Sonnet

I am in need of music that would flow, over my fretful, feeling finger-tips, over my bitter-tainted, trembling lips, with melody, deep, clear, and liquid-slow.

Oh, for the healing swaying, old and low, of some song sung to rest the tired dead, A song to fall like water on my head.  And over quivering limbs, dream flushed to glow!

There is a magic made by melody: A spell of rest, and quiet breath, and cool heart, that sinks through fading colors deep to the subaqueous stillness of the sea, and floats forever in a moon-green pool, held in the arms of rhythm and of sleep.

–elizabeth bishop

Neptune approaches Pisces.  Ommmmmmmmmm.

The Vedic Hymn to Time

Time is a horse that moves with seven rays,

with a thousand eyes, undecaying,

who projects a manifold seed.

Him the seers mount, illumined in mind.

His wheels are all the worlds.

Time moves seven wheels.

He has seven mouths, whose center is immortal and undecaying.

He anoints himself with all these worlds.  He moves as the first of the Gods.

A full vessel is set in time.

May we who live see his manifold forms.

He faces all the worlds, who, the seers say,

is time

in the supreme

void.  He gathered all the worlds together.

He encompasses all the universe.

As their father, he became their son,

apart from whom there is no other light.

A VEDIC HYMN TO TIME

(Atharva Veda XIX.23, 1-4)

kabir writes……………

“Be strong then, and enter into your own body;
there you have a solid place for your feet.
Think about it carefully!
Don’t go off somewhere else!”

Let the mind, be the mind.

Let the mind be the mind.

Behind its restless activity,

just one layer deeper

is stillness, and beneath

even that, is an ocean of mystery and truth.

Swim in this eternal sea

until you know yourself

to be infinity, and bring

that knowing back into

your day.  Why struggle

to be what you are already?

Let the mind be the mind

but don’t bind yourself

to its limited reality.

Trust your experience of

vastnes.  Trust the truth

that never loses potency

or disappears in fear.

Let the mind be the mind

and identify not with

thought, but silence.

…from Limitless by Danna Faulds.

DESKTOP FENG SHUI

Once you understand the concept of swirling, energetic motion (chi) and re-member that we live in a living (organic) body, you can apply the maps you are learning to any place, space, or surface.   By maps I mean: the bagua, luopan, or local space chart.

A desk top is exactly that, the top of the desk.  Or,  it could also be the desktop of your computer monitor, or ipod screen.    (If you are familiar with the EMDR techniques available, and/or you practice yoga for the eyes, then you may have become aware of how our eye movements, and the patterns of those movements, affect our brain/neural pathways.  Once you understand this body map you can apply some yoga therapy to balance it…………..if necessary.

A compass of some kind is helpful. Working with directions is an important concept and maps & compasses prevent us from getting lost.  The bagua is a generic map anyone can follow.   The “local space astrology chart” is more complicated since it provides the same depth of information that is found on the luopan.  Go here for more information on local space charts which function as both a A compass and a time-keeping tool.

Begin, as usual, by creating intention and finding center. Sit at your desk and begin to see the space around you as a ‘whole’, noting what is in the various 8 segments of the desktop.  Begin to arrange things, mindfully, remembering your intention with each breath.  Look at the new arrangement.  Adjust, feel, see it as a metaphor, scan the body for sensations.  Welcome the changes that come.

Solar Eclipse Coming.

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May we all live well.

Democracy by Leonard Cohen

Its coming through a hole in the air
-from those nights in Tienanmen square
Its coming from the feel
That it aint exactly real
Or its real, but it aint exactly there
-from the wars against disorder
-from the sirens night and day
-from the fires of the homeless
-from the ashes of the gay
Democracy is coming to the u.s.a.

Its coming through a crack in the wall
On a visionary flood of alcohol
-from the staggering account
Of the sermon on the mount
Which I don’t pretend to understand at all
Its coming from the silence
On the dock of the bay
-from the brave, the bold, the battered
Heart of chevrolet
Democracy is coming to the u.s.a.

Its coming from the sorrow on the street
The holy places where the races meet
-from the homicidal bitchin’
That goes down in every kitchen
To determine who will serve and who will eat
-from the wells of disappointment
Where the women kneel to pray
For the grace of God in the desert here
And the desert far away
Democracy is coming to the u.s.a.

