Archive
A poem for the summer solstice: High Sun Days
Our longest day of the year, here in the northern hemisphere, was yesterday, June 21 at 12:24 AM EDT to be exact. Huge crowds gathered at Stonehenge, one of our oldest calendars of human design, to witness the solar event. There are many ways to mark and celebrate this time of high summer when days are long and the sun is high in the sky. I wrote a poem to remember to remember:
High Sun Days
Long shadows persist
Pointing southwest
Toward the hot desert
In the early morning haze
Creating a ghostly dance of light.
Long shadows persist
Pointing southeast
Toward the humid swamp
In the late evening haze
Creating a lingering dance of light.
These are high sun days,
Long lazy days of floating light,
Shadows creating two edges
Of a butterfly wing,
Creating a sense of peace and long life.
The rising sun of summer
Dances on the edge, shimmering.
The setting sun of summer
Lingers at the edge, remembering.
Life and love float on wings of butterflies.

©2017 Richard W. Bredeson. All rights reserved.
Update and a Poem: Testimony
I have not posted here in a while but I have been busy! Personally I have been deepening my study and practice of Qigong to become a better teacher. The more I study, the more I realize Qigong is not only my life-long practice for health, happiness and longevity, but also my passion to share this health-giving, life-saving technology from ancient China. And it is so simple, so easy, and FREE!
One of my teachers, Jeff Primack, came to Baltimore in early April for a three-day intensive. It is always great to be with a teacher; and I had a profound experience of energy rising during the closing “breath circle.”
In late April Rosemary and I traveled to Sedona and the Mago Retreat Center for an amazing experience with Teacher of Soul, Katye Anna Clark and about 30 other travelers from all over the country. The retreat was a four-day intensive immersion for “Living from the Heart.” Wow! Another transformational experience of opening the heart to live more fully from the soul. And I had the distinct honor of teaching Qigong every morning of the retreat in the beautiful settings of Mago.
And in mid-May I traveled to Daytona Beach to spend another three-day intensive with Jeff Primack, this time at his National event: QiRevolution. And I met another of my teachers, Dr. Roger Janke who offered profound insights into health and wellness from his 40-year perspective of teaching and practicing Chinese Medicine and Medical Qigong.
It was a magical spring. I am honored and humbled to have experienced profound shifts. I am grateful for my further awakening. And I am motivated for share my insights.
And with that I offer:
Testimony
Health is a personal thing
And it is a choice.
It’s personal because it comes from inside;
And only you can make the choice.
Look to the outside;
Visit the impersonal health-care facility,
The hospital near you, the place
You would go if seriously ill or injured.
Do you see health there?
Oh, there is plenty of care.
Sickness, disease, crippling injures
Are within the realm of care here.
Look rather to the inside
If you are seeking health care.
There is where your health lives;
It is in your heart, your mind, your soul.
Your body is a walking, fluid, pharmacopeia.
Visit is often to find wellness.
Breathe, meditate, seek inside
The magic pill of health, happiness, longevity.
Be the testimony to your free choice.
Breathe the richness all life offers.
Move inward to seek the Light.
Balance in the flow of boundless Love.

©2017 Richard W. Bredeson. All rights reserved.
No End
A little “Five Element” ditty:
No End
The well is deep
The stream is long
The lake is broad
The ocean has no end.
The dawn is bright
The flame brings light
The Moon warms night
The Sun’s shine has no end.
The growth is strong
The expanse is vast
The trees stand tall
The life has no end.
The breath is long
The song is light
The word is true
The story has no end.
The soil is rich
The land is broad
The core is deep
The Earth has no end.

©2017 Richard W. Bredeson. All rights reserved.
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:

Alternative Facts?
We must remain vigilant and test everything and anything coming out of the White House. Don’t be deceived. Stay awake. Shine your light. And as William Stafford wrote in his poem: “A Ritual to Read to Each Other” —
“For it is important that awake people be awake,
or a breaking line may discourage them back to sleep;
the signals we give — yes or no, or maybe —
should be clear: the darkness around us is deep.”
Let’s keep the signals very clear!
Here’s my response to #alternativefacts:
Alternative Facts
Do facts alternate?
Are they sometimes true, sometimes false?
Are they bits in a computer,
Sometimes zero, sometimes one?
Facts can evolve.
Humans are learning creatures;
This makes facts always relative,
Ever changing as we grow.
And sometimes facts can flip,
Like from zero to one.
Science is like this:
Old theory disproved, new theory proposed.
But it is rare for facts to flip, flop, flip.
They are not bits in a computer to turn off and on.
Alternative facts are devolutionary;
They take us back to old “facts” disproved.

©2017 Richard W. Bredeson. All rights reserved.
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.
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.

