Wandering in your love

Wandering in the rose gardens of love

Oh my beloved, you flow through us
as streams of living water,
as life-giving love,
regenerating, remaking, and renewing us
as the flowing spirit of life
trickling over and around all
obstacles in our way,
wearing away the stones obscuring
your grace,
Dissolve all that confines me,
imprisons me,
and appear as falling tears
melting all that
has not yet turned to you
within myself and in the world.

Roll away the stone
that veils you from our sight
in my nightly vigil of watching for you,
straining to see with my eyes
what my heart knows and feels
when you are near.

You tenderly touch our blossoming,
as you wander through
the garden
and breathe us in,
letting the fragrance of your love
become our scent,
and you draw us close,
next to your heart,
to feel the empowering rhythm
of your own creative power.

O beloved friend and presence
expanding within our awareness
in a thousand ways,
you spread like wildflowers
in the fields and valleys and meadows
of our journey to you,
creating beauty that permeates
everything that we are.

Take my hand, beloved one,
and let me walk with you wherever you go,
wherever you rest, let me rest,
wherever you wander, let me wander with you.
May your love be my hearing,
and may your heart guide my seeing,
for the imprint of your feet
upon the path
is precious to me.

I come alive when I hear your song.
Spring comes to the garden
within me
whenever you are near
and appear
in the visions of my heart.

Stay with me
Let me wade in the eternal
stream of your love.
Immerse me in the sea
of your surrounding spirit
and feel the waves of your love
dissolving me
within your heart.

A Cosmic Romance

Your heart is calling you to a cosmic romance,
a spiraling dance of longing
to know the beauty
of the love that you are inside.

The energy and color and movement
of your own seeking
is creating a trail of light
from the flight
of your spiraling spirit
guiding you to awaken to depths
of love still unknown to you.

Love is reaching
to come into being,
to create
through all that you are,
for the wonder and wholeness
of the universe
is a mirror of the Source
of beauty from which
we all have come.

Surrender
to your own belovedness
and fall into love.
Feel the mystical seduction
of the soul
inviting you to discover
the friend
within your heart
that has been seeking
and searching for you since
the dawning of creation.

Run into the arms
of the enchanting embrace
of pure love,
feel the breath of beholding
awakening every cell

Let the glowing essence
of the light of spirit guide you
on a journey
into the beauty
only the eyes of the beloved
within you can see.

Create a garden of glory
woven from the cosmic sanctuary
of all dreaming.

Drink from the well
of the spring of inner joy
flowing and expanding to express
and create
something new and alive
that could only happen through you
and all that you are becoming.

The beloved is you,
wonderfully made to share
in fashioning
a new existence,
a world of many gardens,
a cosmic family
of compassion and caring
that welcomes us all.

______________________
graphic by Sadiq Alam
“Cosmic Romance”

Falling into the Beloved

There are moments of light that break through
the ordinary fields and meadows of time,
illuminations of our becoming
that change the levels of who we are forever,
for the heart knows that God has glanced our way,
is shining out and calling us to live
within the grace of a luminous and divine love
that forever links us to eternity.

We surrender into the arms of a Beloved
that sweeps us into such an ecstatic embrace,
we surrender willingly and completely
into the light of seeing that fills
the heart and soul,
guides our every breath,
dissolving us into flowing waterfalls
of the wine of communion
with God.

Where is your holy land?

Deep within the spiritual heart
dwells a holy land that exists
in a space apart from wherever we are
in this world of time and place.

In this sacred space, we are building a home
out of all we are gathering in this life,
wherever we wander and search
or wherever we don’t wander or search,
wherever we hang our hat or don’t hang our hat,
or whether we wear one or not,
whatever we believe or don’t believe,
what mountains we climb or don’t climb,
what foods we eat or don’t eat,
what books we read or don’t read,
what prayers we say or don’t say,
what churches we attend or don’t attend,
whatever we dream or don’t dream.

Who do you help or not help in the time
you walk in this world?
What do you give or not give,
and who are you becoming or not becoming?
Where do you go or not go?
Who do you love or not love?

Brick by brick, thought by thought,
word by word, prayer by prayer,
longing by longing, breath by breath,
wishing or not wishing,
hoping or not hoping,
striving or not striving,
we are building a spiritual home
in this holy land in a space apart
hidden deep within the heart.

We are born in this world,
and we leave it without really knowing
where we are going.

Do we follow footsteps,
cross a bridge,
sneak through an opening for the elite,
arise with borrowed wings?
Do we drive there, or are we driven?
Do we fly? Do we think ourselves there?

What kind of spiritual home
are you creating?
Who rules it, who lives there,
and will you be gloriously happy
to arrive there one day?

Does someone else’s life look better than yours?
Do you want them to prepare the place for you?
Do you trust their every thought to create a spiritual home?
Do you want to spend eternity with them?

