A New Heart

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

My beloved,

Lift up your heart so that
I might hold it in my hand;
I care for its tenderness.

Accept your offering as the
wisdom unbound by time.

Lift up your heart so that
you might see the unchanging
landscape of God’s Love.

Meet my gaze there and
see the soul that you are.

I am your own guardian
raised by God’s Hand
to hold you forever.

Mary of the Rose

I listen for that sound
that happens between us
when spoken words
are forgotten, ignored.
in that moment I see you,
really see you.

A miracle happens
when that look in
your eyes tells me
your guard is down:
Words fail you like they
fail me, every time.

The sound of pure love
breathes out my skin
when you touch me with
this longing to explain
what you already tell me.

Words fall between us,
husks of good intentions
that fall to the fertile soil
of the soul longing to
be heard.

I hear you.

The earth was still
outside my window
this morning,
the birdsong silenced
by my longing,
their dance lost
in the vast white
emptiness. I wonder
do I feel or am I
just cold?

I wonder how
to turn my heart
into the fire that
will burn the truth
out of my mouth?

I met someone I like.
The sky introduced us
as we watched for a
sign, anywhere but here,
any time but now.

She makes me guess –
whispering her secrets to
sighing trees, she tucks
them into little holes
no one can see.

Something she said
caught me; hanging
in the air like a bird
of prey, waiting to dive,
before I got away.

It was the truth.

Like a miracle, she faithfully
comes back to me like I’m
some kind of nectar,
mouth open, waiting
to dive, one more time,
into my sweetness.

I’m getting used to the way
she breathes, her rhythm
keeps time with my heart.
She knows where the little
holes are – thoughts not
forgotten in the dark.

And where the sky meets
the earth, I saw her standing
in the sun, not looking back,
not waiting for tomorrow,
she had arrived. She holds
out her arms forever.

Here, in my silence, the world expands
to include all its people – past,
present, and future – to make
sense of why I am and am not.

In the first atom that would boast
the promise of life, as in the atom
that would become death to
thousands of lives, lay our reason:
to become a changed thing.

No substance, animate or inanimate,
is untouched by time and season.
The cloud-capped stone peak is
reduced to gravel beneath my unsteady
foot as my path shifts at yet
another turn.

This changing landscape holds the
thrill and terror of the unknown.
We pale at its challenge or leap
with joyful wings into newness.
The steady tattoo of our heart
marches us, willing or not, into
another moment, another existence.

Here, in the breath each heart beat
gives me, my world stands still.
I accept myself as present, empowered
by the gift and freed by the beautiful
truth of now. And love gives my heart
its own reason: to be is enough.