OK

I don’t know how its all going to turn out

my small life

or the future of humanity.

I want to know though.

Will I be OK?

Will my children be OK?

Will the dolphins and whales be OK?

Someone please tell me

guarantee me

assure me.

And then, maybe, just maybe,

I’ll surrender 

give up my need to control 

and push off the shore.

I hear a response to my plea:

“I am sorry, but that’s not how it works.

You have to believe and hope that all will be OK 

without knowing exactly what OK looks like.

OK does not mean everything will stay the same.

OK does not mean that the change will always be easy or pretty.

So if that is your definition, I’m sorry but I can’t tell you all will be OK.

But, if you are willing to see OK as the unfoldment 

of a truly Divine Plan

then yes, I can assure you

it will be OK,

better than OK”

OK, I say. 

A Prayer for Compassion

Grant me the courage

to feel what others feel,

to feel what I feel.

Grant me the courage

to see what others see,

to see what I see.

Grant me the courage

to turn towards other’s suffering,

to turn towards my suffering

rather than away.

Grant me the strength to see where we are all the same,

to feel our shared humanity

and to realize that the walls around my heart

are only an illusion of safety.

Remind me that I am protected by a power

that is vaster than the mind can ever understand.

Show me that when I allow myself to open

to the suffering in me

and around me

I help to open the shared heart of humanity.

- Patti Wardlaw

The Hidden Treasure

Yearning to expand,

our souls chose to embody into human form.

To experience the polarities

of pain and pleasure

good and evil

dark and light.

To experience Separation

in order to increase Oneness.

We fell from the all-knowing

and woke up in human bodies.

Naked, afraid and vulnerable

forgetting where we came from and why

searching everywhere for the answer

until, finally,

we look within the most unlikely of places

THE BODY

…what better place to hide the divine?

- Patti Wardlaw

Wonder

Wonder

Have you ever gazed up at the starry sky

and felt your body disappear?

Swept up by the mystery

the magnitude

the magic.

If so, how long were you able to stay in that sensation?

Was it just for a mere moment?

Or did it feel like a millennium?

Did your mind run interference and explain away what you were seeing

and bring you “back to earth”?

Or did your heart explode into the vastness

and take you into an experience of timelessness,

to a realm where there is no “you” and no “stars”… there just is?

The first is a response to asking:

“why are there stars”?

The second is a response to asking:

“I wonder what I am seeing”?

Dreaming

Could it be?

Could this be the time we have been waiting for?

That we were born for?

A time of transformation

and new possibilities?

The beginning of the end of

war

hatred

violence

winning

and losing?

Could it really be?

Or am I just a dreamer?

Dreaming that the shift is real,

that the veils are thinning,

that a new Way is possible.

Maybe so.

But think I’ll keep on dreaming…

what if dreaming is what makes it real?

Will you dream with me?

Standing in the Fog

So many clouds

between me and you.

So much smoke

between me and the answer

of what I’m to do.

Decisions to make.

Opinions to sort.

Actions to take.

Wanting clarity, wanting ease.

Yet, the harder I try

the heavier the fog.

And then I laugh, once again

at my attempts to “right” my way to the other side

at my unwillingness to simply stand in the fog

and let it permeate all my senses

without judgement, without an agenda.

I finally surrender

and see the illusion for what it is

and from a very different Source than before

I am able, in this moment,

to discern right action.

- Patti Wardlaw

Whispers from Divine

In the stillness of the morning I hear the whispers

calling me to expand

to release this illusion that I call “My life”.

And in those lucid moments of awakening

when my mind is not active enough to filter this voice

I feel the fullness and the vibration of

Love.

Joy.

Truth.

I Am Life.

I Am One.

I Am Divine.

There is no separation.

Exhausted

Weary

Dreary

Teary

“Fight these states”, they say, “don’t let them in”

Lighten Up!

Toughen Up!

Rise Up!

Can you imagine telling

the clouds not to release their rain,

the night not to shadow the earth,

the rock to resist being worn into sand?

Yet this is what we repeatedly tell ourselves

and the telling, in itself, is

Exhausting.

Will we ever become exhausted enough to

stop fighting,

stop trying,

and stop seeking?

So exhausted that we simply collapse into the embrace of stillness

and we Rest

And we See

And we Hear

The Truth?

We are Enough.

The Heart Knows

All of us are musicians

whether we have been trained to read music or not.

All of us are musicians through the virtue of being born

like the petals opening on the rose

or the robin making her nest

we humans, too, know how to listen to the impulse of life

to attune our instrument to that of the orchestra.

Our hearts know.

And our journey, as humans,

is to remember.

Speechless

In the silence that is never quite silent,

I listen.

Not with the intent to “hear” anything

or “get” anything

or “achieve” anything

but just for the sake of listening.

It takes a little while for the path to unfold,

and then I see

the path is inviting and it is endless.

My ears relax

the filters dissolve

the inner chatter stops

and I feel a sensation in my heart

that I’ve never felt before.

