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MONDAY’S POEM: Moon Times
We moved through a powerful Full Moon in Virgo yesterday, 1:08 pm Eastern time. Unfortunately by dark and Moon rise we were under heavy cloud cover with the first flakes of snow falling! But I felt her swollen presence even if I could not see her.
In her honor I offer you this poem I wrote a few years ago. The Moon has been our constant companion across the eons; she helps us with time and she helps us remember.
Moon Times
(September 3, 2011)
The Moon waxes
Reminding us of the
Fullness of Time.
The Moon climbs
Reminding us of the
Need for effort.
The Moon appears
Reminding us of our
Inner work.
The Moon sets
Reminding us of the
Need for rest.
The Moon hides
Reminding us of our
Inner dark.
©2014 Richard W. Bredeson. All rights reserved.
A FRIDAY POEM FROM “RHYTHMS AND CYCLES” – A Hymn of Praise to Inanna
Inanna is one of the first Goddesses of Human history. She was written about and hymns composed to her in cuneiform preserved for 5000 and more years in clay tablets. I’ve included this hymn I wrote in the Rhythms and Cycles series because she was among many things the Goddess of agriculture and the harvest. She also, much like several later goddesses, including Persephone, spent part of the year in the underworld. She embodied the natural rhythms of Mother Earth. So we praise her:
A Hymn of Praise to Inanna
March 2, 2010
Inanna, Queen of Heaven
We praise your name
Holding it high.
We honor you, Holy Inanna!
Inanna, Mother of Earth
We hold you in gratitude
Praising your grace.
We honor you, Holy Inanna!
Inanna, Goddess of Under
We bow to you in awe
Singing our grief.
We honor you, Holy Inanna!
Inanna, Holy One of All
We offer this song of praise
Lifting our voices high.
We honor you Holy Inanna!
©2014 Richard W. Bredeson. All rights reserved.
Step Into Your Bodacious Dream! – Richard’s Commentary
How big are your dreams? Would you call them, even one of them, “bodacious”?
One way to get at this question is to look back over your life and take a look at former dreams and how they turned out. In her article yesterday, Rosemary gives us a good example of this with her dream to be part of NASA and then making it to that dream job working on the fantastic science produced by the Hubble Space Telescope. She dreamed big and her dream came true.
And also notice that once that dream was reached Rosemary dreamed another dream.
There is no end to the dreaming. Each dream we activate and reach takes us to a higher level where the dreaming can become even more bodacious. We all are being called to step up! Here’s how Rosemary puts that:
This is a time for each individual to show up for their Soul Purpose and LIVE BIG! The Planet and the rest of us need for you to show up in your Purpose. Even if it is scary, Dream Big.
Step up, step out and move into flow with the you the Universe has called to. Again, Rosemary used her story as an example. From the Hubble project she responded to the call to be a “spiritual healer.” At the time she wasn’t even sure what that meant! But she did feel that the Universe was calling for her to step up. And she did. It was not easy. It was scary at times! (Scary for both of us, in fact!) But there is no looking back; and there is no questioning – not for the bodacious dreams!
Examine your life. Look back on the dreams accomplished. Feel good about your progress, but not complacent. Are you living your purpose?
I recently had a scan done for me by a medical intuitive. I got some really mixed results! The bad news is I am dealing with some pretty serious internal inflammation in my body. The good news is I can treat this with diet (more on that in a moment). The best news is I scored really well in the “Life in Balance and Coherence” categories (10/10 and 100%!). What she said about this is: “you are in alignment with ‘God’s Will’ – you are on your true spiritual path. This is rare.”
Wow! I’m still digesting this result. Of course I have to make major adjustments to my diet, eating more like a “cave man.” I have to reduce my food intake to pretty much an animal protein-based plan with some vegetables allowed. And here I’ve been working strongly toward a vegetarian diet! So much for that dream!
But on those Balance and Coherence measures here’s what I think she is picking up: I do have a bodacious dream, as I’ve mentioned before in these posts, to go to Ladakh, India for the Kalachakra Initiation offered by His Holiness The Dalai Lama this year. And I am working diligently on this dream at many levels. I feel very good about this, that it is in alignment with my spiritual path and congruent with my purpose. I am very pleased that it is “out there” to be recognized!
So here’s the other thing about those bodacious dreams: they need to be declared! And then the Universe responds by saying “yes, and now we will make everything align to support your dream!”
Dreams don’t come from nothing. And they definitely aren’t fulfilled without effort. As Rosemary concludes: when you have created your Bodacious Big Dream, step into it. Create the vision, feel the excitement, step into it and, in the words of Captain Picard, ‘Make it so!’
ROSEMARY’S EXPLORATION: Step Into Your Bodacious Dream!
Everybody has a dream. It might be a big dream or a little dream. It might even be an escape from something painful. It could be a dream founded on a ‘what if’ thought.
