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A Friday Poem for the New Year: “Locked by the Clock”
Over the holidays I’ve been reading a lot of Rumi, especially “The Soul of Rumi, A New Collection of Ecstatic Poems” translated by Coleman Barks. Many of these poems are ghazals, poems comprised of couplets. In his later published poems, Robert Bly took up this form. I have refrained from writing in this form as the rules are complex. But I don’t necessarily have to follow all the rules to write couplets. And I don’t have to call this poem a ghazal!
At this time of the year I often think about time. Yesterday as I was writing, the title of this poem came to mind. As I began to write it couplets came through. And as the poem developed our trip to the ocean to celebrate our December 15th special day came to mind. So, here is an attempt at a ghazal-like poem to celebrate the New Year and to put the passage of time in proper perspective!
Locked by the Clock
Teaching Qigong I often say:
“Locked knees block Qi.” Energy,
It flows from the earth, through the feet
Into the core of our being. Feel it,
The force of that flow surges
Like the tide lifting the heart. Listen:
The roaring surf, the salt spray
Glistening in the hanging mist, suspended:
The shimmering light of winter’s
Sun. Such times at the shore!
It is easy to float, drifting within the
Tide, not locked by the clock. Free:
No thought, merging with the
Ocean, emerging as One.
©2020, Richard W. Bredeson, all rights reserved.
MONDAY’S POEM: Echoes 3
It’s a dreary Monday here in the Middle Atlantic region, heavy with rain. I found a heavy poem from a series I had written on time (last Monday’s was the first in that series) and how it might operate extra-dimensionally rather than linearly. It is so easy for us in the west to think of time as a unidirectional vector: past as tail, present as shaft, future as arrow point shooting out in a single direction. But what if time is more like a bubble, sometimes expanding, sometimes contracting; what if?
Echoes 3
Echoes need emptiness.
The reverberations of time
Bounce within the hollow bubble
Of now.
Write for the future.
They need your poetry
Out there for some distant when
To exist.
There is no now,
Only the echoes of yesterday
When the world was made new
For all.
Write for the past.
There is no then without these words
Remembering those who remember
For us.
©2014 Richard W. Bredeson. All rights reserved.
ROSEMARY’S EXPLORATION: Remember The Law of Remembering
I recently channeled a message from The Sirius Mystery Temple Teachers who frequently teach me about the Cosmos and the Dimensions. This message is very powerful as we work to understand our place in the Cosmos, our Potential and the Possibilities waiting to manifest.
From The Sirius Mystery Temple Teachers:
“Let us show you what manifestation truly is.
There are many who speak of The Law of Attraction but that is not what they are really teaching. They are teaching The Law of Reaching For, or The Law of Not Having.
We would have you consider living by The Law of Finding/of Having/of Knowing of the Existence of That Which You Seek.
When you seek something to attract, you energetically set up a void that is waiting to be filled. You must first consider what you don’t have and want before you can start operating The Law of Attraction. This sends out a vibration of emptiness and lack.
Instead, remember that you are One with the Universe and that all that exists exists in you. All dimensions are within your Consciousness. All that you seek is already existing within you.
THIS is The Law of Remembering.
The entire Universe existed in the moment of the Big Bang. Potential Energy transmuted into Manifestation Energy into Manifest Energy. EVERYTHING that was, is, or will be already exists in one of these forms of energy, including you.
Consciousness is the essence energy of the Universe. The attracting force that brings together parts of Potential Energy with other parts is called ‘LOVE Energy.’ It is not that the attraction is the result of a wish to fill a void. It is, rather, that the Potential Energy is so full of LOVE that it wishes to express as Manifest Energy and it, therefore, creates Manifestation Energy to do so.
Nowhere in this process is there the existence of Lack. There is only Potential Energy, Manifestation Energy, and Manifest Energy. Everything that exists has been LOVE’d into existence.
If you feel a sense of Lack in your life it is because you have forgotten your place in the Universe AS the Universe. You have, temporarily, believed the lie that you can be a separate consciousness within the Dimension of Consciousness, which is the entire Universe.
