Expressing it...

It's easy in the midst of the day-to-day routine

To lose sight of the thoughtful people around us

Who give life its delightful tones and color

By working together

we learn not only to know each other

– to help each other

but also to value one another…

YET familiarity seems to dull this vision

So we forget to express that high regard

TR © 2008

Awakened by a dream...

I awaken in my sleep

To a place I’ve never been

To the one I’ve yet to meet

Worlds apart yet unseen

Floods of sensation

Leaving me impatient

The delight of your femininity

A gateway to blissful proximity

In all of them and each other

Perhaps to dream forever

© TR 2008

Reposed courage...

Seemly alone

I bear who I am

No longer dreading

The famished mouth of loneliness

Where tears raged silently

The Me, you seem to see

Now searches for riches

Fountains of reposed courage

New strumming of heart strings

Moistening the eyes

Joining consolation to pain

Seemly alone He cares for who I am

And purifies by blood

Letting me know

Letting me show

His redeeming love

© Intuitive Feeling 2008

Passion

Passion lies at the center of our spirit

In the marrow of our bones

In the deepest recesses of the soul

At the heart of all great aspirations

What we typically call dreaming.

© TR 2008

Having a place

Is knowing you're free
The best motto in life
Is to be together
Because we wanna be
Love has its own
Effortless course
I can either flow with it
Or go against current and drown
What had been said
What could have been
Words that once mattered…
That matter no more
I cannot let go
Of what I do not have
I cannot lose
What was never mine
I cannot live an illusion
Of what may never blossom
No one can hurt me
As long as I love
No one owes me anything
The little I receive
Is great when I expect nothing
To be together
Because we wanna be
Bringing out the best
In one another
And if not so
Without Reproach
Letting go

Reflector © 2008

The price of dreams...

Passion lies at the center of our spirit, in the marrow of our bones, in the deepest recesses of the soul. At the heart of all great literature, poetry, art, philosophy, theater, psychology, and religion lies the naming and analyzing of this elusive aspiration we typically call dreaming. Augustine wrote that Christian spirituality is about what we do with our unrest, both in terms of handling the pain and the hope they bring us . . .


Augustine stated: 'You have made us for yourself, Lord, and our hearts are restless until they rest in you.' Christ responds to our unrest as no other being could ever respond. His life spilled over with passionate love when He walked the earth... so that everyone who came in contact with him either loved him or hated him, but one had to have been pretty poisoned to have done the latter. Christian spiritual passion allows us to dream. It is the spark that ignites the fuel within us to create something of ourselves. It is inspiring, exciting, and invigorating. Without it our lives can become commonplace, tedious, mindless shells of existence.Whenever I feel empty and don’t know where to turn, I find God meets me in His Word and my writing. I can pour out to Him whatever I’m feeling in the most lyrical terms I can find where the richest parts of me are saturated with a mix of pain and joy.

Donald Miller wrote,

¨Self-discipline will never make us feel righteous or clean; accepting God’s love will. The ability to accept God’s unconditional grace and ferocious love is all the fuel we need to obey Him in return... God woos us with kindness. He changes our character with the passion of His love.Our ´behavior´will not be changed long with self-discipline, but with love a human will accomplish what he never thought possible. The laziest of men will swim the English Channel to win his woman... by accepting God’s love ...we have the fuel we need to obey.¨ -- D. Miller

I think what Miller is saying is that the healing power of God’s love leads the way to sanctification, but that we like to put the cart before the horse seeking to change ourselves first in order to find love... I’ve tried that one for many years and it only produced a form of religiosity that secretly dies of boredom.I’d like to finish this topic with one more Miller quote,

¨I am learning to believe better things. I am learning to believe other people exist, that fashion is not truth; rather Jesus is the most important figure in history and the gospel is the most powerful force in the universe. I am learning not to be passionate about empty things, but to cultivate passion for justice, grace, truth and communicate the ideal that Jesus likes people (that is, He is not angry and aloof) and even loves them.¨

Miller discovered the secret to love by understanding how God risked Himself for you and me, therefore I will risk myself on you, so that together we learn to love by this same gravity that drew Him unto us.

© TR

Character grows out of crisis

I'd like to share a little about me...

Character grows out of crisis. Being less concerned about how I'm coming across, I lean toward a less rule-bound Christian outlook -- outside-the-box approach to spirituality. I dislike simplistic answers and clichés. I seek authenticity -- without pretense, accepting myself as a sinner saved by His grace. I have just come out of a disorienting period of life (separation), emphatic that Christ alone is able to renew. I'm His disciple and like my Master break with religiosity and fanaticism.

I enjoy heartfelt conversations, harmonous relationships and quiet sometimes even artistic activities. I believe in cultivating the inner life, so as not to get pulled into the empty vortex of the external world. I gave away my TV because I'd rather be making my own scripts than watching them.

Oddly enough, as quiet as I am I still haven't grow up to ever stop Rollerblading and do it with pizzaz! I enjoy interpreting music through skate dancing once a week -- love releasing those endorphins!!! I'm imaginative, a tad bit insecure but not clingy, dramatic, jealous nor possessive. As a feeling individual, I bring a strong base of empathy, humor, authenticity --truly appreciating affection and romance.

My career is a mix of disciplines: visual arts, creativity, pastoral studies and now counseling. My goal is to train to be a Christian counselor, especially in the areas of Codependency, Emotional Dependency and Anxious Emotional Attachment.

