Sweet Darkness by David Whyte

 "Sweet Darkness"

 

"When your eyes are tired the world is tired also.

When your vision has gone no part of the world can find you.

Time to go into the dark where the night has eyes
to recognize its own.

There you can be sure you are not beyond love.

The dark will be your womb tonight.

The night will give you a horizon
further than you can see.

You must learn one thing:
the world was made to be free in.

Give up all the other worlds
except the one to which you belong.

Sometimes it takes darkness and the sweet confinement of your aloneness
to learn anything or anyone that does not bring you alive

is too small for you."

- David Whyte
"House of Belonging"

Slowly I Dance Behind You

In the forest, on our walks,



I still follow behind.


Slowly.
Slowly I dance behind you. You hear my beating feet along the ground. Maybe a little less strong upon the earth.

I notice, though, that your beat has slackened.



I don't say anything to you about it. You are my strength, my guide. Tom. My guardian. Our slower dance allows us to experience light in a different pattern.

                       

                       I see both of you so gray. My hiking buddies. My old boys, now. We match, all of us.

                                           

Yesterday, Tom, we joked how the velvety soft undersides of my "old lady" arms are so comfortable to lay your old man shoulders and head within. Lay your troubles down.

We are spinning and dancing together. Age may allow us to dance just a little more slowly, but still with glee and wonder and glory and sometimes like these quite moments in the forest and woods. Love is the chorus line.

Peace.

Brianne

Shahram Shiva performs "Love Said To Me," Rumi poem

Moon over the Gulf

Some Kiss We Want

There is some kiss we want with 

our whole lives, the touch of 

spirit on the body. Seawater

begs the pearl to break its shell.

And the lily, how passionately

it needs some wild darling! At

night, I open the window and ask

the moon to come and press its

face against mine. Breathe into

me. Close the language- door and

open the love window. The moon

won't use the door, only the window.

From Soul of Rumi

by Coleman Barks

Out of the Mouths of a Thousand Birds (Hafiz)

Out of the Mouths of a Thousand Birds (Hafiz)

Listen - Listen more carefully to what is around you · Right now.
In my world · There are the bells from the clanks · Of the morning milk drums,
And a wagon wheel outside my window · Just hit a bump
Which turned into an ecstatic chorus · Of the Beloved's Name.
There is the Prayer Call · Rising up like the sun · Out of the mouths of a thousand birds.
There is an astonishing vastness · Of movement and Life
Emanating sound and light · From my folded hands
And my even quieter simple being and heart.
My dear, · Is it true that your mind · Is sometimes like a battering · Ram
Running all through the city, · Shouting so madly inside and out
About the ten thousand things · That do not matter?
Hafiz, too, · For many years beat his head in youth
And thought himself at a great distance, · Far from an armistice · With God.
But that is why this scarred old pilgrim · Has now become such a sweet rare vintage · Who weeps and sings for you.
O listen - · Listen more carefully · To what is inside of you right now.
In my world · All that remains is the wondrous call to · Dance and prayer
Rising up like a thousand suns · Out of the mouth of a · Single bird.

-Hafiz (translated by Daniel Ladinsky)

DeVotchKa - "100 Other Lovers"

the bee myth

A Bell Ringing in the Wood

Audrey, the bell rings throughout the woods. It is time for learning to begin.

The fairies come. All of types. The sprites, the nymphs.

Some dance like ballerinas through the moss on toe shoes pink with ribbons tied.


Others are so tiny they look like fireflies in the early morning light. They are pink and blue.

There are Jovial ones who as the come, with needle in hand, care for the flowers, stitching petals that are torn or shabby.

The Gothic ones come to learn the ways of  spiritual magic. They like the schoolroom with the books. They are the

ones who built this Learning Cooperative.

And, the other fairies come to share their knowledge of the elements: the woods and the air, the water and the spirit.

This Cooperative is open to all. Sometimes you many learn. Sometimes you may teach. But it is a Cooperative. And, there, the bell rings again in the woods. There, by my right shoulder the fairy flies so close. She is in a hurry, she says.

Look for this from your Nana. She will bring this to you. Please, let Bridgie play too. And, Greyson, if he wants to add his "superheroes" to the Learning Cooperative: I wonder if the fairies will vote to say, yes?

Here is the school.

And, see, on the side of the Learning Cooperative, one fairy saw that the flower vine needed to be mended. It must have been blown apart from the storm that blew in the woods last night.

Outside the Learning Cooperative stands one of the Gothic

fairies, Maggie. Maggie is nine years old and she loves to act in plays and she sings and dances. She likes singing the best. She carries to class her beautiful totem animal, Maug, the Magpie. Maug is seven years old, and he teaches a Treasure Finding class. Actually, Maug and Maggie are always together.

Inside the school are the pink and blue fairies. They take their seats on the little bird cages that hang from the ceiling. See, they are already facing the chalkboard, waiting form Cecilia, who is teaching today with her dog, Peter, to begin.

Come in, Audrey, take a seat in the parrot feather chair. It is your chair from now on. The fairies are saving it for you.  There are books for you to read on the bookshelf. Move closer to the lamp on the table and read through the pages or write your own book with stories that you want the fairies to know.                             