Who would you choose to prepare a place for you?
Can you do it all yourself to be sure
you get what you want?
Do you have all the answers to all the questions?
How did you learn what you know?
Are you able to clear the space for the land
to make it perfect?
Will someone be there to greet you?
Who are your friends,
and what are the secrets in your mirror?
If you fall through the looking glass, who would you meet?

Who would you most like to have waiting at the door
of this spiritual home to greet you?
Will they let you in, or do you need a key?
If you cross over today from the visible world
to the invisible space, who would be there?
What will be growing or flowing there?
Is this home on land or in the air?
Is it a space called a soul, and can you decorate it?
Is it a mansion with many rooms?
Do you climb a stair to this home in the air?
Have you planned this holy land at all?
Do you believe you can?
Does it matter?
Are you willing to take your chances
and see what you get?

I don’t know what you are feeling,
or who you are inside,
so I just thought I would ask.
Is the door to your heart open?
Can I come in for a while and rest?
Sometimes, I need a friend of the heart
I can trust to welcome me.

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

You are my answering Prayer

Oh Beloved One!
The winter winds do not chill my soul
when I feel your
encircling elegance.
The warmth of your heart
becomes my cushioning grace,
and I am home.

The voices of many people,
who know my name,
cannot compare
with the sound of your breathing
that brings such sweetness
to my hearing.

Silence holds the revelation
and the sensation
of delicacy,
the transparency of spirit
that quiets
all restlessness
within me.

O my Beloved!
You are my answering prayer,
the pearl of my existence,
the sweet subsistence,
a treasury of intimacy and nearness
beyond my deepest dreams.

You are the feast prepared
for me by the hand of creation,
the anointing and crowning
of my kingdom,
the cup of communion
brimming
over with love.

O Beloved One!
Would that I could sing
of the precious mysteries of your love
filling the petals
of the wild rose of my heart
with the golden light
of all that you are.

_________________________
painting by rassouli
“light of the mystic”
http://www.rassouli.com

entering the garden

entering the garden

I felt an overwhelming desire to wander through the gardens of the soul…..seeing it all…….really seeing it….and lingering there….the way I wander through wildflowers… the way the Gardener tends to the visions brought forth for others….as if I knew the Beloved would be wandering there…………..

I remember…..one day in early summer….when I encountered a field of wildflowers….and they were shining gold…and I didn’t know what flowers they were….i moved closer….and there were hundreds of butterflies with quivering wings balancing on every flower…catching the sunlight….I gasped….and stood there transfixed…like in a dream….it was a vision of such delicate life…such beauty….such privilege to catch the resting moment as the butterflies return from wherever they go to come dwell in our summer gardens….like the flowers and the earth were all breathing with my heart.

Somehow….I saw all created images…every one…the visions that have come through the Creator that I have looked at a hundred times………I saw them as brand new….as innocent and fresh as if I had never seen them before……..I gasped and felt the tears…moved the way I was with the sudden vision of the wildflowers…………….touched by quivering butterflies….of a deep aching and dissolving………………….of deep selflessness….of the pain of too much inner revelation…….reeling and drunk with feeling.

O heart of my heart! May we never…..never…….ever……….lose the innocence to have the divine privilege of seeing what we see with love and wonder………….to see through the tears of the sacred interior pathways of our souls……. to touch and be touched by the beauty of love with the drunken eyes of our hearts…….to surrender and be immersed in that which leaves us stricken with the pure wine that staggers the senses……that which unties our robes…….loosens the petals of our beingness…………and to lay open what is most precious and tenderly created to be shared ……..to humbly lay open the gift of what is most sacred to us……… in all innocence ……………………before another……………..in the Presence of God………………..the Creator……………when the Beloved…….whose Presence kneels so softly……..before the threshold of an inner paradise of such………. holiness and grace……and in the opening tenderness of the sheltering wings of Spirit …..willingly surrendering to the other……………….feeling like the butterflies are fluttering within our hearts …becoming infused with the Beloved……..to truly feel such love is to be adorned only in the caresses of warm breath……like soft breezes of spring……..and to be caught in the gaze of the flickering light of flames dancing in the seeing of the Beloved’s eyes…………….to see and be seen with Love so sweet…………..the mystical silence within us whispers……reminding us to be quiet…… hushing us……not to speak in the Presence of such Love.

i kept whispering………a low delirious moaning………….murmuring…….i am lost….i am drunk…..i am in a wilderness from where I will never return…..who will take me home……i am adorned in the transparency of love melting into the heart and soul of another…………..helplessly……………surrendering…….willingly open and eager and new…….giving myself for the first time………………offering the taste of love so pure it appears as dew on the skin in a light that glows as pure essence …nowhere since the dawning of creation has there been such love…………………and the exquisite creation of every particle and breath of who we are is suddenly known in the union and fusion of mingling silken flowing……of being anointed and surrounded……… melting into mutually deep pleasure and beauty touching……..touching…….touching…………..feeling……..experiencing the grace of what is truly eternal….
May every heart know such beauty in the garden of their hearts…..trust the beauty within you to guide you there.