Thanks for reading.

Dare to be love...

In love we embrace
In love we let go
New vistas to taste
From goodbye to hello
Dare to be love
To the life that we are
Into love that finds time
And verses that rhyme
What is this healing
That reaches the skies?
Why find such favor
Coming from your eyes?
Dare to be love
What could that mean?
Living is giving
Never diminishing
Dare to be love
Without our consent?
Aren’t we responsible
For our own content?
A heart needs a self
To become one flesh
Never two halves
Wholly unselfish
Dare to be love
Deep from within
Where God abounds
And joy ascends
Where no one can take
Our sweet love away
From inside is better
On each cloudy day
Dare to be love
My rose-petal friend
The hedge once gone
Has flowered again
The long silence ended
Our knees to the ground
The love we embrace
T o ...n e w ...h e a r t-b e a t ...s o u n d s

-- TR

Butterfly Dancer

“ My heart is light because my hopes are high.”

We often admire love without thinking of the way it works. Through this poem I touch upon one of the most unassuming virtues found in loving persons ... that is, their lightheartedness. Butterflies are essentially symbolic of this trait, but even for them it’s not a given, but a process toward transformation. Caught between the elemental forces of gravity they struggle towards lightness and must overcome the heaviness of their caterpillar existence where God himself provides the cocoon, the place of transformation.Dance is the natural expression of a person’s lightheartedness just as heaviness is an indication of sickness, sadness or depression. The dancer is light on her feet and in her spirit defying gravity, flying on the wings of levity thus personifying the butterfly, communicating to others through the silent eloquence of the body’s grace, calmness and relaxed-concentration. We literally feel the friendliness, cheer and warmth not only in her posture but also in all of her lively and sometimes unpredictable movements.

Butterfly DancerButterfly Dancer

What do you celebrate?

Messy-human love

A clownish leaf-eating insect?

EarthboundInsatiable

ClingyEasy prey?

No… God prepares a cocoon

For lowly-love to transform

Raising a monarch ruler

Not a winged-caterpillar

UnconfinedExtreme makeover

Butterfly DancerWhat do you celebrate?

Far from gravity’s solemnity

From cocoony darkness

Love breaks out of fear

Heavenly minded

Flexing new wings

To unfettered freedom

To things-not-seen

Fearless love

Drawn-in-the-mind

Resilient-dotted pathways

Free, high and kind

Butterfly Dancer

What do you celebrate?

Slender, gracefulIn your regalia

Fleeting- dainty feet

Hardly touching ground

Face soft and sweet

To the heart-beat of drums

Your heart is light

Defying gravity

Flying on wings of levity

Rushing through your veins

Cheerful and warm

© TR

Favourite verses from Kahlil Gibran

“In the depth of my soul there are songs unwilling to take the garb of words, songs living as seed in my heart. They will not flow with ink onto paper. Like a translucent veil, they are wrapped about emotions that can never flow sweetly on my tongue.

Yet how can I even whisper them when I fear what the particles of air may do to them? To whom shall I sing them when they have become accustomed to live in the house of my soul and fear the harshness of other ears?

Were you to look into my eyes, you would see the image of their image. Were you to touch my fingertips, you would feel their quick movements. The works of my hands reveal them as the lake reflects the twinkling of the stars.

My tears disclose them as the mystery of the rose petal is disclosed at the moment the heat dissolves the drops of dew when that rose withers.”

… Who can combine the roaring of the sea and the warbling of the nightingale? Who can link the crashing thunder with the baby’s sigh? …¨

-- Kahlil Gibran “

We cannot go back and make a new start, but we can start now to make a new ending.” - Author Unknown

If I could utter words...

If I could utter words

Of the joy You bring to me

How You reach the center core of me

Of your faithful-longing-heart

To breathe every breath of your purity

If I could utter words

To unlock the secrets

To move past the barriers

To let go of what blocks me...

my broken, wounded self

If I could utter words

To define my own worth

It'd be the value

You place over me

To become what I want

Everyone else to be

If I could utter words

For one tear to trickle down

From your eye to my heart

From your compassion to mine

I'd find the path of healing

If I could utter words

Towards this new thanksgiving

That unfolds each day

So every moment treasured

Can become a joyous life time

TR © 2007

Serendipitous Nature

Roller dancing

Leap and lunge

Shake, swerve or sway

Twist, twirl or thrash about

Freestyle like blazing verses of poetry

You let loose

Blades transform into wings

Muscles convert into melody

Serendipitous nature

Flight of his childhood
Joined to his inner body
Learning to let go
Of what we know
What we think we know
And surrender to the unknown

© TR 2007

The knowing...

Before I met you

I knew you

I saw your lovely face

When I closed my eyes

From the beginning

Embossed in my mind

You and you only

Verses wander

Erratic with no direction

Waiting for you

Writing for you

Verses like string beads

Looking for a resting place

Suspended and probing

Until we met

With quiet ecstasy

© TR 2006

Awakened by a dream...

When you gaze inside of me?

Am I only a dream?

You awaken when I sleep

The one I’ve yet to meet

To a place I’ve never been

Worlds apart maybe seen

The delight of your femininity

A gateway to blissful proximity

Floods of sensation

Leaving me patient

In all of them and each other

Perhaps to dream forever

© TR 2006