We ask little children what they want to be when they grow up. Firefighter. Veterinarian. Teacher. Doctor. They have a dream. Most of them change the answer to that question many times before they choose a career but there’s always an answer, a dream.
As an adult, you might feel trapped in the reality of where you are now and a ‘dream’ seems like a luxury you can’t afford. Or you might have a dream but it is a small, easily achievable one that won’t challenge you to grow.
Remember when you were little and the sky really WAS the limit? I wanted to work on the NASA space program. That was my dream. I went to college, majored in Mathematics, worked for the Department of Defense for 14 years and THEN I went to work on NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope! I did it!
I met Senators and Congressional Representatives, famous folks like Carl Sagan and Tom Clancy, astronauts – a dream come true. There were astronomers from around the world working with me. I got to travel – to Paris, to Huntsville, Alabama. (OK, Huntsville wasn’t a part of my big dream!) And there I was in my dream.
I was only in my 40s and, yet, the dream was realized. What then?
It was time to create an even bigger dream.
I felt the call to become a Spiritual Healer. Not exactly what every Math major dreams of! But I followed through, studied different modalities, explored my gifts, and changed careers in midlife. I became a Spiritual Healer and Medium. And helping people is much more rewarding that meeting Senators and having a glamorous job about which I could preen and brag. MUCH more rewarding!
NOW I dream big. I reach for the sky in a different way. I travel to meet up with clients and share my gifts. I am living my Purpose and I am constantly being called to reach out to more people, to share in a bigger way. The Dream keeps expanding.
What is YOUR STORY? Have you realized the dreams you had as a child? Have you dared to dream big dreams as an adult? Where is your life now with respect to your dreams?
And how BIG are those dreams?
It becomes an easy thing to shrink our dreams as we experience life because it seems too challenging or, sometimes, even too dangerous, to follow that dream. But in the 21st Century we don’t have the luxury of dreaming small anymore.
This is a time for each individual to show up for their Soul Purpose and LIVE BIG! The Planet and the rest of us need for you to show up in your Purpose. Even if it is scary, Dream Big.
And when you have created your Bodacious Big Dream, step into it. Create the vision, feel the excitement, step into it and, in the words of Captain Picard, ‘Make it so!’
ROSEMARY’S INSPIRATION: What’s Your Bodacious Wish?
Rosemary’s “Two-Minute” Video for this Week: What’s Your Bodacious Wish?
MONDAY’S POEM: Aligning Breath of Peace
On Saturday I was feeling out of sorts, disconnected, and uneasy. I did notice that the Moon was squaring the Sun, First Quarter. This may have had some influence. And I decided, whatever the source of my unease, to take some action. In writing my “morning pages” for the day I went into a meditation which did help me realign my energies. I wrote today’s poem in that energy to capture my methods of aligning with the environment rather than struggle with it.
I am now practicing with this breath when I feel I need to connect. I breathe this long slow poem and then follow it with three deep breaths, repeating this connecting breath three times.
Aligning Breath of Peace
Inhaling
From the far reaches of the Universe,
Source,
Through the grand curve of the All
To the Galaxy, Solar Ellipse,
Earth, Community,
Village, Home
Into skin, viscera,
Senses, feelings,
Mental mechanics
To High Consciousness.
Exhaling
From that high place
Through the inner curve of Mind
Deep feelings, settling flow
Of gut mechanics to surface;
Out to room,
Neighborhood, town,
Planet, Moon,
Sun, Milky Way
Through the grand curve of the All,
To Source.
©2014 Richard W. Bredeson. All rights reserved.
A FRIDAY POEM FROM “RHYTHMS AND CYCLES” – And I found You
Today’s poem is part of my Rhythms and Cycles collection; I wrote this one for Rosemary and my 25th wedding anniversary. But it speaks to much more than a simple relationship between two people. And I guess that’s probably true of our relationship: it’s anything but simple!
And I found You
July 23, 2008
Sun, Moon,
Earth, Sky,
Stars, Light,
Universes,
Extra-dimensionalities
And realities:
And I found you.
Beyond the beyond
We rest together
In Supreme Consciousness,
Then,
Now,
Always.
And Love
Of the Mother,
Divine Light,
Dwells in us
And radiates from us
For All
Who have hearts
To know us.
©2014 Richard W. Bredeson. All rights reserved.
Wake Up and Evolve! – Richard’s Commentary
This whole notion of “waking up” has been with us for millennia. The Aborigines of Australia refer to life here on planet earth as “dream-time”; death is a form of waking up! Twenty-five hundred years ago, Shakyamuni became The Buddha by “waking up” to the reality of his Four Noble Truths, the Eight-Fold Path, and all the lessons and sutras that followed. To a large extent this idea of awakening is about a choice; it is a conscious choice to “Wake Up”!
Here’s the key sentence from Rosemary’s article:
But, when you really decide to grow, to wake up, to evolve, you can change your beliefs!
