A New Heart

A friend I trust once told me that God did not leave us here without a map.

I used to think that the signs were all around me, just hiding from my everyday awareness (feeling kinda outta touch).

Soft focus … notice that black bird? Is it black? Do I fly? Am I high enough? (No, definitely not high enough.)

Now, I begin to study myself. Am I the map? Am I the sign? So many signals, synapses, neural pathways all connected from the day I was born to the day I depart and beyond.

God help me … I am the cartographer of my human geography.

Unbidden gratitude
raises my eyes to see
more than the face
of the moment;

I see how odd bits
fit together and how
I am better for it.
This small thing
supports my life.

I reimagine the gift –
and choose to know
that you belong
here with me,

and that humanity,
with all its odd bits,
fits together as
one grateful,
connected world.

December 18, 2011

Let me not forget the
warmth of our love
even when I serve
your plate cold.

Let me live in the
home of our heart
even when we choose
different rooms.

Let the law of our
love be written by
my own hand
so that I may always
know my way to you
and see love’s brilliant
light shining upon us.

For Jeshy and Donna
November 5, 2011

We travel across
the years, settle
on one or a few
for a while –
resting, waiting.
The questions change,
never the destination.

Deep in the silence
between one and
another, there’s a
faint sound – familiar,
comforting.
Humming its tune,
we begin to remember
the words, but these
vanish as soon as
they arrive.

What remains is that
silence “in between” –
the original sound –
so deep one can get
lost but for that
bright hope

when the whole
world makes sense,
when love is the
only word worth
uttering, the only
step worth taking.

For Celestia
October 31, 2011

God’s hand is on the door of your soul, awaiting your invitation to receive the gift of divine love. It matters not what you wear or how prepared you may or may not be – you were created for this gift.

You are the holy temple in which the divine may dwell. Your soul’s aspirations are the offerings laid upon the altar of love; your joy and tears the songs that fill God with gladness.

Love is all God has for you. Perfection goes unnoticed. God sees you – the Beloved – through the open door of your heart.

Open your door. Let each moment that you behold one another be a mutual worship. Give no thought to what you do not have to offer. God needs nothing but your love; you are beautiful just as you are.

And when you receive this divine gift of love, nothing compares to it. It is a sacred treasure, a joyful secret within your heart. In time, you will want this consummate love to fill you again and again.

You are a gift – a unique star in God’s eye – the only one who can be that brilliant light in a once-darkened corner of the world.

Breaking the pattern,
I make no move to fill
the silence.

Are there signposts
in the unknown?
Is this solid awkwardness
between each breath
my presence?

Nothing to bounce off,
no image to reflect,

my own gravity is
the foundation for each
uncharted step.

In darkness my heart
waits; its yearning
the sound that
echoes against
the Light.

My hand, alone,
opens the door
between us. Enter,
this place
You deem worthy,

and I will be
changed forever.

Mary of the Rose

I am invited only.

Bending close,
I hear the sigh
from your heart,
and witness
the miracle of
God’s Will.

Mary of the Rose