Archive
A Monday poem: “Raw”
Happy New Moon! It “fell into the Sun” at 1:33 pm EDT. I am ready for new, something fresh, a new beginning!
I began to think about this poem as I was grieving the loss of a dear friend a few weeks ago. My feelings were raw and I wanted to express them. But they had to simmer, to cook for a bit before I could write this down. And then other titles kept coming up. My thoughts turned into a trilogy; I’ll be publishing them this week, today, Wednesday and Friday. The first is:
Raw
Dough—cookie, bread, Mom’s baking;
Snitch, pinch, tasting, testing;
So delicious—raw. Then add the
Heat, alchemy in the oven. Baked.
Meat—beef, pork, lamb, I’m roasting, grilling;
Blood dripping—raw. Then fire, wood smoking,
Fat sizzling. Aromas arouse olfactory senses:
Gustatory delights cooked, offered.
Feelings—grief, anger, fear—these are raw.
Old age, sickness and death never ending;
Samsara cooks us, yet leaves us undone,
Half-baked, simmering, salty, sour, bitter.
Power—force, control, seizing freedoms,
Unleashing aggression, anger, instilling fear;
Raw emotions open hostility in the Human
Heart—half-baked understanding selves.
Wisdom—presence, open mind dawning,
Leading to a deepening understanding,
Transmuting the raw to a fully baked
Human to rise from the fire into Light.
©2020 Richard W. Bredeson. All rights reserved.
A Sunday evening poem: Accept and Flow to Grace
I’ve been meditating on this for the past few weeks; how do we get to that state of Grace? Actually I think I’ve been working on this for most of my life! And last year, 2018, my word for the year was “flow.” For 2019 my word is “grace.”
Maybe I’m finally putting things together! In the Chinese Medicine philosophy and approach the Five Elements govern a lot about who we are, how we live and how our health can be influenced. My Element, my constitution is Wood. The virtues of Wood are clarity, vision, creativity. The primary emotion is anger. And the process to transform anger into the virtues of Wood is Forgiveness!
Another factor in “putting things together” is my fingerprints. Without getting into the details of hand and fingerprint analysis I am in the “school of love” for this lifetime. So, these words, acceptance, flow, grace and love are important to me; I wrote this poem with these key words in mind:
Accept and Flow to Grace
Acceptance:
The magic act,
True magic,
No slight of hand,
No deceit,
Only the pure act:
Acceptance.
Forgiveness:
The magic act
Powering acceptance;
Forgive self,
Forgive Self,
Forgive him,
Forgive them,
They know not;
Only the pure act:
Forgiveness.
Flow:
The magic state,
Birthing with acceptance,
Breathing with forgiveness,
Moving through what is
Only the pure state:
Flow.
Grace:
The true magic,
Flowing from the heart,
Flowing from the mind,
Flowing from Cosmos,
Flowing from Divine;
The only pure Magic:
Grace.
Love:
The True Magic,
The germ of acceptance,
The pith of forgiveness,
The shell of flow,
The seed of Grace;
Only the pure Magic
Grows Love.
©2019, Richard W. Bredeson, all rights reserved.
A Poem to Celebrate the coming: “Winter Solstice”
While many say “Jesus is the reason for the season” it was a season long before Jesus hit the scene. As with all of the Church holy days they are mapped onto ancient observations that may go back 100 thousand years or more.
I love the Winter Solstice for many reasons, but mostly for the return of the Sun (or Son if you will). After the three days around Solstice the Sun will rise again and begin the long climb to Summer Solstice.
Rosemary and I celebrate the Solstice as part of our Holidays. Happy Holidays to all, whatever and however you celebrate.
Winter Solstice
They say we are on a spiral journey;
We spin on the Mother,
Spinning around the Father,
Spinning at the edge of the Milky Way,
Wheeling through the fringe of the Verse.
The effects of this swirling seem small:
Summer Solstice spins through Fall
And on to deepening Winter as
Light recedes in lowering sky
And Spirit draws nigh offering Love.
The cycle is grounded in Mother’s core,
Energy following graceful traces of
Magnetic forces, lifting consciousness
Along soft grooves of innocence,
Natural paths for expanding vision.
Spiraling consciousness follows
These graceful lines of attracting energy,
Mapping courses for the transformations
Forever carrying us higher,
But never far away.
Earth bound and sky happy we rise
Ever seeking, always believing
There is more, we are more.
The season reminds the reason
We spiral on, lifting gradually.
We stretch our plastic minds,
Resisting brittle breakage
On our destined way.
Each turn reveals more, creates new
Perspectives, bigger dreams, exposing
Even so, the next turn.
Solstice deep to Solstice high
We spiral from choice to choice
Knowing the journey, seeing
Transformations from new heights
Learning more with every turn.
©2018, Richard W. Bredeson, all rights reserved.
Friday’s Poem: Casting No Shadow
[Warning: this poem contains a four-letter word that may offend some people. It is a word for material found in the bottom of a bird cage and rhymes with grit. If this word offends you please read no farther!]