You are simultaneously existing in the Space-Time Continuum of dimensions and BEING all dimensions. You are aware of a tiny portion of Manifest Energy and, yet, you are also ALL of Manifest Energy.
There is no work for you to do to attract that which you believe that you lack. You must remember WHO YOU ARE so that you can expand your awareness to encompass that which you believe you lack.
Remember, everything that ever was, is or will be already exists in the Universe. All the energy of the Universe is expanding energy. If you feel yourself contracting then you are spending your Life Energy fighting against the expansive energy that is the Universe that you are.
Relax into Expansion.
Remember that you ARE the Universe.
Remember to Remember.
It Is So.”
Let us be grateful for this reminder to BE WHO YOU REALLY ARE!
MONDAY’S POEM: Echoes 1
My newest grandson, Tristan Wallace Bredeson, is here for a visit from California. He is just over three months old now, and beginning to show a delightful personality. He has been just about the most perfect baby I can imagine; he only fusses a little when he is hungry or needs a change! We are having a delightful time with him!
A new generation of Bredesons leads me to the poem today. I wrote it two years ago, but it seems to apply even more as the next generation, the next echo sounds forth. And with my son and grandson with me now, I do catch myself using expressions and words from my past, my parents. Are we learning lessons and moving on to new ones or are we just echoing within the chamber of time? Maybe the answer to this question is “yes”!
Echoes 1
Dad’s voice moved from
My ear to my throat
At breakfast. I heard
Him clearly: A non-sensical
Expression of his.
Mom’s voice jumped out of
My mouth with no thought
Or control behind it. It
Was clear, critical; some
Rule was broken.
Where is my voice? Has it
Been silenced by the tides
Of Time; lost in the returning
Ripples from the
Wall of Beyond?
Is the Wall of Time moving?
Is the sphere expanding?
The already learned lessons
Echo from the cold surface
Teaching, preaching.
Will we ever learn?
©2014 Richard W. Bredeson. All rights reserved.
FRIDAY’S POEM FROM “RHYTHMS AND CYCLES” – The Chamber of Time
One of my favorite teachers, Martín Prechtel, is a master of languages, among many things. He teaches that the Tzutujil Mayan language has no verb form of “to be.” This makes it very interesting to speak of the past or future; in fact the Mayan peoples don’t seem to mind this “missing” grammatical component and are quite happy living in the present! Would Western civilization be a bit more content if we stopped using “to be.”
Imagine the possibilities!
With this in mind I riffed off one of Martín’s teachings about living in the middle of time for today’s poem:
The Chamber of Time
What if reality is nothing more
than a huge echo chamber?
Time in this reality is nothing more
than an echo returning.
The Holy, Goddesses, Gods
are nothing more than our
reflection in this chamber.
And we, nothing more than theirs.
To be sure the rhythms, ebb
and flow, dynamic play of
Light and Shadow in this
Hologram are a multidimensional mix.
The chaotic complexity settles
into karmic patterns, polyphonic,
kaleidoscopic interplay of
a multivalence array, to be sure.
And the echoes, like the breath of the
Holy, like our own rhythms,
beats, breaths, reverberate
Through this panoply of reality in time.
©2014 Richard W. Bredeson. All rights reserved.
FRIDAY’S POEM FROM “RHYTHMS AND CYCLES” – The Future is Now
Today’s poem is a reprise from a few months ago. It comes to mind as we look toward Rosemary’s Possibilities Playshop next week. In this event we use our intuitive skills to “plan forward” toward our “bodacious wish” for the future. How does the future and all our planning (we in the west or so good about planning!) relate to the practice of being present, living now? This poem gets at that cycle and enigma of time.
The Future is Now
If the future is now
Dreams are now.
This is Dream Time.
And is the past now?
Forgiveness is now.
This is the lesson.
Now is only now,
Past time, Dream Time,
All one now.
©2014 Richard W. Bredeson. All rights reserved.
PS: If you are in the vicinity of Annapolis, Maryland, check out the Playshop opportunity: Here’s the Link
A FRIDAY POEM FROM RHYTHMS AND CYCLES – “The Future is Now”
Rosemary’s Exploration, posted today on her blog (look for it here next Wednesday), is about choice, about choosing our family, our life, our Truth. It’s about rewriting our stories the way we want them to be lived and told.
