Spiritual Thoughts

[Ann]

That's beautiful, Pattee, and so true.

Happy Easter

[Ann]

Every child has known God

Every child has known God,
Not the God of names,
Not the God of don’ts,
Not the God who ever does Anything weird,
But the God who knows only 4 words.
And keeps repeating them, saying:
“Come Dance with Me , come dance.”

-- Hafiz

[Rusty Zipper]

nice sweet ann, ........... and love the new Bonnet............ agw & gol....... pattee

[Maziefds]

How beautiful can that be

[Ann]

The Calling
~Gerald Fisher~

The fire is dancing tonight and the winds are talking
Dancers from past lives enter the circle
Leading me back and forth through the history of myself
The mind searches as the spirit dances

The drums...dancing to the heartbeat
Memories of long ago insights to the future
I hear the winds whispering my sweat lodge dreams
I see Sungmanitu tanka (the wolf) my guide

He shows me the ancestors, not mine
They are not Lakota, or Tsalagi, or Iroquois
But they are all Nations, one Nation
Speaking with wisdom to share with each other

Yesterdays create todays and promises of tomorrow
The lies will die with the smoke
And the whispers of the winds are clear and loud
And we shall all see the return of the buffalo
AHO

[Visionary]

Thank you for this beautiful thread.

Visionary

[Ann]

May You Always Feel Loved~

May you find serenity and tranquility
in a world you may not always
understand.

May the pain you have known
and the conflict you have experienced
give you the strength to walk through life
facing each new situation
with optimism and courage.

Always know that there are those
whose love and understanding will always
be there, even when you feel most alone.

May you discover enough goodness in others
to believe in a world of peace.
May a kind word, a reassuring touch,
a warm smile be yours every day of your life,
and may you give these gifts as well as receive them.

Remember the sunshine when the storm seems unending.
Teach love to those who know hate, and let that love
embrace you as you go into the world.

May the teaching of those you admire
become part of you, so that you may
call upon them.

Remember, those whose lives you have touched
and who have touched yours are always a part of you,
even if the encounters were less than
you would have wished.

May you not become too concerned
with material matters, but instead place
immeasurable value on the goodness in your heart.

Find time in each day to see the beauty
and love in the world around you.

Realize that each person has limitless abilities,
but each of us is
different in our own way.

What you may feel you lack in one regard
may be more than compensated for
in another.

What you feel you lack in the present
may become one of your strengths in
the future.

May you see your future
as one filled with promise and possibility.

Learn to view everything
as a worthwhile experience.

May you find enough inner strength
to determine your own worth by yourself,
and not be dependent on another's judgments
of your accomplishments.

May you always feel loved.

[Ann]

THE day is done, and the darkness
Falls from the wings of Night,
As a feather is wafted downward
From an eagle in his flight.

I see the lights of the village
Gleam through the rain and the mist,
And a feeling of sadness comes o'er me
That my soul cannot resist:

A feeling of sadness and longing,
That is not akin to pain,
And resembles sorrow only
As the mist resembles the rain.

Come, read to me some poem,
Some simple and heartfelt lay,
That shall soothe this restless feeling,
And banish the thoughts of day.

Not from the grand old masters,
Not from the bards sublime,
Whose distant footsteps echo
Through the corridors of Time,

For, like strains of martial music,
Their mighty thoughts suggest
Life's endless toil and endeavor;
And tonight I long for rest.

Read from some humbler poet,
Whose songs gushed from his heart,
As showers from the clouds of summer,
Or tears from the eyelids start;

Who, through long days of labor,
And nights devoid of ease,
Still heard in his soul the music
Of wonderful melodies.

Such songs have a power to quiet
The restless pulse of care,
And comes like the benediction
That follows after prayer.

Then read from the treasured volume
The poem of thy choice,
And lend to the rhyme of the poet
The beauty of thy voice.

And the night shall be filled with music,
And the cares, that infest the day,
Shall fold their tents, like the Arabs,
And as silently steal away.

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

[wingsfree]

Ann Thank you so much for sharing a beautiful thread. I've printed a lot out to give to my daughter, she loves them all.

May you always feel loved too my friend.

[Ann]

Thanks, Denise. I really find it healing to find and post these. I've kept most for myself also.

Longfellow is one of my favourite poets, and I love this last verse...

And the night shall be filled with music,
And the cares, that infest the day,
Shall fold their tents, like the Arabs,
And as silently steal away.

[Ann]

This Too Shall Pass

If I can endure for this minute
Whatever is happening to me,
No matter how heavy my heart is
Or how dark the moment may be-

If I can remain calm and quiet
With all the world crashing about me,
Secure in the knowledge God loves me
When everyone else seems to doubt me-

If I can but keep on believing
What I know in my heart to be true,
That darkness will fade with the morning
And that this will pass away, too-

Then nothing in life can defeat me
For as long as this knowledge remains
I can suffer whatever is happening
For I know God will break all of the chains

That are binding me tight in the darkness
And trying to fill me with fear-
For there is no night without dawning
And I know that my morning is near.