I am fresh from the Christine Kloser event, known simply as “Breakthrough,” for Transformational Authors. I have known Christine and her event for several years; this one was her sixth; it was the first one I attended. And I can honestly say this was the best of all personal growth conferences, retreats and other such meetings I have ever attended! I did come away transformed in several ways. I will write more about this in a later post.
For now I want to offer this poem, dedicating it to Christine and all of the friends and fellow poets I spent three quality days with this week:
Casting No Shadow
Standing in the Center under high Sun,
Casting no shadow
I wonder:
Where has all that shit, my shit gone?
Earth, Mother, accepts it all
Composting it, the shit, into food:
Rooting soil
For the wonder and beauty of the lotus.
Facing East, bowing to the rising Sun,
Shadow stretching West
I wonder:
How far does that trail of shit extend?
Great Bear of the West doesn’t care;
His shadow absorbs all darkness
Sending life
Deep into the root and stem of the lotus.
Facing West, bowing to the setting Sun,
Shadow disappearing into the night
I wonder:
While the Mother sleeps, who stirs the shit?
The Great White Way of the night sky
Carves a graceful turn to churn
Rotting waste
Feeding the growth and awakening the lotus.
Facing North, bowing to the Great White Way,
Soft Moon shadows glowing in the night
I wonder:
How can shit survive this peace and beauty?
Cosmic Energy, creative power
Pumps the life-blood, pure potential
Filling mud
With juice to enliven the lotus bud.
Facing South, bowing to the warming Sun,
Shrunken shadow withering to the North
I wonder:
How can so much shit generate all this beauty?
Earth and Fire, Mother and Sun
Join in Holy Union, merging love and light;
Ascending we
Witness the opening, Jewel in the Lotus!
(Om mani padme hum!)
©2018 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.
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.
What happens next?
A couple of days ago, Rosemary posted on her Facebook page an article by an archeologist and historian about cycles of human history and how we may be entering one now. It is a provocative article! As I wrote my pages today (one of my practices is to follow the Julia Cameron “Artist’s Way” and write out three pages every day) This article was foremost in mind. Here is the link to the article: https://medium.com/@theonlytoby/history-tells-us-what-will-happen-next-with-brexit-trump-a3fefd154714#.e4rkcn9ib
And here are my three-pages I wrote today; my call to action was to “shed more light”! Here are my thoughts:
“The day before Equinox and the days are getting shorter. And finally the days may be cooling as well. We will see low 60s by Sunday. We are moving into my time of the year when things begin to slow and rest. It is a lovely time of respite. A good time to breathe.
Will we breathe after the election in November? What will happen between now and then? There is an ugly mood in the country, even the world, and it seems to grow uglier every day. Police killings, riots, violence, bomb plots by the crazies on all sides. The election seems to be attracting all the crazies – drawing them out from their holes, somehow giving them permission to raise their crazed cries of fringe creeds and beliefs to the point of drowning out saner voices of reason, logic, thoughtful discourse. Has it always been like this? Or has Trump set a new standard of low? It is a throw-back time, back to Jim Crow, racism, violence, hate, separation, distrust and deep-seated fear. What is to be gained by this?
Is it a cycle of history we are doomed to repeat, another mass kill-off of humanity, like the plague, world wars, famine? Do we need a purge, a cleansing of the human population to somehow restart evolution? Could it get this bad?
Or is there enough lifting of human consciousness now in the world to somehow counteract this pending cycle? Have we brought enough light into the world to defend against the darkness, to shed light into the shadowy corners and prevail? I don’t know. The world as it is currently configured hangs in the balance of my not-knowing. There is a pause now, of sorts, across the next seven weeks while we all consider. News will continue to flow and more of Trump’s antics and tactics will be revealed. The debates may come off to reveal the clown vs. the Stateswoman. But no one will laugh. And we will learn little. Then there will be a flurry, a fury of last-minute campaigning, and we will go to the polls.
It is hard to believe that the buffoon is close to a possible win. It reveals much about the country we live in. And maybe it doesn’t really matter who wins, because this is the country and will continue to be the country after the election. The population won’t change. The hearts and minds of our neighbors will remain the same. The hate and fear that created Trump, the candidate, will remain. There will be violence against the black community and there will be the attacks on the Muslim community. Clinton won’t stop this. And our government will continue to be hamstrung by the same forces that currently prevent real progress. Perhaps a tenuous balance will be found and we will continue to teeter on the edge. But the forces have been unleashed. Trumpism is here now, with a mean voice and no forgiveness. It may not even matter who “wins” in November as we may lose any sense of stability in the world
As I write these words I can too easily see a world war on the horizon. That is a scary thought but too real to deny. It would be irresponsible to deny this possibility!
So, then, what is the responsible thing to do? What is my role in all of this? What am I to do?
