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FRIDAY’S POEM FROM “RHYTHMS AND CYCLES” – Love, Forgiveness, Gratitude
I wrote today’s poem in early 2013 as a way to live that year, life. There is a cycling about this poem of circles, hinges and turnings. And with faith there is a spiraling that powers the evolution of consciousness. There may be other acts that we, as humans, need to live by, but for me these are three of the most important ones:
Love, Forgiveness, Gratitude
Three acts to live by:
Love, where it all begins
And ends.
The circle of everything
Turns with the tides
As the Moon loves down.
Forgiveness, in the middle,
The hinge.
It all turns on this act,
Swinging ‘round and ‘round
As a gateless gate for passage.
Gratitude, the end,
No end.
Turning about the center
Where it All rests
As we give thanks and praise.
Love, Forgiveness, Gratitude:
Grace.
©2014 Richard W. Bredeson. All rights reserved.

MONDAY’S POEM: Breaking Free
The theme of the week is “possibilities.” This is the week of Rosemary’s Possibilities Playshop scheduled for Saturday, September 20, 2014. To pursue possibilities requires change. Change requires breaks. I wrote today’s poem almost 5 years ago but it seems to pertain well to the theme of the week!
Breaking Free
Who of us knows
how to break free
with grace, with ease,
with a light heart?
Break; the very word
has a jolt to it.
There’s a stopping to brake,
but an ending to break.
Yet, there’s an essential
to breaking which can’t
be ignored. Without it
there is nothing new, nothing free.
Every movement requires a break.
Every freedom requires an ending.
There is a grace to the slow dance
And a leap of heart in the advance.
©2014 Richard W. Bredeson. All rights reserved.

PS: If you are in the Annapolis, Maryland area join us for the Possibilities Playshop!
ROSEMARY’S EXPLORATION: You Are Being Lied To!
Have you thought about what you think about? Too often, our thoughts crop up into consciousness and we don’t examine their source or their validity. We think that they are true because we have believed them for so long.
But many times we lie to ourselves based on what we used to believe and we don’t even realize that we are doing it!
Have you ever looked in a mirror and criticized your appearance? Have you ever compared yourself or your life to someone else’s and envied them because you believe that they have more/are better/are more beautiful/lucky/loved than you are? Have you ever felt that you are not ‘good enough’?
You have been lying to yourself! But you can decide TODAY to change that.
We humans have the ability to create a reality that exists only in our own head. Does it really matter that someone told you once that you were ugly, probably because they were jealous of how much better looking they thought you were? And you were both 6 years old. But the 6-year-old you that lives in your unconscious mind still hears the word ‘ugly’ and believes it. You are not ugly! If you are reading these words you are a beautiful Light in the world. Smile! Right this minute, no matter where you are or what you are doing, smile. Beautiful! Even if you feel as if you have nothing to smile about, smile because Rosemary asked you to smile, right now, just as you are.
Now LAUGH!!! Feel how good it feels. You DESERVE to laugh, no matter what is going on in your life, no matter where you are, there is something to laugh about. I just looked out the window at a squirrel trying to get into a squirrel-proof bird feeder. Do you think the squirrel thinks that, just because he can’t get any birdseed out of it, there’s something wrong with him, that he’s not ‘good enough’ to be worthy of food? Heck, no! That squirrel goes around the corner of the house, climbs the tree to the non-squirrel-proof bird feeder, hangs upside down, and eats his fill. Only we humans compare ourselves to some mythological standard and find that we don’t measure up.
We can lie to ourselves and not even realize that we are doing it.
So even if things are not going well for you right now in your life, it is not because you are not worthy of great joy, peace, abundance, love. You might be lying to yourself about the definitions of those words, but you are worthy, you are good enough.
Life brings you a lesson to learn in every situation. You did the best you could do with every situation that you have faced up to now. Congratulations! And you will continue to do the best you can with the resources that you have in every situation that you face.
Now that you have completed a lot of lessons in life, isn’t it time to do the personal growth work to ferret out those old thoughts and beliefs that you decided to believe based on something that happened in your childhood? Does it really matter to you that you were picked last for the kickball team? Are you not good enough because Johnny in first grade said something mean to you? If Mary was jealous of your grades in high school she might have criticized your clothes. Are you going to let that guide you when you go shopping for a new outfit today?
You CAN stop lying to yourself when you discover what those insidious lies are! Do the work to uncover them. Find out, from your unconscious mind, what beliefs pop in that have no place in today’s reality and clear them out. They are blocking you from manifesting your magnificence in this amazing 21st Century!
No more lies! You are beautiful, worthy, good enough, amazing and lovable! And if the person in the mirror has trouble believing that, then tell them that, “Rosemary says so, and she doesn’t lie!”
MONDAY’S POEM: Sunday Bright
I wrote this poem a number of years ago on a pretty Spring Sunday in Colorado. Yesterday was a pretty Sunday in Maryland. Rosemary and I spent much of the day with Ken Wilber and company watching the “Fourth Turning Conference” – what a treat, what light was brought to bear on the Integral approach to Buddhism, and how Integral Thought might be brought into practice to help expand awareness and evolve structures of consciousness.
From deep thought to bright day; life flows on and is good!
Sunday Bright
New day, new light
Celebrate the Sun’s Day.
New week, new right
Recognize the week’s way.
Travel on, write a song
Synchronize the rhythm long.
Make a wish, keep it real
Offer it as gods’ own grace.
Ask your heart, “how you feel?”
Step on out at your own pace.
Celebrate throughout the week
You know deep down of what we speak!
©2014 Richard W. Bredeson. All rights reserved.





