Walking the Labyrinth

Walking the Labyrinth

We wander on the path to the soul,
pausing by the open door,
until we dare to enter the sanctuary
of a deep and sacred silence
that floods the being
with an embracing peace,
always and ever expanding
to encompass
the infinite dimensions of God.
The journey of faith
promises friends
to walk in the obscurity
of what cannot yet be perceived
in the Allness of Divine Love.
We touch home and return
to the world
of longing hearts to comfort,
to caress, to sing
of a sea of sweetness
that cradles the soul
in tenderness and compassion
and a beauty beyond
our human knowing.
Yet, the essence lingers
like soft petals
of night blooming blossoms
covering the path
to our hearts.

painting by Rassouli
http://www.rassouli.com

Morning Song

Beauty extraordinaire,

blossoming divinity,

cosmic garden of a beloved

that scatters rainbows and patterns

of light slipping

in and out of perception

as elusive as spirit,

an angle of seeing that sings

of wingless angels

carried like velvet arrows

by the breeze

of love.

~

Caught in the glancing rays

of color and light

of a dancing dawn,

spinning wheels of energy

sweep away

the darkness of night

giving birth to morning

and a day

that is seen with the eyes

and felt

in the heart.

~

painting by Rassouli
http://www.rassouli.com

The Holy Spirit said to Mary

The Holy Spirit said to Mary:
Oh, the exemplar of charity! Don’t fear me!
I am the trusty one sent by the Divine.
Don’t hide yourself from me.
I am your dignity and honor!
Don’t hide yourself from me,
I am your comfort and confidant.
As the Holy Spirit uttered these words
The rays of pure light sprang from his lips
And shone upon the stars of the sky.
The Holy Spirit continued:
Oh Mary, how can you escape from my presence to non-existence?
I am the king of non-existence and I possess all of knowledge.
My very foundation and my seat is non-existence.
What is present before you is only an image of me.
Oh Mary! Look at me. I am an image hard to come by
I am the crescent you see up in the sky
I am the image within your heart.
When such image as this one settles in your heart
Wherever you go, it is within you.
This is not the delusion a false daylight
That appears and disappears before the morning.
I am the genuine light at dawn
And the darkness of night never gathers around my daylight.

Rumi
Masnavi

Healing Fire

Healing Fire

O blazing flame of love,

forever burning in my heart,

concealing a name

with sudden

flaring radiance,

consuming every image

that would reveal a secret face

in the dancing fire.

O reminding desire,

alive in the heat of longing,

why does love hide in the burning?

Are we the human furnace

to empower the new world?

Will the flickering light

of love’s yearning

open the door of heaven?

~

Does the immortality of love

require the yielding

of a single

lingering embrace?

Does the ecstasy

of imagination burn

more brightly

than a human kiss?

~

I fall into the sea of love

to cool the burning,

and discover there are many

ways to die,

as the waves wash away

the flames

and pull me under

to drown.

~

There is an aching sweetness

in wanting to die for love,

and a burning pain

to live without its healing touch,

as I am tossed upon the shore

to feel the more of it.

Who hears the cries and

endless sighs?

~

No such state as separation.

All is one existence.

Sounds so right and true,

but what has fused in oneness

cannot feel the marvelous

difference of

two hearts longing to be

wrapped in the arms of love.

~

Perhaps the restraint

of the heart

is a surrendered love

consenting

to be placed apart

from the beauty of the soul

to excite the world to

keep on turning.

~

Lovers are enlarged by pain,

transformed by

emptiness,

giving birth to spirit

to enter a vision

of the invisible kingdom

of love

just beyond our reach.

~

Who could explain such

denial of self

to suffer the flames

of love?

There is no answer

except the burning silence

in the enraptured

hearts of lovers.

~

Naomi

~
painting by Rassouli
http://www.rassouli.com

Love is my shepherd

Love is my shepherd

I step out into the night,
a soft summer night,
and little fireflies are everywhere,
like little winged candles.