Be the light. Shed light on this real possibility. Talk about it, not in terms of fear but in terms of responsibility and action. Do I blog about this? Do I write a poem? Do I publish this “essay” in some form for people to consider? What is there, really, to be done to “prevent” the cycling of history we seem about to repeat? If we hold the light up to it and examine it most carefully perhaps there is a way to dull its edge. Perhaps it won’t bite quite as deeply. Maybe this is the best we can hope for, like the 2008 recession that, thanks to Obama, didn’t descend into a full- blown depression.
We all know a shift is coming. There can be no forward progress without change. We can “pray” the progress will not be in reverse. We can take action to shed light on the possibilities and rally all the forces to support our prayer!”
And we can build bridges, rainbow bridges of light, as the author of History tells us what may happen next with Brexit & Trump, Tobias Stone, concludes!
ROSEMARY’S EXPLORATION: Choose to Live Your Richest Life
Choose to Live Your Richest Life
Have you ever gotten so tired of the way things are going that you say to yourself, ‘Enough!’? Maybe it is your finances or your exercise regimen or your weight or what you eat or a job that doesn’t satisfy you or a relationship that doesn’t serve your highest good. Have you reached a point where you have had enough and you’re ready to choose a different path?
Sometimes things have to get really terrible before we make that choice. You have to ‘hit bottom’ before you start to pull yourself up. Or maybe the Universe has to hit you on the head with a 2 by 4 to get your attention.
I am trying to learn my lessons before it reaches that point. I confess that I don’t always shift in time to avoid the 2 by 4, though. My goal is to help you learn to make the shift BEFORE that 2 by 4 hits you.
Many of my clients come to me because they feel ready to shift but don’t know what their next step is. This is the perfect time to start working on yourself and your personal growth. Others, though, come only after they’ve been knocked down and can’t figure out how to get themselves picked up. That’s okay, too, as we do figure out what to do next.
But don’t you want to avoid the drama? Avoid the ‘I must do something’ scenario and be proactive about making choices in your life?
The first step is to realize that you are always at choice. Even when it feels as if you can’t do anything to make a change, you are deciding (choosing) to stay the way things are.
There is a big difference between feeling that things are horrible, that they must change and knowing what to do to make that change. This is where it is important to ask for help.
Even if you don’t get help from a professional, for whatever reason, at least talk to a trusted advisor or friend. You don’t have to navigate big shifts alone!
Sometimes it is important to find someone to see what you cannot see, to help you find possibilities that, when you are stuck in the quicksand of a messy situation, are difficult to sort out. This is where seeking help is so important. Someone outside of the quicksand can see what is hidden from you and steer you in the direction of what you want instead of what you feel is holding you stuck.
A client of mine recently told me that she was driving along and suddenly realized that that day was the ‘ideal day’ that she had written as her homework from one of our early appointments. She was living that day and loving it! And was thrilled at the difference between when she started the process and where she is today.
You can have the same experience. Stop doing what you’ve been doing that keeps you stuck where you are uncomfortable, in any area of your life. Ask for help. Seek your ideal day. Choose a different path. One step at a time, one behavior at a time, one action at a time.
Your Richest Life awaits you!
ROSEMARY’S INSPIRATION: Wisdom versus Learning
 |
My “two minute” video: Wisdom versus Learning |
FRIDAY’S POEM FROM RHYTHMS AND CYCLES: Winter Solstice
This past Wednesday Rosemary and I hosted a meeting of our Consciousness Exploration Community for sharing some good food and excellent conversation. Our theme for the evening was sharing something meaningful about the holidays; a story, a song, a poem. So I wrote today’s poem which also fits my “Rhythms and Cycles” theme very well.
I hope you have wonderful memories of your Holiday Celebrations and are making new ones this year. Be sure to share them!
Winter Solstice
They say we are on a spiral journey;
We spin on the Mother,
Spinning around the Father,
Spinning at the edge of a Milky Way
Wheeling along the fringe of reality.
The effects of this circling seem small:
Summer Solstice spins through Fall
And on to deepening Winter.
As light recedes in lowered sky,
Spirit dips so close we feel the Love.
The cycle is grounded deep in Mother’s core,
The energy follows graceful lines of
Magnetic force, lifting consciousness
Along soft grooves of innocence,
Natural paths of vision and expansion.
Spiraling Consciousness follows
These graceful lines of attracting energy,
Mapping courses for the Transformations
That continue to carry us higher,
But never away.
Earth bound and sky grateful, we rise,
Ever seeking, always believing there is more;
We are more.
We stretch our plastic minds beyond,
Resisting brittle breakage on our destined way.
Each turn reveals more, creates new
Perspectives, new vistas pulling up,
Onward to next dreams, exposing
Even then, the next turn, inevitably ahead
Around the bend.
Solstice deep to Solstice high
We spiral from choice to choice
Knowing the journey, seeking
The cycle through consistent course, yet
Rising through transformation with every change.
©2014 Richard W. Bredeson. All rights reserved.
Please enjoy!
Men and The Goddess 