I came across this poem before I read her article; they seem to go together. All time is NOW. When we live in the present every moment is a moment of our choosing. Dream into your own reality!
The Future is Now
If the future is now
Dreams are now.
This is Dream Time.
And is the past now?
Forgiveness is now.
This is the lesson.
Now is only now,
Past time, Dream Time,
All one now.
©2014 Richard W. Bredeson. All rights reserved.
ROSEMARY’S EXPLORATION: What’s the ROI for Staying Stuck?
This is a good question to ask yourself when you feel stuck in some area of your life and confused or unsure of the next step for you to take. Staying stuck IS an investment that you make, every day, until you decide to take some action to get unstuck and to move forward.
Every marketing seminar that you take will have you look at the Return on Investment (ROI) for various choices that lie in front of you. You’ll then be guided to take the road with the greatest ROI. But most of the time, when someone is using this term, they are actually measuring money. Is that really the only commodity that matters, though?
Think about your work or your job in terms of the hours that you are investing in it. Look at your time on the job as well as your commute time or the time outside of work when you are thinking/worrying about work. Are you focused on living your Life Purpose? Are you giving to others only the hours and energy that you have left over after your working hours? Are you being compensated for your real measure of your contribution to work?
If you’re working 40 hours a week and commuting one hour each way and all you are left with monetarily is enough money to pay for child care, then maybe there is not a good enough ROI for you and your lifestyle. Maybe there is, but don’t you want to assess that so that you are making a conscious choice to spend your hours and energy that way?
If you are in a relationship that does not support your personal, spiritual, mental and emotional growth, why are you staying in that relationship? Sometimes there are other benefits or payoffs but, if you are living a conscious life, it’s important that you be honest with yourself about all of your relationships. You don’t have to measure tit for tat, give and get in equal measure, but if you are investing in a relationship that does not help you to live your Life Purpose, then examine your reasons for staying.
You can make a conscious choice about every investment that you make – financial, emotional, mental, spiritual. What thoughts are you investing your time in considering? Do you tend to worry, investing time and energy in focusing on what you do not want to have happen in your life? Do you realize that there is a huge ROI on investing in these thoughts? You attract that which you energize. Why invest here??!
Examine your thoughts throughout the day. Catch yourself investing that energy where the ROI is not what you want to receive in your life! Then turn your thoughts onto the investment in what you DO want to receive.
Have you examined your limiting beliefs, the ideas you might have embraced as a child that no long apply but that your unconscious mind holds onto and brings up whenever it serves you as it has in the past? Were you told that you are ‘not good enough’? Were you picked last for the sports team and so started to believe that you are not good at doing sports? Did you have a teacher or classmates who belittled you so that you became afraid to speak your truth? There can be insidious beliefs that you are investing in by allowing them to continue unexplored and unchecked. They bring an ROI of unwanted behaviors!
Become conscious in your life. What choices are you making? Do those choices support you in living your Life Purpose? Are you free to explore new possibilities so that you can choose to invest in something that brings with it the positive ROI that you seek? Are you investing in staying stuck and losing out on investments that you would rather choose, those with the ROI that you seek?
Do the work. Your personal growth work is the best investment you can make in yourself and your life. The ROI is tremendous – Joy, Peace, Harmony, Happiness, and, yes, even Prosperity and Abundance!
Choose your investments wisely!
MONDAY’S POEM: The Dance of Time
Another Monday. The moon wanes, the month wanes into the third third and time marches on! Shortly we’ll be a third through 2014. With time on my mind here is a Monday poem I wrote in 2011 (about three years ago):
The Dance of Time
The passage of time is a spiral dance.
It weaves
It floats
It rises
It falls.
It is a multi-dimensional wave.
And like a wave it is stationary.
It moves
It calms
It comes
It goes.
It is a mystery beyond space.
The passage of time is music for the dance.
It sings
It plays
It beats
It rhymes.
It is the rhythm of my heart,
The song of my soul,
The symphony of my spirit.
©2014 Richard W. Bredeson. All rights reserved.
Please enjoy!