The stars seem so close,
I can touch them,
shining out of a midnight blue sky,
and I am surrounded
in the beauty
of an earth that has absorbed
the sunlight and now glows
with the luminescence
of the light
within the deep emerald green
darkness of the earth.

I feel everything centering,
like I have entered into
a peaceful valley,
and it has entered into me,
and peaceful spirits
move quietly in this great meadow.

Love is like a shepherd
that lives within me,
guiding my life,
surrounding me, moving me,
and everything moves out from
this centering peace.

Morning brings a bursting infusion
of the rays of the sun
to renew the inner light
of our beingness,
and like the leaves,
we draw its life giving
essence within us
to nourish us.

This valley is an exalted place
a sanctuary of peace
and beauty,
as the whole earth
was created to become.
I pray we live out
the vision and divine intention
of the love
that forms us.

Naomi

A Life of Creative Power and Grace

A Life of Creative Power and Grace

The night holds a powerful presence,

offering a sheltering darkness

to allow us a chance

to sense the light within us,

shining out

like an inner sun.

The moon and the sun

witness to each other

giving each a chance to shine.

The circling earth

discovers the wonder

of the changing seasons.

The nightingale sings at night

because his heart is so full

of the beauty of the rose,

and his song

prepares the way for love

to blossom into layers

of roseness

like our hearts.

When our life is a relationship

with a loving presence,

creation itself

becomes a friend,

a beautiful companion

and guide

for our unfolding.

Life is a grace

celebrating each new form,

nurturing and smiling

upon its becoming.

Each has its turn,

returning to the earth

to reappear in new colors

to lift its face

to the sun

again and again!

We are each particles

of One life

shifting and changing

and falling into

patterns

rearranging as we go,

changing costumes

and colors

and language!

Looking with eyes of love

we recognize ourselves

in each and every life,

and feel the

sacredness and beauty

of every face!

We celebrate the wonder

of variation,

young and old, dark and light,

tall and short,

narrow and wide,

thin and thick,

happy and sad,

new and familiar!

Why is a bird more glorious

than an ant?

Why is a butterfly

more amazing than a worm?

Life is a chance to rejoice

and creation unfolds

as we walk,

inviting us to dance

in this garden!

Feel the power and beauty

of these moments,

the simplicity

and grace contained

in a single day!

Fall in love

with the possibilities

of an open heart.

Life is a love affair

with a million faces and millions

of moments,

of laughter and tears,

of courage and fears,

of remembering and forgetting,

of creating and tearing down,

rising and falling,

of being amazed,

horrified, and dizzy!

As human beings, we have the privilege

of choosing to love

to savor the experience

of the beginning and ending

of each new day,

to breathe in the freshness

of morning,

to feel the coolness

of evening,

to talk to the moon,

and blow kisses to the sun!

Oh, don’t miss a moment,

not a single moment

of the wonder

of you

that only love can see!

This is our turn

to be, to become, to love,

to cherish,

and be ever grateful

for the chance!

Naomi

painting by Rassouli
http://www.rassouli.com
http://www.newdawncollections.com

Song of the shepherd

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Song of the Shepherd

I met a lonely shepherd
on the path,
as I wandered through my life.
He was searching for the lost sheep
within himself,
wondering who he was
and where
he was meant to be.

He met so many strangers
in disguise
as he went from town from town.
They wore golden crowns
and lofty turbans,
wore distinctive robes,
carried titles,
and taught their laws
to all who came.

Wherever he went
he was offered food and shelter
and a cool drink
as he passed through
so many lives and towns.
He wondered where is home,
who is family,
and why has he been given
such love for everyone?

He silently asked the stars,
why he is here on this lonely planet.
His heart was tightly bound
by the petals of his past.
The glowing moon and stars
awakened a new
and tender roseness
releasing a fragrance
of love
in the garden of his heart.

An expanding beauty
began whispering
soft secrets
in the mystical darkness
of so much
that had been unknown
within him.