...Helen Steiner Rice

[Ann]

Denise, I took the picture in the above poem from the window of the Chi-Chee-Maun ferry heading to Manitoulin Island from Tobermory. It was morning and the sun was just breaking through.

For some reason, that picture made me think of you tonight and the beautiful north.

Hugs

[wingsfree]

Thank you Ann

I've never been to Manitoulin Island, maybe one day. My son went there last fall, he said it was beautiful. I'm so grateful for where I live, a lot of tranquil places close by, yes the north is beautiful even with it's sometimes very harsh winters, but they are a beauty in themselves. The further up north you go the more breath taking it is around Lake Superiour.

Big hugs.

[Wolfchild]

"A human being is a part of a whole, called by us universe, a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings as something separated from the rest... a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty."

- Albert Einstein

[Rusty Zipper]

thanks wolf, wing'y and sweet ann... (...)

[Wolfchild]

So divinely is the world organized that every one of us, in our place and time, is in balance with everything else.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749 - 1832)

[Ann]

Time to revive this thread and start sharing some light...

May the stars carry your sadness away,

May the flowers fill your heart with beauty,

May hope forever wipe away your tears,

And, above all, may silence make you strong.

--Chief Dan George

[Ann]

This being human is a guest house.
Every morning a new arrival.
A joy, a depression, a meanness,
some momentary awareness comes as an unexpected visitor.
Welcome and entertain them all!
Even if they're a crowd of sorrows,
who violently sweep your house
empty of it's furniture,
still, treat each guest honorably.
He may be clearing you out
for some new delight.
The dark thought the shame, the malice,
meet them at the door laughing,
and invite them in.
Be grateful for whoever comes,
because each has been sent as a guide from beyond.

--Rumi

[Ann]

Storms
Margie DeMerell

There will be storms, child
There will be storms
And with each tempest
You will seem to stand alone
Against cruel winds

But with time, the rage and fury
Shall subside
And when the sky clears
You will find yourself
Clinging to someone
You would have never known
But for storms.

[GoldenGutters]

Originally Posted by Ann

Be empty of worrying.
Think of who created thought!

Why do you stay in prison
when the door is so wide open?

Move outside the tangle of fear-thinking.
Live in silence

~Rumi~

Wow!

[Ann]

For GoldenGutters because we share a love for our Persian Poets...

The Stairway of Existence

We
Are not
In pursuit of formalities
Or fake religious
Laws,

For through the stairway of existence
We have come to God's
Door.

We are
People who need to love, because
Love is the soul's life,

Love is simply creation's greatest joy.

Through
The stairway of existence,
O, through the stairway of existence, Hafiz

Have
You now come,
Have we all now come to
The Beloved's
Door.

~Hafiz~

[Ann]

This was the full moon at dawn behind my house in January this year, and this poem reminded me of how beautiful and magical a full moon is.

Daylight and Moonlight

~ Henry Wadsworth Longfellow ~

In broad daylight, and at noon,
Yesterday I saw the moon
Sailing high, but faint and white,
As a schoolboy's paper kite.

In broad daylight, yesterday,
I read a poet's mystic lay;
And it seemed to me at most
As a phantom, or a ghost.

But at length the feverish day
Like a passion died away,
And the night, serene and still,
Fell on village, vale, and hill.

Then the moon, in all her pride,
Like a spirit glorified,
Filled and overflowed the night
With revelations of her light.

And the Poet's song again
Passed like music through my brain;
Night interpreted to me
All its grace and mystery.

[Ann]

Dear Denise/Wingsfree made me this and I wanted to share it here. I love this song, it is very special to me, and I love what she has done with the lyrics and picture. I am having trouble putting the music on but will try to get some help.

<embed src="http://www.geocities.com/wingsfree2003/answerinthesky.wav" autostart="true" loop="true"width="200" height="34">
</embed>
<noembed>
<bgsound src="http://www.geocities.com/wingsfree2003/answerinthesky.wav" loop="infinite">
</noembed>

[IO Storm]

Hello.

Thanks Ann and GG for reviving the thread. I think my BF can download pictures on his laptop and send them to my dinosaur PC.

I suppose my thought for today has become my slogan, or signature.

"God holds me still in the eye of the storm".

Love,

IO Storm

[IO Storm]

Originally Posted by Ann

Every child has known God

Every child has known God,
Not the God of names,
Not the God of don’ts,
Not the God who ever does Anything weird,
But the God who knows only 4 words.
And keeps repeating them, saying:
“Come Dance with Me , come dance.”

-- Hafiz

I love this. I love this. I have shared elsewhere on another forum about the fear of God instilled in me as a child. It was more like a systematic trauma, and fellows on that site are helping me.

I heard Dr. Dobson once on a radio broadcast say that he struggled with the passage "Spoil the rod and spare the child". He and a colleague researched the text in the original Hebrew and Aramaic and the writing is thus:
"Create in your child a taste for God when he is young, and when he is old, nothing else will satisfy him".

Would the "Lord of the Dance" not wish to dance with the children?

If every child had this legacy, what a world this would be, so different.

Heaven on earth.