My Metaphor is Blood 

Essence, what is in the Veins, what flows through me, what River moves and carries me through the varied landscapes of my life. 

The Crown of Thorns that makes my life bleed. The rivulets running down my face as tears. The Sign of Sacrifice - of my Self, for my Self - accepting the Burden and carrying that Weight - falling again and again. The Substance of Sacrifice - the fateful wishing that “this Cup may pass from me”. Carrying on, suffering and lamenting and nothing to be done until you die except Sing - sing in the blood. 

The Blood-Red five-petaled flower once found in the Desert of Dreams. The Redness in Winter - in magical red hats and holly berries, and the red satin ribbons of Christmas. Raw Red desire for a Life of Truth, and all the bloody wounds inflicted for maintaining that integrity. The Bloody Handprint left on the streets of Vancouver, where I strived in a House of Smoke and Mirrors to make myself live one more time. 

What is in the Blood, born and bound. Music and Mayhem. Sound and Sacrifice. Raw Beauty and the Way Home. And the Good Ending that is penciled in our dreams. 

Little Girl dances over the hill, in yellow silk and a purse of jingle bells. Her Blood is bright and fresh and true. She is dancing down into the Valley of Creation. All Joy and Light and Simplicity - a Being Born in her Blood. 

For Courage

The black dance and the bone wall 

Silent night and the sorrow fall 

Keep me free, keep me tall 

keep me fast for heaven 

I want to turn, into, between 

what, not known, or newly seen 

Out of a spiral, turning clean 

looking late to heaven 

Still in rags, and poor and plaid 

not made of pearl, this could be sad 

But human is as human does 

this dire deep earth the sacred cause 

Here is the molten moving way 

to walk in fire and burn the day 

To be in death and still to say 

I walk the road to heaven

Shower Stars 

Shower stars, unleash heaven 

let fall the flowers of the night 

Let all fall down, 

that we may feel the stars under our feet 

And shake their silver burning from our hair 

Shower stars, unleash heaven 

let fall the destinies of all 

The shining flocks of the midnight hills 

Let us feel the stars under our feet 

And shake their silver burning from our hair. 

Morning Offering 

I bless the night that nourished my heart, 

all that is eternal in me welcomes the wonder of this day, 

the field of brightness it creates, offering time for each thing 

to arise and illuminate 

May my mind come alive today to the invisible geography 

that invites me to new frontiers, 

to break the dead shell of yesterdays, 

to risk being disturbed and changed 

May I have the courage today 

to live the life I would love, 

to do at last what I am here for, 

and waste my heart on fear no more 

~ John O’Donahue 

Beneath 

Beneath the hardness, there is fear 

Beneath the fear, there is sadness 

Beneath the sadness, there is softness 

Inside the softness is the vast blue sky. 

~ Anonymous Shambhalian from New Brunswick, Canada