When he would seek the quiet places
where he could hear his heart
out under the stars,
he began to hear
the Shepherd of his Soul
singing love songs in the open fields
and meadows of love.

Guide my people
and feed my sheep
and tell them of my love for them.
Be a messenger of the light
that I send streaming to earth
to brighten their days.
Shepherd their hearts
and help them
to remember love.

Nature will guide thee.
The rain will give thee water,
and the sun your light and warmth
The grass will be your bed,
and a place to rest your head
beside the stream of love
that flows forever
from my heart to yours,
my son.

You will never be lonely again,
for as you wander
in the beauty,
you will see through my eyes,
for you will know
with great assurance
that I dwell
in your heart now
and always.

I am your father, your mother,
your brother, your sister,
your creator and guide.
I am your Friend.
I am the Beloved One
you have been seeking since
the day you were born.
I loved you then, I love you now,
and I will love you always.

Come walk by my side,
my son.
Let us wander
the fields together
live together,
and love together,
and gather
all the lost and lonely sheep
into the warmth
of our love.

Naomi Stone

Light of Love

Every day, every hour, every moment
the light of Love illuminates and expands the way
my heart sees, feels, and connects
with the Presence of the Divine
within all hearts,
within all life, guiding and revealing
the way we are seen and known
by a creative Presence
that is so beyond our comprehension,
every description we ever form
will dissolve and change
as we share the words.

There is no definition, no theory,
no image, no word,
that could ever contain
the vast wholeness of a being of energy
that contains multiple universes
expanding and changing
dividing and creating
spreading and flowing and bursting
into new life as I write.

Any claim to stand apart
from this creation
process is laughable and impossible,
for we are created, sustained by,
and contained within
this indefinable unlimitedness
that dissolves theories
as fast as the greatest minds
can invent them.

There is no power, no evil, no darkness
that could stand against
what cannot ever be imagined
or contained or fixed,
as everything created changes
as we behold even
a microscopic particle
manifested by such beingness.

The ever unfolding miracle
is how pure love flows
and appears
in this confusion
as a gentle breathing
and compassionate nearness
emanating from the heart waves
of our longing for love,
which creates a being
out of our own wholeness
manifesting a spiritual likeness
as an answer to
our prayerful longing.

What can be created once
can be multiplied to infinity,
and a desire to live many lives
can be granted
in the blink of an eye.
To be mercifully contained within
a closed loop,
where we sustain the illusion
that everything stays
the same is an equally possible
and numbing choice.

Random thoughts throw us
into changing realities
without pattern
or goal and leave us
spinning in unknown dimensions
of a randomly created
existence, and like Alice
in Wonderland, we wander aimlessly
in the moving clouds
of an errant dream.

Mind alone says God is a network
of membranes, imagining
we live in elongated bubbles
that separate and
create worlds beyond
where our miniature minds
can go. Is God playing
with us as he
unravels everything we ever
believed or made?

Only one reality guides us
into the arms
of a Beloved that
becomes our home
beyond the morphing mania
of our minds.
It is surrendering to divine Love
to grant our heart’s
deepest desire.

All else is vanity and delusion
luring us away from
the destiny
for which we were created,
to love and be loved
in a blissful stream of unfolding
wonder, holding the hand
of a Beloved Friend
that reveals the unending,
ever changing miracle
of life evolving in
the light of love.

Naomi

Creation

We long for love. We say yes, yes, yes to every form of belonging that love invites!
Make yourself a light…… Everything you do, do it with love……..Love one another, as I have loved you…….Love God with all your heart, and all your soul, and all your strength…… Love your neighbor as yourself…….If you cannot speak of love, say nothing……. Only love is eternal……..There is nowhere, where love is not……When we see through the eyes of love, beauty is compelled to reveal itself to us everywhere we turn………rising like the sun, and the light reveals that we are Love.

