Body of Evidence

               Sometimes in weariness, other times in frustration or perhaps even comparison, I stand like a stranger looking at this body of mine. I stand and look as if it were an object or thing I do not know.

               This morning the whisper of my body as the image of a silent guardian whose only purpose is to protect, guard and shield. Like those whose job it is to lay down their life for the President, Kings or Queens my body stands as a silent defender absorbing without voice, the slings, arrows and abuse hurled from life and even from me. Silent. Constant. Vigilant. Single focused. To protect the spirit, the Life and Light within. Even when its few basic needs go unanswered still it struggles to guard, shield, embrace and give life.

               The Light within is but one candle of the One. But my body, my body is uniquely mine. My cellular structure, my fingerprints and even my voice are uniquely mine. Another can imitate its appearance but never am I duplicated or found in another. This body is mine, completely, and totally mine.  The Light within is mirrored in every soul and even in nature. The body is never mirrored. Same structural elements yes, but the form, the individual chalice chosen was and is chosen, and not by chance. There are 7 billion other light forms existing as humans upon this earth. My body stands as the only one of its kind. My body is the self-portrait chosen by the Divine, by Life and painted in love.

               I hunger and thirst to feed the heart and spirit with wisdom and grace and to walk the path of peace and love. I meditate to quiet my mind so I can hear the whispers of Life. I become one with nature and Love. I look to the heart as the seat of Wisdom, Grace, Faith and Being. And yet, this morning, to ponder the one gift, the one gift given that truly makes me who I am and was chosen to protect, shield and carry the hunger and even my senses which feed my experience – my body.  In a world inundated by body image so that even children try to starve themselves to be like a created image, to realize the magnificence and unconditional love this body gifts. And even when diseased or limited, frail and not as strong of a warrior as it once was, still she remains that which is uniquely me forever my guardian, forever my experience, forever the self-portrait of the Divine.

My body the evidence of the Divine walking with me.

Unkissed

Rumi's poetry inflames the passion of every heart in love. And yet, his words, and as he called it, his drunken state of wild openness were not for a lover. His unfettered passion was his love for Life and Being. Judy Garland's heart igniting words, "For it was not into my ear you whispered, but into my heart. It was not my lips you kissed, but my soul" are actually the only lines of love and joy in a heart wrenching poem of the deadness felt after a lover has left her. What do they both share? A kiss.  


At first it seems odd that the most intimate and tender expression of love, where the emotions of the heart and mind are given physical shape in the lips, we cannot give ourselves. We cannot kiss ourselves with the kiss of a mother upon her child as he sleeps, the kiss of lovers aware, the kiss upon the face of a loved one whose soul has just left to begin a new journey. We cannot kiss ourselves.  And maybe that is why Rumi and Judy Garland's words resonate so strongly, they reflect our need, our desire to be so loved, worthy and tendered that we experience the kiss.  Perhaps Life, in creating us without this ever so beautiful expression, did so as a reminder. To be so loved, so tendered, so worthy we must love, tender and give worthiness to ourselves first.  To know only the kiss of the heart's inward touch, the lips of silent compassion and surrender to who we are. To whisper to our sense of self, "For it was not into my ear you whispered, but into my heart. It was not my lips you kissed, but my soul."

Eyes to the sky

The sky has been, will always be so translucent and blue. The sun brilliant and fiery orange. They make no excuses nor apologize for their appearance, their life or the gifts they offer and well aware of how often they go unnoticed.


 'Here I am. Here are my gifts. Opened or unopened, they are yours.'  


Do you think today would be different if we could be so giving and accepting as the sky and sun? If we approached ourselves, our partners, children, co-workers and strangers with the same self-acceptance and acceptance of them, no if, and, or fixing, just a blue sky and fiery sun spread over our lives and theirs- how different would it be? . Loving and embracing that our our own hearts, or they may respond as the blackened velvety night sky and luminous white moon. Love without definition. Love abiding. Love that sees only the sky.