                                                                                   Or you can go through the apothecary bottles on the shelves. The fairies have also collected baskets of turquoise from the rock and pearl from the rivers and stars from the skies. These talismans are all in the burlap baskets on the shelves. You will be taught how to leave these for the humans as talismans for luck and protection, for guidance and wisdom. And, when you sit in on classes, you will learn how to make your own baskets of talismans to put on the shelves.   There is even a Tibetan Peace Flag hanging on the wall just behind the bookshelf. Don't worry, the messages of peace will still go forth from this little corner of the fairy world.

On the roof, there is a picnic. This is a class, too. It is important to Megan, the ballerina fairy, that you learn how to have a good picnic.                                                           When the day is warm and the breeze is just nice, the birds  will call you to come out and sit under a  tree, or under         the umbrella in this case, and have a lunch and call it a picnic.  Pack tiny cucumber sandwiches and iced tea. Make oatmeal cookies.                                                                          Bring a book on poetry.                                                   After you eat, you must either read a good book, read some poetry or lay back and take a nap in the shade. This is how to have a good picnic.                                                            Any good school will teach you how.                                  Some classes will add painting as part of the picnic classes.  Oh, yes, you can place flowers on the blanket you spread out and you can use real pretty plates and glasses and cloth napkins.                                                                           And, if you have a basket, please carry all your picnic items in the basket!

The design of this Fairy Learning Cooperative is inspired by Terri at Artful Affirmations http://artfulaffirmations.blogspot.com/p/fairy-school.html. It was longer than I thought because of everything else in life going on, but it was more fun than I thought. It gave me a respite that  I much needed at various times.

If you have some time to invite the fairies to your life, this is a fun adventure. Thanks, Terri.

Peace.

Brianne

Russian Fairytales

When I was little I loved fariytales. I loved to be read a story. I especially loved to have a bed time story read.

My favorite was The Snow Queen, and I listened to it night after night: "Love. What is stronger than love?"

I found these verbal Russian Wonder Tales from Toast's website. I think that Toast is a department store in the UK. How nice they put together webspace to send out holiday greetings in the form of these stories.

These are wonderful winter tales. If you have some time; or if you'd like to have a bedtime story read to you, these are PERFECT. But, just remember, they are from Russia.

Both stories are in two parts. The stories are.

Tsar Sultan

Little Bear's Son

This is the link to Toast's page with the wonder tales.

Russian Wonder Tales from Toast



Enjoy.

Peace.
Brianne

Fairies for Audrey

I am inviting fairies to my house. I really have never done it before. I don't even think I did this as a girl. I wasn't a fairy child. But, for Audrey, I am asking the fairies to please come. I know they are around the house. They show up in the photographs. The little flashes of light. The spheres of lights that sparkle in the ferns and in the oaks when I take the pictures at dusk.





en.dwanda

  I hear the cardinals talking to them. They chase the hawk away from the baby birds. Yes, I know they are around the beautiful yard I tend. But, I never have invited them to meet. I have never looked for them. Until now. Fascinating, how really ethereal but "dirt beneath the fingernails" they are. I must say, my kind of folk. I am putting together some semblance of them for a "Cooperative Schoolhouse" that Terri's sending out as her affirmation through her blog Artful Affirmations.



cloudfront.net

 The cooperative must have some books that the fairies will use.




melissa de le fuente

 Sometimes it is hard to tell if it is a fairy or a faire creature.

I am not sure if that is one in the same. I am not knowledgeable of the faire ones.

So, I wished to see the costumery that I have heard so much about. Especially that which is worn by the ladies.
  



So, dear Audrey, for you the fairies come. They come to show me a world they want you to know. And, yes, me too. So, I allow the muse to carry me and I will have fun and journey joyfully into this place for this time.

A thought to set up a tea-party on the roof just came to me. Which fairy told me to do that? I will project an umbrella, small and bright into the universe. I will put it on the roof, Audrey, so the sun won't spoil the tiny cucumber sandwiches.

Well, I will keep thinking of the fairies. And, because I am open to them, I am sure they will come visit me. And, I will dream of being in a bed fit for my fairy self.



ditteisagger.dk

Peace.
Brianne

Dreams of Summer

This will be complete analogy.

And as I type I have the old guy - not Tom - but, Ganesh, is curled within the crook of my arm. It seems this is where all the old ones come. Shadow. Gabby. Ganesh. They first come to sleep at night, and then they come find me here whenever I come to lay down to read or write or rest. Then, I find them here. All the time on the bed. Waiting for me. In the end of days, their lives evolve between the bedroom and the food/water and litter box down the hall. They only go outside occasionally to roll in the sunshine on the patio; and then they go out only when I take them. I have been here before.

But, back to the analogy. Here is my dream.

And, here is what is physically here:

Goodnight.

I found a Heart of a Wizardness website. I liked her feather meditation. I will cocoon and dream of feathers to guide me on my flight. I can be cold. The foliage can be in hibernation and seeding for spring. I will know that this too shall pass. Embrace the magic of this time of year. Embrace the kiss of the North as She sends them to me on Her breezes. To be alive is to feel the cold as well as the heat. To be alive. Alive.

Peace.