My heart is actively sensing the world

and the world is actively sensing my heart.

And I hear,

and there are no words.

Walk with me

Come be with me

and let’s just walk for awhile

side by side

let’s watch our feet

move upon the same earth at the same time

step by step

moment by moment

let’s listen together

to what we know is true.

We are soul.

We are infinite.

We are just walking each other home.

- Patti Wardlaw

Be the River

The water moves

from source to ocean

and back again

never following the same path twice.

The constancy we see is an illusion,

a single drop of water washes over a rock

and then moves on

never to visit that rock again.

Beneath it all

the river bed witnesses the flow

erodes, bends, and transforms.

It neither clings to nor resists the current,

but savours the sensation of every

swirling rapid

plummeting waterfall

and gentle trickle

sensing the aliveness of every moment

with joy and curiosity.

Living in Grace

To see Grace

is to see the stillness behind all that moves.

To hear Grace

is to listen to the silence in between the sounds.

To feel Grace

is to find the softness in what feels hard.

To live in Grace

is to know

what the mind will never understand

and for that to be enough

indeed

for it to be everything.

True Love

The power to

break a sleeping curse

transform a frog into a prince

return song to a mermaid.

Oh the allure,

the romance ,

the power of

“True Love”.

Yet always out of reach

impossible

surreal

… just a fairy tale.

How clever to hide the magic of love

behind the cloak of duality

only to be found by a few princes and princesses.

The time has come

for the unveiling of this illusion

to reveal this long held secret.

True Love is awaiting you

and it comes, not from another, but from the

One Heart,

Source.

Open your heart and say “yes”

and feel the sensation

the elation

of the re-union.

Unity

I Am Sorry

for thinking we were separate

for believing that I needed to earn your love

and you needed to earn mine

for treating love like a currency

that needed to be saved, guarded and cautiously spent.

Please Forgive Me

for forgetting that we are walking the same road

and for the hurt I have caused.

I Love You

the you that is the same as me

Thank You

for receiving me

and showing me

our shared unity.

Devotion

With a grateful heart,

I bow to you,

the One Heart

that beats and breathes

life into all beings.

With a free heart,

I choose you,

the One Heart

that knows only

benevolence and compassion.

With an open heart,

I devote my life to you,

the One Heart

who’s devotion to me

has been

and always will be

unwavering and unconditional.

Your love for me

brings me to my knees

and,

knowing I am worthy,

I receive

so that I may give.

June's Moon

It is the first of June

in this very strange year

 of change and contrasts

of hope and fear.

The scent of lilacs

pink cherry blossoms

small blue eggs hatching new life.

Events unfolding

senseless suffering

inflicted on humans, by humans,

again, and again, and again.

It is after midnight and I toss and turn

sleep is not coming easily tonight.

An email message from my dear friend, June:

“Trying to sleep,
thinking of you,
I opened the blind and saw
the moonlight reflecting on the venetian blinds
like teardrops.”

I  wrap myself in a blanket 

and step outside

the wet grass is cool beneath my feet

the sky is clear

the air is pure

cleansed by today’s rain.

There it is,

the waxing moon

the same moon

that beckoned June,

the same moon

that has borne witness to it all.

And, then I feel their presence

a circle of women stand around me 

my sisters, my ancestors

wise women from millenniums gone by

lit up by the moon

 I see the lines on their faces

I can feel their stories

their pain

their hardship

yet, arm in arm, they stand

in forgiveness

in gratitude

in love.

Relentless

Steadfast

Committed

Devoted

these warriors assure me

“we are here, our work continues on”

Grace Within

Still enough

brave enough

and willing enough

I dive within

past the waves

through the currents

noticing

the many schools

swimming and swirling around me

Still

I dive deeper

and finally

I exhale

as I remember

the ocean within provides infinite breath

A voice beckons me

to go deeper

and I go

to where there is only stillness

I feel a warm embrace

and my body melts

into the arms of

the One

who knows me,

guides me,

carries me,

breathes me

She whispers,

“I am here, I never left you”

and my True Self remembers

She is Me.

I am Grace.

Thank-you

Thank-you,

dear tree,

for the shade you cast

for the fruit you bear

for the birds you house.

Thank-you for your beauty

your splendour

your grace.

I could gaze at you forever

I see you

…I really see you.

What is that dear tree, did you say something?

Yes, you did, I heard it!

You said “you are welcome”

I can feel your response

and your appreciation

for my gratitude.

I feel

your bliss,

I feel my bliss.

Thank-you.

Time

Dear Time,

I am sorry

Please forgive me

for believing I was bigger than you,

for thinking I could

manage you,

control you,

stretch you,

shrink you,

waste you,

and even lose you.

I am sorry

for blaming you,

resenting you,

and feeling stressed “by” you.

Oh Time,

How misunderstood you have been,

viewed as an object and an enemy

instead of celebrated for who you really are:

a mere marker of the

Endless, Eternal and Infinite Now.