Decide. Decide to grow, wake up, evolve. And once this choice is made there is no end to the awakening. As soon as some new concept is grasped another comes along to either build on it or tear it all down and build another conceptualization of some aspect of reality. Here’s the best part: there is no end to penetrating the truth or reality because as soon as we think we have it in our grasp, it evolves!
What, reality is evolving? What kind of notion is this? I suppose even this expansive concept is just that, another concept, another belief. But, if reality is in fact, the sum total of everything we “know” – our consciousness and our knowledge – then, our consciousness is growing, or evolving, and reality is evolving!
Rosemary and I are a part of a wonderful group of people who get together every first Wednesday evening of the month to discuss “spiritual” topics. We call our group The Spiritual Exploration Group. And our only “rule” for the group is “we gather for discussion, not dogma.” Our topic for the month, and probably the next several months, is “Consciousness.” In fact one of the articles we shared with the group stated that “spirituality” is really an outmoded term; “consciousness” creates a much larger context and is, perhaps, the more apt word to encompass the totality of our discussion topics. (We are in the process of renaming our group The Consciousness Exploration Group!) Another of our articles for consideration is by Ken Wilber who has thought and written extensively about consciousness. In his Integral Model of the world of consciousness he has defined levels; and he sees no end to the development of additional levels as we continue to expand our knowledge, our consciousness. This is evolution!
And we have a choice to be part of this evolutionary process. We can continue to learn, to think, to meditate, to study new concepts, to discard beliefs and form new ones, to tear down our ivory towers and open to the wide world of expansiveness, to “wake up.”
Some days it is easier to sit back and relax in our current set of beliefs, our world-view and enjoy the flow of life without strain. But there is so much happening in the world of consciousness, from discovering the very mechanisms of consciousness in the physical plane, to penetrating the mystery of how consciousness effects the physical plane that it is impossible for awakening people to sit still! It is these awakening ones who are pushing the envelope of consciousness, who are evolving!
Are you comfortable in your slumber or are you awakening? It’s a wonderful, expanding world out there! Join us.
ROSEMARY’S EXPLORATION: Wake Up and Evolve!
I am so glad that you are reading this! It tells me that you are seeking, that you are open to exploring, that you care about ideas and what is happening on the Planet. Congratulations!
Sometimes it is difficult to have a discussion with someone who has closed their mind to new ideas and wants only to reinforce what they already believe. But this person is usually operating out of some fear that controls their thinking and, thus, their life.
Are you that kind of person in some area of your life? Oh, you might wish to think of yourself as broad-minded and open to new ideas, ready to shift your thinking, but what about that relationship in which you are certain that you have formed the correct opinion about the other person? What if you don’t know the whole picture, and, if you did, you would be more sympathetic, more understanding?
Big ideas can be like that. We THINK we know all we need to know about something and then we form an opinion. For many, that opinion then gets set into concrete, never to be brought out for re-examination or re-consideration. These are the ‘don’t confuse me with the facts’ people. Just as you might think you know enough about another person to form a solid opinion, what if they are dealing with cancer, just lost their job or a loved one, are coming from court after losing custody of their children? Would that alter your opinion?
You have many ideas about how the world is that were formed when you were growing up and making decisions about what to believe. You had a little kid’s perspective. You knew what that little kid knew, probably not the whole picture, and you decided to believe something.
This belief might be something like, ‘Daddy yelled at me because my report card isn’t good enough. I’ll never be good enough.’ Or, ‘My sister is the smart one. I can’t get as good a grade as she can.’ There are so many beliefs that are insidious because they live with that little child within who dwells in your unconscious mind. That inner child is making decisions for you in your life, at the unconscious level, based on the belief formed many years ago.
Have you ever planned to do something and then not carried through? How many New Year’s Resolutions have you broken? It’s this belief in your unconscious mind that trips you up.
But, when you really decide to grow, to wake up, to evolve, you can change your beliefs!
If you want to Live Your Richest Life, then you start with shedding anything that is holding you back or blocking you from the path you desire. This starts with the beliefs you hold that might not be true anymore, and, perhaps, were never true.
What if you believed that the Earth was flat? Would you get into a ship and sail across the ocean into that unknown and scary edge of the world? And then what if NASA launched a satellite that took a picture of Earth from Space that showed the blue ball hanging in Space without a flat edge showing at all? Would you take in that new information and change your belief about the Earth and accept that it is round?
This is the basic question about ‘evolve or not.’ If you can be presented with new evidence, if you are open to new ideas, if you are willing to consider that you might have to change your mind based on new data, then would you be willing to have the conversations that might open you up?
Evolution isn’t about the monkeys. It’s really about the Evolution of Human Consciousness. In order to evolve, we must first Wake Up!
ROSEMARY’S INSPIRATION: Wake Up and Evolve!
Men and The Goddess 