Archive
My “New” Manifesto
A week or so ago Rosemary brought several of her long-term clients together for a group VIP day. I was fortunate enough to be included and to do the work with this select group. And we did some excellent work.
Rosemary led us to create our “manifestos” for ourselves. We did some deep work exploring our purpose, our big “Why?” We answered questions like:
“What do you stand for?”
“How does your heart, your soul and your personality come together in this life?
“What is your declaration about this life, independent of any ‘shoulds’?”
We also answered the five questions that Matthew Goldfarb asks in his book, “Corporate Renegade.”
“What are you pissed off about?”
“If you could change one thing about business or the world what would it be?”
“Why do you want to start a business in the first place?”
“Why are you willing to go broke to make this business work?”
“Why are you willing to go for broke to make this business work?”
And then we went to work. Some of us got out paper and scissors, colored pens and fancy tapes, decorating their manifestos with frills and flourishes. I’m a word guy and not overly skilled at the crafty work so answered questions, took note of my priorities and wrote out my manifesto. Here is the result:

Inauguration Day Thoughts
Not so many words, just thoughts, and feelings:
Transfer of Power
The motor fires, turns, idles;
Yet there is no movement, no action
Until the transmission engages
To transfer power to the axles.
The wind blows, spins blades;
Yet there is no change, no traction
Until the mill turns generators
To transfer power to the grids.
The tides heave, ebb, return:
Yet there is no launch, no sail
Until the turn from full, to flow
To transfer power to the ships.
The trees stand, grow, clear air:
Yet there is no transition, production
Until the axe clear-cuts for lumber
To transfer power to building.
The government pauses, idles:
And there is no action, no change
Until the constitution orchestrates
To transfer power to the chief.
Fire, Wind, Water, Wood all transform.
Power is transferred into the Earth.
Chiefs go and chiefs return, no change.
The transfer of power remains.

©2017 Richard W. Bredeson. All rights reserved.
A poem for a rainy day: Inner Practice
It is a dreary day here in Maryland. It is dark and gloomy with rain coming down steadily. It is a good day to practice!
Inner Practice
The breath begins with emptiness.
The inner curve of the belly
Is a waiting, a pause,
An anticipation of the new.
The breath proceeds with a rise.
The curve of the belly fills with
An action, expansion;
Excitement lifts on an inner note.
The breath rises on its inner path.
The spine straightens and lengthens,
Action peaking, seeking the crown,
Expanding outward and upward, reaching.
The breath follows the inner curve.
The skull bone directs its passage,
Downward through the hollows of the face,
Ending in the empty space guarded by teeth.
The breath remains in this inner space.
This is a waiting, a pause.
Inaction holding, resting in peace,
A suspension of the doing – just being.
The breath descends from its quiet rest.
The inner curve of the chest opens
With soft action, a contraction,
A sinking downward and inward.
The breath expels what no longer serves.
The inner curve of the belly forms,
Compressing, flattening, sending out
The last of the used, the spent, the old.
The breath ends in emptiness,
The inner curve of the belly restored.
Resting, contemplating, anticipating
The inner practice of breathing.

©2017 Richard W. Bredeson. All rights reserved.
New Year’s Eve: Out with the Old!
One of the teachers I am working with has asked us, as part of our year-end review, to release all the old habits, feelings, beliefs, thoughts that are not serving us. I’ve spent this week reviewing the year, in fact the past nine years, to dredge up and lever out the old “stuff” that’s “down there!” As another of my teachers would say, “it is time to metabolize that “stuff” and turn it into compost for new growth!”
2016 is a 9-year, a year for completion. 2017 is a 1-year, a year for new beginnings! Today is a great day to release the old to make room for the new.
Here is my poem to reflect on this process; a riff on the five elements of Classical Chinese Medicine and Philosophy:
Release—
Anger through forgiveness:
Grow through the lessons,
Rise with the lengthening days,
Draw on all the resources,
Create your own destiny!
Anxiety through surrender:
Expand through the lessons,
Allow engaging relationships,
Mature in thoughts and actions,
Manifest inalienable joy!
Worry through service:
Serve from the lessons,
Share from the heart,
Engage in all life offers,
Adapt to the Way of life!
Grief through acceptance:
Transmute through the lessons,
Balance loss with gifts,
Release emptiness for fullness,
Purify life through praise!
Fear through trust:
Contemplate life’s lessons,
Believe in your own power,
Feel free and confident in life,
Flow through the currents to Wisdom!

