THERE IS SOME KISS WE WANT

(Rumi, transl. Coleman Berks)

There is some kiss we want

with our whole lives,

the touch of Spirit on the body.

Seawater begs the pearl

to break its shell.

And the lily, how passionately

it needs some wild Darling!

At night, I open the window

and ask the moon to come

and press its face into mine.

Breathe into me.

Close the language-door,

and open the love window.

The moon won't use the door,

only the window.

ALLELUIA - VERSE FOR THE VIRGIN

(Hildegard of Bingen, transl. Barbara Newman)

Alleluia! Light

burst from your untouched

womb like a flower

on the farther side

of death. The world tree

is blossoming. Two

realms become one.

THE AVOWAL

(Denise Levertov)

As swimmers dare

to lie face to the sky

and water bears them,

as hawks rest upon air

and air sustains them,

so would I learn to attain

freefall, and float

into Creator Spirit's deep embrace,

knowing no effort earns

that all-surrounding grace.

I
Do not
Want to step so quickly
Over a beautiful line on God's palm
As I move through the earth's
Marketplace
Today.

I do not want to touch any object in this world
Without my eyes testifying to the truth
That everything is
My Beloved.

Something has happened
To my understanding of existence
That now makes my heart always full of wonder
And kindness.

I do not
Want to step so quickly
Over this sacred place on God's body
That is right beneath your
Own foot

As I
Dance with
Precious life
Today

(Hafiz)

If the only prayer you said in your whole life was, 'thank you' that would suffice. (Eckhart)

Hope is not the conviction that something will turn out well but the certainty that something makes sense, regardless of how it turns out. (Vaclav Havel)

If I am not for myself, who will be for me? And if I am only for myself, what am I? And if not now - when? (Hillel)

If you understand, things are just as they are. If you do not understand, things are just as they are. (Zen Proverb)

There are two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle. (Albert Einstein)

If you bring forth what is within you it will heal you. And if you do not bring forth what is within you, it will destroy you. )Gospel of St. Thomas)

Go to your bosom: Knock there, and and ask your heart what it doth know. (Shakespeare)

The intellect has little to do on the road to discovery. There comes a leap in consciousness, call it intuition or what you will, and the solution omes to you and you don't know how or why. (Einstein)

We do not see things as they are; we see things as we are. (Talmud)