Dear Restless Heart. Words from Edith Willis Linn

Dear restless heart, be brave; don't fret and worry so;
God has a thousand ways His love and help to show;
Just trust, and trust, and trust, until His will you know;

Dear restless heart, be still, for peace is God's own smile,
His love can every wrong and sorrow reconcile;
Just love, and love, and love, and calmly wait awhile.

Dear restless heart, be brave; don't moan and sorrow so,
He has a meaning kind in chilly winds that blow;
Just hope, and hope, and hope, until you braver grow.

Dear restless heart, recline upon His breast this hour,
His grace is strength and life, His love is bloom and flower;
Just rest, and rest, and rest, within His tender power.

Dear restless heart, be still! Don't struggle to be free;
God's life is in your life, from Him you may not flee;
Just pray, and pray, and pray, till you have faith to see.

~Edith Willis Linn

Poem from my great great grandmother Farley

My mom recently shared this poem that she found while sorting and organizing through her garage. It was written by my great great grandma Farley. My grandma's grandma...it speaks well to the season I find myself at times!


In the midst of a bog

An old bullfrog

Sat on a log

And croaked and croaked


It’s an ugly old world

He sadly said

All slime and water soaked


But you’re looking down the Blue Jay said

Look at the clear blue sky instead


Hear the birds

And the hum of the bees

The world is filled with melodies

So why should you drink from miseries cup

For goodness sake

Look up.,..look up

Reflections on Labor

First Lessons by Philip Booth

Lie back daughter, let your head
be tipped back in the cup of my hand.
Gently, and I will hold you. Spread
your arms wide, lie out on the stream
and look high at the gulls. A dead-
man's float is face down. You will dive
and swim soon enough where this tidewater
ebbs to the sea. Daughter, believe
me, when you tire on the long thrash
to your island, lie up, and survive.
As you float now, where I held you
and let go, remember when fear
cramps your heart what I told you:
lie gently and wide to the light-year
stars, lie back, and the sea will hold you.

I am pretty sure I have posted this poem before but it now has additional meaning to me as it was one of the poems that helped me get through labor and delivery. It has almost been 7 weeks and I continue to process the experience of Jamison entering the world. I recently got to look at the photos that my dear friend Jessica took during the last two hours of labor. I am grateful for these photos and how I get to see a perspective that was not possible in the moment. The photos still bring me to tears every time I look at them. A spiritual experience of productive pain is how I have been thinking about it lately.

Who or what will hold you?

First Lesson
By Philip Booth

Lie back, daughter, let your head
be tipped back in the cup of my hand.
Gently, and I will hold you. Spread
your arms wide, lie out on the stream
and look high at the gulls. A dead-
man's float is face down. You will dive
and swim soon enough where this tidewater
ebbs to the sea. Daughter, believe
me, when you tire on the long thrash
to your island, lie up, and survive.
As you float now, where I held you
and let go, remember when fear
cramps your heart what I told you:
lie gently and wide to the light-year
stars, lie back, and the sea will hold you.

Wild Geese ~ Mary Oliver

One of my beautiful friends from school shared this Mary Oliver poem with a group of us last week. Which reminded me of reading Mary with another dear friend. We are meant to live life with others. We are not meant to be alone. Though loneliness seems to be close by, I must remember that I am not alone. Like Mary writes...we all have a place in the family of things!

Wild Geese

You do not have to be good.
You do not have to walk on your knees
for a hundred miles through the desert, repenting.
You only have to let the soft animal of your body
love what it loves.
Tell me about despair, yours, and I will tell you mine.
Meanwhile the world goes on.
Meanwhile the sun and the clear pebbles of the rain
are moving across the landscapes,
over the prairies and the deep trees,
the mountains and the rivers.
Meanwhile the wild geese, high in the clean blue air,
are heading home again.
Whoever you are, no matter how lonely,
the world offers itself to your imagination,
calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting--
over and over announcing your place
in the family of things.

~Mary Oliver

Arise

ARISE

To the glorious three that vindicate, radiate, and intoxicate.

I arise today

Knowing that I have been invited to another day

Of renewed mercy and opportunities of justice.

May the glory of God be revealed in my seeing

May the glory of God be received in my hearing

May the glory of God be heard in my speaking

Blessed are those who trust in the Lord

May I trust in the Lord this day

God of creation

May I be that tree that is planted by water.

Christ of redemption

Help me to not fear when heat comes and may the leaves remain green.

Spirit of comfort

Calm my heart in the year of drought

So that my tree does not cease to bear fruit.

Amen Amen Amen

John O'Donohue...a wise Irish teacher

I have been reading O'Donohue's To Bless the Space Between Us, a book of blessings that are inspired from Celtic spiritual traditions. I am learning that Christian Celts have/had a prayer for EVERYTHING, for the senses, for the unknown self, for failure, for solitude, for the threshold of womanhood/manhood, and even on passing a graveyard! John O'Donohue explains "blessing" as a way of life, as a lens through which the whole world is transformed. Here is one that has caught my eye! The bold words and stanzas are ones that have beautifully disturbed me. Enjoy!

A Blessing of Angels

May the Angel of Awakening stir your heart

To come alive to the eternal within you,

To all the invitations that quietly surround you.

May the Angel of Healing turn your wounds

Into sources of refreshment.

May the Angel of Imagination enable you

To stand on the true thresholds,

At ease with your ambivalence

And drawn in new directions

Through the glow of your contradictions.

May the Angel of Compassion open your eyes

To the unseen suffering around you.

May the Angel of Wildness disturb the places

Where your life is domesticated and safe,

Take you to the territories of true otherness

Where all that is awkward in you

Can fall into its own rhythm.

May the Angel of Eros introduce you

To the beauty of your senses

To celebrate your inheritance

As a temple of the holy spirit.

May the Angel of Justice disturb you

To take the side of the poor and the wronged.

May the Angel of Encouragement confirm you

In worth and self-respect,

That you may live with the dignity

That presides in your soul.

May the Angel of Death arrive only

When your life is complete

And you have brought every given gift

To the threshold where its infinity can shine.

May all the Angels be your sheltering

And joyful guardians.

~John O'Donohue

© John O’Donohue. All rights reserved

If you would like to know & learn more about John , check out www.johnodonohue.com

a good word from Meister Eckhart

God is being beyond being and a
nothingness beyond being.

The most beautiful thing
which a person can say about God
would be for that person to remain silent
from the wisdom of an inner weatlh.

So,
be silent
and quit flapping your gums about God.

~Meister Eckhart