©2016 Richard W. Bredeson. All rights reserved.
Happy Christmas Eve, and all the other Eves we celebrate as the year winds to a close!
Enjoy! Celebrate! Live, love and laugh the old year out and the new beginning in!
Eve
The day, the evening before:
Christmas
New Years
All Hallows
Changes and more.
The women, Mothers of All:
Adam’s wife
Jesus’ Mother
Holy Mother of God
Peace before the fall.
The birth, renewing Light:
Solstice
Deepest dark
Returning Sun
The dawn following First Night.
Eve, new hope at last:
Forgiveness
Light
Love
Release of all that’s past.

©2016 Richard W. Bredeson. All rights reserved.
A post-election day poem
Often when I am upset by circumstances, events, things beyond my control or even understanding, I turn to my pages to write and I turn to my poetry journal to see what might help, if not penetrate to an understanding, at least bring me into a state of grace and gratitude. In this post-election denouement this is what came to me:
Change (with gratitude for a Pawnee proverb)
Fortune cookie:
Mistakes are portals to discoveries.
Me:
Then there are no mistakes.
Optimist:
Every problem is an opportunity.
Me:
Life is all about lessons.
Electoral College:
Trump is the President Elect.
Me:
Half the country has voted change.
Rosemary:
Hold in the Community of Love and Light.
Me:
Embrace me, Community.
The Divine Feminine:
Your purpose is to live in Joy.
Me:
Facing the Sun I see no shadow, only Joy.

©2016 Richard W. Bredeson. All rights reserved.
A New Poem: Nothing is Real
I actually wrote this as a prose poem while doing my “Morning Pages” the other day. Then with a few edits I turned into today’s poem. It is kind of an answer, almost an antithesis, but not really, to the notion that “We are Light”!
Nothing is Real
Too many thoughts and concerns;
They are all just puffs of smoke in the great field,
Specks of dust in the moonbeam,
Tiny ripples on the still clear mirror of the pond
Reflecting the dust and smoke.
These are all reflections, images of mist
Floating over a sea of nothing.
It is not real, this picture.
And this picture is a poor reproduction of some unreality
That is a guess at a grasp of
What truly is – or is not.
If nothing is real, nothing matters.
And, yet I stroke this pen on the page,
Sip my tea and ponder.
Something there is that ponders me, echoing my own.
If everything is a reflection
Then reflect on this:
The image within the mirror
Holds a mirror reflecting me.
We are that and that is we.
So, what is the consternation about anyway?
Let it go. Remain in flow. Just be.
Be with this. Everything is okay.
You are okay. You will survive. Or not.
What is survival anyway,
But remaining in a current incarnation of illusion,
The image in the mirror.
Is there any point in hanging here?
Of course!
Take the meaning, the learning;
Pass it through the mirror into Consciousness.
And, perhaps the lessons will carry well
Into a new incarnation of a new reflection.
And the mirror may be that much more perfect
Reflecting more clearly, brightly, purely
Than the current reflection can manage.
And it, no matter how bright and light,
Will remain a reflector!
©2016 Richard W. Bredeson. All rights reserved.
Rosemary’s Inspiration
Here is the video from Rosemary’s latest MoonLetter. We are always at choice!
Speaking of “choice” have you registered for Rosemary’s FREE webinar tonight? Learn how to stay grounded in these uncertain times. She teaches tools for Conscious Living! DETAILS and REGISTRATION




