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MONDAY’S POEM: Karma
Through the past few posts I have written of my travels to Wisconsin for the annual “homecoming” pagent in my home-town of Blanchardville. All experiences have their lessons. All paths and destinies are driven by karma. With my experience of traveling back to the family farm of my youth still fresh, I reflect some of my musings in the following:
Karma
There’s always more to burn:
Fuel to feed the great fire.
Travels through life in the mire
Lead to more lessons to learn.
Brothers of three generations
Differ in extraordinary ways.
Their life-paths twist through a maze;
Destinies driven by their limitations.
Karma is complex to unwind;
The source is a tangle of lives.
The weaving together of so many tribes
Forms a patchwork, one of a kind.
When love is the thread for the stitches,
The patterns emerge in fine hues.
The patchwork of reds, purples, blues
Renders a tapestry depicting life’s riches.
©2013 Richard W. Bredeson. All rights reserved.
PS: If you are in the Annapolis, Maryland area, I am beginning a new series of Qigong classes next Monday, October 7. Check details here.
An Appreciation of Goddesses
I have noticed I am not writing about The Goddess much lately. I have to get back to the reason for this blog; for men to get in touch with The Goddess!
I offer you three stories from the last few days:
Story 1: I met my youngest niece for the first time this week. My youngest brother had a daughter last year. I hadn’t been back to Wisconsin, where they live, until my return for “homecoming” (as I’ve written extensively about these past few posts). She is now about a year and a half and every bit a Bredeson! She is cute, precocious, both shy and full of energy and life. It was a joy to meet her!
And I learned from her, this young goddess with all the makings of a beautiful Venus. She taught me the joys of innocence; her smile was brilliant and unaffected. She taught me about simple pleasures; picking grass and examining it with intense curiosity. She taught me to play; her relaxed approach was filled with fun and laughter. As I think of her now I smile recalling her initial reticence and her final warm hug and kiss for Uncle Rich.
Story 2: I returned from Wisconsin to an empty house. Rosemary was off to a conference/retreat in Baltimore. While I had another “goddess” to keep me company, Tara, our Lhasa Apso, my human goddess didn’t return until Wednesday evening. And when she did I experienced a new radiance and a bright smile that I had missed while away. She was full of light from the conference, brimming with ideas and a renewed enthusiasm for the work we share. There was more to this than just a short absence and a week’s separation. There was a glow, a lightness of being that I was delighted to reconnect with. My goddess was not only home again, but revved up and ready.
Story 3: Rosemary and I attended a concert last evening. The Mediaeval Baebes are in Maryland for the Renaissance Festival this weekend. As a special treat they appeared in concert in Annapolis Thursday evening. We have been fans of this group from London for a number of years and make an extra effort to see them when they are near.
These six women have voices of goddesses! They sing incredible, originally arranged and orchestrated, carefully researched songs from the ages. They are a truly gifted group; their songs run the range from deeply spiritual to the highly sensual. They are fun, witty, exuberant and talented. They are not only “baebes” they are goddesses!
Three stories, three encounters with goddesses. I am truly blessed! I offer these stories as both reminder and enjoinder: look for the goddesses in your life and honor them. They are beautiful, loving, kind, compassionate, brilliant and strong. They deserve your attention and your affection! The Divine Feminine is truly coming into her power as we move deeper into Aquarius.
And don’t forget about your Inner Goddess. Nurture Her!
MONDAY’S POEM: Balance
During this time of the Autumnal Equinox it is good to look for balance in our lives. I published this poem before, during another equinox. But it continues to speak to me and I hope it helps bring balance to your life during this time of equal light and dark. And the last line of this poem is fully in harmony with my last couple of blogs about “home” and “sense of place.”
Balance
Breathe in freshness,
The power of life in the Universe.
Breathe out love,
The acceptance of All in the Universe.
Consume deliciousness,
Every dish alive with energy.
Purge the waste without grief;
It is a meal for another.
Bring into the Universe all of You;
Your unique gifts are essential.
Let go of everything that is not yours;
There are others ready to serve.
Live your Life Purpose;
Your karmic journey is open.
Die as a Natural Human,
Fully embracing your sense of place.
©2013 Richard W. Bredeson. All rights reserved.
Harvest Full Moon, Autumnal Equinox, Homecoming and More
As I wrote in yesterday’s post I am visiting my brothers on the family farm in Wisconsin. I was here for yesterday’s full moon; it was huge and bright here as only it can be in the countryside where it still gets much darker at night than what I usually experience on the east coast. Here is where I got part of my starry-eyed wanderlust when I was a kid looking up at the brilliant night sky, the dense and bright Milky Way streaking overhead and the astounding constellations of the Wheel revolving through the seasons. I was thrilled to see the aurora borealis occasionally in the cold winter nights. And I always loved the rising of Sirius around the time of my birthday. The sky part of being back here hasn’t changed over the years; I can still come back to that.
To celebrate the Full Moon we were out in my brother’s garden bringing in a pail full of green beans, a few remaining peas, an awesome head of cauliflower and some still sweat lettuce coming back after welcome rain. So we did our harvesting for the day and are now enjoying the bounty.
And I’ll be here for the Equinox on Sunday – equal parts night and day. This will be a time for reflecting on balance. And it is good to be here in the place I grew up to ponder the balance in my life: the maturing urbanite and the farm-boy, the world traveler and the small-town bumpkin, the spiritual seeker with the grounded and earthy dirt-farmer son. It is always a good thing to look for balance, not just at equinoxes, but all through the year. Balance begins with inner reflection; the inner is always reflected outwardly. Outer signs of balance, like Sunday’s Equinox, are there to remind us to go inside to find the balance.
I must admit I am somewhat unbalanced by this visit to the family farm; as I wrote yesterday I have discovered it is no longer “home” for me; not even a little bit. I continue to reconcile, or balance, this finding for myself. I think I will be doing some grounding work when I get back to Maryland; the grounding that may have been a vestige of my youth here in Wisconsin needs to be transplanted once and for all. Or maybe it just needs to be replanted in my heart as the physical grounding to place recedes as an important element in my life.
Sandwiched between Full Moon and Equinox is my 50th High School reunion! I will be joining my former classmates for a dinner tonight. Will I recognize anyone? Yesterday my brother and I had breakfast in the hometown café; a couple was also in the restaurant; I knew I knew them but could not place faces with names. The wife recognized me not by my looks but by my voice! And I thought I had worked so hard to neutralize my Wisconsin accent! Betty Lou, three years my senior, looks much the same as when we rode the school bus together the seven miles into town. But recalling names is quite another matter. I hope they give us nametags so I’m not guessing wrong!
Saturday is the big Homecoming event: parade (my class will have a float of some kind since we are one of the honored classes), football (one of my nephews will play) and the evening “banquet” (I put this in quotes because it is probably not what you think; substitute glasses of milk for a fine offering of wine and you’ll get the picture!)
I’ll spend Sunday visiting and catching up with family. I fly home on Monday to get back to routines, qigong classes and a re-balancing. And I’ll take a piece of my old “home” with me in my heart.
Where do you call home? Do you attend school reunions? How do you balance all the experiences of “home” with your life now? Take a peak inside for the answers.