Chorus
Sail on, sail on
O mighty ship of state!
To the shores of need
Past the reefs of greed
Through the squalls of hate
Sail on, sail on, sail on…

Its coming to America first
The cradle of the best and of the worst
Its here they got the range
And the machinery for change
And its here they got the spiritual thirst
Its here the family’s broken
And its here the lonely say
That the heart has got to open
In a fundamental way
Democracy is coming to the u.s.a.

Its coming from the women and the men
O baby, well be making love again
Well be going down so deep
That the rivers going to weep
And the mountains going to shout amen!
Its coming like the tidal flood
Beneath the lunar sway
Imperial, mysterious
In amorous array
Democracy is coming to the u.s.a.

Chorus

I’m sentimental, if you know what I mean
I love the country but I cant stand the scene
And I’m neither left or right
I’m just staying home tonight
Getting lost in that hopeless little screen
But I ‘m stubborn as those garbage bags
That time cannot decay
I’m junk but Im still holding up
This little wild bouquet
Democracy is coming to the u.s.a.

Words & Lyrics by Leonard Cohen.

Check out this video.

I’ll move it over to the sidebar asap.

Rumi…….nations.

BREATHING

There is a way

of breathing

That’s a shame and a suffocation

And there’s another way of expiring,

A love breath,

That lets you open infinitely.

rumi

Turning the Page

I love to turn the page to the new month on my kitchen calendar. I practice staying present in the month that is and try not to peek ahead to whatever next month’s picture or saying is. It does require some discipline.

Today, the quote for March is from Rumi.

“We have fallen into the place where everything is music”.

How perfect for March, Pisces time.

I haven’t practiced my harp for many weeks. First, I cut my finger. Badly. There was no way I could play my favorite tunes. Of course I could have continued practicing with one hand. But, I didn’t. I tried to figure out why I didn’t, but I couldn’t. So, I just went with the flow and now it’s easily a month later, the harps are sadly out of tune, but my finger is better. It’s time to return to my practice and just in time since the harp ladies have presented me with a group gig that we need to practice for. It helps me when I know there’s something to practice for.

I’m seriously interested in music as a healing modality and I’m thrilled to see music coming to the forefront as a way to practice peace evidenced just this past week with our best Philharmonic Orchestra traveling oversea’s. YES!! This is how we can achieve peace. Put it in the airwaves and begin to eliminate all of the sound clutter that keeps us stressed and anxious.
So….in honor of Rumi, Pisces, March, and World Peace I think I’ll go use these fingers on some harp strings.
Right Now!

Om shanti.

Anthem, Lyrics by Leonard Cohen

Click on the picture to hear the song on YouTube.

The birds they sang
At the break of day
Start again
I heard them say
Dont dwell on what
Has passed away
Or what is yet to be

The wars they will
Be fought again
The holy dove
Be caught again
Bought and sold
And bought again
The dove is never free

Chorus
Ring the bells that still can ring
Forget your perfect offering
There is a crack in everything
Thats how the light gets in

We asked for signs

The signs were sent
The birth betrayed
The marriage spent
The widowhood
Of every government
Signs for all to see

Cant run no more
With the lawless crowd
While the killers in high places
Say their prayers out loud
But theyve summoned up
A thundercloud
And theyre going to hear from me

Ring the bells that still can ring
Forget your perfect offering
There is a crack in everything
Thats how the light gets in

You can add up the parts
But you wont have the sum
You can strike up the march
There is no drum
Every heart
To love will come
But like a refugee

Ring the bells that still can ring
Forget your perfect offering
There is a crack in everything
Thats how the light gets in

http://www.lyricsfreak.com/l/leonard+cohen/anthem_20082876.html

From Root to Bloom

Sap is flowing once again from root to trunk,

from trunk to branch,

to every leaf

and bud

and blossom

on the tree.

The frozen days are past.

Now is the season of flowering,

when the full force of energy moves up

and up

to manifest its destiny.

It is everything to me,

this new life springing forth

from ash and compost,

this chance to nurture,

weed,

and prune,

to patiently receive the miracle that blooms

as if no force on earth

can turn aside its beauty.

Danna Faulds (From Root to Bloom, Yoga Poems and Other Writings) Published with permission.

ps……….I’ve been in the garden for days now and nature has rewarded me with a bloom on my clematis vine. Finally!!!