not give thanks for
that serves and supports me?
I sit here,
writing this on Labor Day,
while my technology is laboring for me
and allowing me to labor for others/
It has led me to think about
how I need to do something for it
and show it I care.
Maybe I should think about it
and give them names
and change the way we interface.

100% of our donations go to support our ability to provide low and no cost offerings to those seeking to grow and evolve spiritually.

Donate

Now I lay me

Now I lay me

Now I lay me down to sleep,
and as I do,
I ask the Ultimate be with me,
silencing all the noise floating through me,
allowing me to hear nothing
but the symphony and the silence
from above.
I ask to be brought to this state
where I release all that binds me here
I open myself up to this state of innocence
I only feel with the one I trust
unconditionally and unfathomably .
Sleep is about me walking with the Ultimate
in a way that is prayerful,
in a place where the words flow to me and through me.
I remember the 20 steps I was given on
how to exegete a scripture
but I never made it past step 3
and then I would be called into this state of sleep.
It was during this time, the wisdom would flow to me,
and then through me
as I wrote down the words
which came from the deepest spaces
and from the one who whispered clearly and loudly
in the sanctity of
my laying me down to sleep.

100% of our donations go to support our ability to provide low and no cost offerings to those seeking to grow and evolve spiritually.

Donate

Wisdom

Wisdom

We all have those places
we go to seeking guidance and wisdom.
They may be a person, a place or a thing.
However, the world is filled with wisdom.
Sometimes we find it in
holy writings,
other times we find it in
the everyday
like the poetry or prose of others,
in emails,
in text messages
or during a meeting.
Other times we find it
in what we see,
like the waving of the branches,
the patterns of the birds,
the resiliency of the plants
and other teachings of the world.
Wisdom can come to us through
all of our senses,
it might come from the warmth of
a  cup of hot cocoa on a cold day
or the sound which lifts one’s spirit
or the feelings which arise when we gaze at a sunset
When we learn to look for the wisdom
in everyday moments
we will grow in our understanding
and appreciation
of the one who sent it to us in the first place.

100% our donations go to support our ability to provide low and no cost offerings to those seeking to grow and evolve spiritually.

Donate

Silence

Silence

Sometimes my wisdom,
my deepest understandings
come in the midst of my silence.
they do not come when I am speaking,
but rather when I am silent,
like following the urge from within
to wake up out of a deep sleep
and go to the bathroom.
It comes from this deep wisdom
we see even in infants who
know to suck on a nipple
and be fed.
We see it in the ways
salmon tend to know
to swim upstream
or the things our bodies
tend to know how to do
without instruction.
Sometimes it is in the
silence, that we receive
the guidance and inspiration
of the Universe.
It comes when we give
the Universe our undivided attention
and exist in silence.

Donate

Inner Ancestor

I look at myself
and I see my ancestors.
I know I am a reflection
of the lineage I know
and the lineage I do not.
I never met my birth parents
but I see them when I look at myself.
I see my
birth family

foster family, and my
adoptive family.
I them
in the way I look,
behave,
dream,
and live
I learn about them
each day by the way
they live through me,
guide me,
and inspire me
I am grateful to be the
embodiment
of their wisdom
their beings, and
the legacy they left
within me.

Donate

The Mirror

I look in the mirror
and sometimes I love
what I see and
there are other times
I don’t
However, there has never been
a time when I hated
what I saw so much
that I could slash my wrist
or poison myself
or want to leave this world behind.

When I look in the mirror
what I see is a reflection
of the Divine,
the one who created me,
the one who designed me
the one who tells me
you are beautiful just as you are.

When I look in the mirror
what I see is a reflection
of the Divine
of the one who is love,
is about healing
is about grace
is about wisdom and
is about listening.

When I look in the mirror
I pray for those who
do not see what I see
or feel what I feel.
I pray for those who see
something so painful
that leaving feels better
than staying

When I look in the mirror,
I remember to pray
for those
I know,
those I do not,
those who are whole and
those who are hurting,
those who have asked
for prayer
and those who have not
because we are all
a reflection
of the Divine

Donate

Lost & Found

When I know what to do,
I do it.
When I know where to go,
I go there.
When I think I know the answers,
I forget who is helping me.

It is when I don’t know what to do,
that I work the hardest,
and dig the deepest into my soul.
it is when I am feeling lost
and without direction
that I realize who my GPS “
has been in my life.

We know what we know
because the Divine has
taught us,
nurtured us,
guided us, and
provided for us.

We have gotten this far
because God has been with us,
guiding us,
directing us,
protecting us,
and transforming us.

Our growth in life happens when
we get out of the way and
let God guide us,
direct us,
teach us, and
transform us.
God lets us think we are growing
until we are ready to be humbled and
remember our understandings are not God’s.
God lets us think we are driving
until we are lost and
need God’s Protection System (GPS)
This has given new meaning to
Lost and Found

Donate

Spiritual Bumps

Sometimes we hit a
spiritual bump in our life.
That thing that jars us
and makes us think.
The moment that we come
off of autocruise and
call on our spiritual practices
to do more then get through it,
but to understand the meaning
to the spiritual bump.

This morning I woke up in tears,
grieving losses
which happened years ago.
It was through prayer and processing,
which I came to realize I had not
taken the time to grieve.
The message which triggered this
was not about me
but what was about me
was the grief it triggered.

The grief over my isolation.
The grief over the loss of
who I thought were friends.
The grief over things I thought I had grieved,
only to discover I had not.

Sometimes we need those spiritual bumps
to come to us in our dreams,
in our lives, and
in our visions
to give us deeper meaning
into our lives
and the purpose behind them

Donate

Smiling

Do you always smile?
my student asked.
No, but what makes me
smile is when I find that
what I am looking for
is already in me.

It is like Dorothy wanting to go home.
She already had the power.
She already had what she needed
to go home
I have to laugh
at myself
when I realize that
I already knew
what I was searching to learn.

What if I started by looking inside
instead of outside
listening to the wisdom in me
instead of looking for the wisdom
externally?
What if I journeyed within
connected to my internal Spirit
and never had to leave home
to find what I already had?

Donate

Silence

Symphony
Intuition
Learning
Experiencing
Nearness
Connection
Eternal

Donate