We wander, we seek, we read, we explore, and one day, all that we have been dissolves not into the words…..but becomes a living Word….the Word becoming flesh….manifesting as one who loves all creation….one who falls into Love, and we hold out our hands and arms and gather the beingness of All into the love and light we have become and hold them next to our hearts.

There was a great storm in the night, wild thunder, lightning in all directions, rumbling that shook the buildings, a display of electromagnetic energy that was phenomenal.
I watched and listened to it in awe. I found myself wondering if the creator has a climax…an explosion of joy….and if love could express itself on a cosmic scale….the flashing brilliance and groaning sounds that bring the rain and settle into the womb of the earth would be like that. I felt the earth as a being infused with light from the sun, given life from Light that calls us awake…and I could feel its power to regenerate itself, to continue to create, to continue to fling its life-giving seeds everywhere….if there is life here on earth that has awakened to Love the Source of All Life. If a relationship develops, and Love chooses us, and we choose Love, Life springs into Life, and the tiniest form of life shines out with light and becomes an expression of amazing significance and genius…a warm breath awakens things that crawl in the grass, little forms that swim in the water, tiny forms of life with wings, microscopic moving forms that stimulate growth, and life appears, tiny hearts begin to beat, evolving, growing, reaching toward the source from which they came……reaching to become the infinitely diverse expressions of life on the journey toward the Soul that infused the earth with its own Life.
If it is an accident, a one-time explosion in a long chain of events, it may never happen again…..but if it sparks from divine intention…and love happens….and we awaken to Love……creation has set a pattern….a life that flows from a Soul, who can make a thousand suns and a billion lives….and who infused the creatures with a heart and loved the soul within these primitive forms of life awake to remember the beingness, the Presence…..the cosmic heart from which we came….the cosmic womb….the cosmic connection…the path of light…..arrows of light…..the Sun is the warrior….the Earth is the Woman….the Womb….the waiting lover created out of the Light….longing for the life force that awakened her.

Everything is You…….says Rumi. He feels it….recognizes it……remembers it…… when he becomes charged with the energy through the divine glance of love….rays of light flowing through the eyes that see as the beloved sees.
We come to tell the story of love….when the first primitive beings witnessed the rising sun…and a bridge of light was formed between the eyes on earth and the eyes of the Creator….a revolving, turning cycle of light that set the pattern of creation between heaven and earth. We stop, we pause, we turn our faces to the light, and our hearts open like a flower and we long for the sun and the rain and the kiss that makes us blossom. Every day is a revelation of a love that is ever new and ever evolving and ever expanding.
i could go on and on and on with the wonder of it all……..
i fall into the wonder of silence and love…..

Song of Love

We are all lovers!
May we let it flow out into the universe
to renew the face of the earth!
It is not about religion,
or false gods,
or politics,
but about the love
you carry in your heart
that yearns to be expressed!
It is longing that makes
us blossom
in the same way the flowers
open to greet the sun.

Song of Love

Oh Love, hear the song
my heart is singing!

Feel the hush of silence
as a new day is born,
a new dawn,
a new chance to feel
the love
flowing out to the universe,
to every heart
to every single soul,
to every particle of life
to every atom,
to every molecule,
to every seed!

May the abundance of love
be the fruit
of our heritage,
our return for the life
we have been
so graciously given.

Oh, love, let it be so!

May all hearts know
and feel the life-giving flow
from the rising sun!

May we live in gratitude
and songs of praise
and know that
love is the true abundance
that sustains
all life!

May love be our guide,
our companion,
our caring friend,
who is always with us,
ever revealing
the vision
of a loving world.

Make us lovers
in this cosmic romance,
in this cosmic dance,
and help us
feel the rhythms
of the heart,
the rising waves,
the rolling tides,
the circling earth,
the glorious seasons,
and in the sacred silence
of the soul.

May the spirit of love
renew the face
of the earth
and help us remember
the ways of love
flowing
in the memory
of our hearts.

Oh love, may it be so!

Naomi