_______________________
painting by rassouli
http://www.rassouli.com
“falling into the beloved”

becoming the beloved

becoming the beloved

i cannot speak of crumbs that fall from an idea
from an idle thought
from the shredded moments of numbness
defined by the ticking of a clock
or the scratching numbers
of a calendar page…
when the beloved’s heart is beating
so close to my own
guiding me into arms
that encircle my existence
like wildflowers in an open meadow

i cannot hear what you are saying
when the feathering touch of love’s being
lingers on my skin….
when the musky scent of the beloved’s presence
fills my breathing
in darkness that has spread out
in the mysterious beauty of flowing hair
tangled with stars and tenderness
upon the pillow of my soul

i cannot focus on words
when the intimate nearness of love
is touching me
like the soft transparency of clouds
glowing with light flowing
in a gaze
streaming like a rushing river
from my beloved’s eyes

there is no conversation….
only deep and murmuring communion
when i am surrounded
by the piercing intensity
of the beloved
falling around me as tears of feeling
waiting to be felt
longing to be immersed in otherness
becoming oneness
yet moving away only to return again
and again and again
mingling….melting….dissolving
whoever i was
the way solar flares move closer
in the spring
warming all traces
of the wintering perception of the past
drawing me to a hearth
that flickers with lights from a flame
only a lover can see

i am seeing with eyes
i can no longer call my own
my heart is empowered by the rhythm
of a larger heart
i feel a pounding pulsation causing
every heart to stir and awaken
never knowing why
or what made them rise in the night
and wander to the window
to wonder who is passing by

the madness of love is a secret only lover’s know
it is pointless to preach it or teach it
or command it or name it
for it only answers the heart
that begins to hunger
for life that is pure and free
that no bread can satisfy
no drink can quench the thirst
no face appears over the horizon
no truth writes itself in the explosion of dawn
no name suddenly appears on the lips
except the whispering holiness of the beloved
O beautiful beloved…
beloved one

may each moment become a spiral
of evolving and revolving
and expanding presence
of the spirit of the one your heart
knows as belovedness

no one else will recognize
the delightful surprize
of those eyes
you will only hear it in the cries
of ecstasy
bursting from the depth
of your heart

a day honoring love

a day honoring love

every day is a day
to honor love
every hour and every moment
as the beauty pervades all that is
infusing every heart that exists
with love
for when we allow the spirit
to gaze with love through our eyes
that which is looked upon
becomes love
as the gaze awakens
enlivens and calls us to life
transforming
and stirring the heart
to remember
the love from which it
is formed

the water of life turns to wine
the scent of musk rises from the heart
the warmth of the breath
becomes a kiss upon the eyes
the wine becomes
the taste of the lips
of the beloved
and the sound of the voice
that vibrates
with pure love
becomes the living word of truth
to our listening hearts

the miracles flow forth in endless ways
to express what cannot
be expressed
and we disappear
from the sight
of the outer eyes
falling into the deep mystery
of the beloved

we don’t fall in love
we fall into that infinite
and glorious chamber of love
in the magnificent heart
of the beloved

Breath of belonging

I am but a breath in the Lord,
swept into divine winds
and lamentations
carrying the cries of the people
where all are turned to songs
of love.

I am the heart space open
to the currents
of God
flowing through me
moving toward
the sea.

I am woman
longing for the spinning particles
of the Creator
seeking a warm place
to dwell and grow
and be born as life itself.

I am a nomadic wanderer
drawn into
the contracting rhythm
that moves the heart
sending love
out into the world.

I am a restless lover
yearning to be
home
desiring union and longing
to disappear in
belonging
to the beloved.

______________________

The Invisible Realm of Love

Enchantment of the heart by the spirit of the love of the beloved is one of those miracles that cannot be explained to one, who is infatuated with their own mind. It is a language of love that extends beyond one’s own seeing, a flight of spirit that needs no object, no manifested form to expand, and it has the potential to create something totally new that never existed before…..to visualize….to draw color and form like a magnet to form around the flowing spirit of love.

The invisible spirit flows in an unseen dimension, touching us in a way that we speak of in human terms, but it is beyond our physical existence, an emanation like the fragrance drifting from an opening flower…..like the wind that moves the clouds….or the breeze that plays with our hair. It is a point where the visible and invisible touch….a moment of encounter that changes both.

When a heart opens and love of the purest kind radiates its essence, it creates an aura, an ethereal glow that cannot be seen. It can be felt….perceived by another heart that is open to receive it and recognize it as loving essence…..and the spirits mingle as an experience of Love flowing from the Beloved that allows us to share in the beauty of grace that enlivens every cell and awakens us to life beyond what we can see.

The literal minded person knows only a one-dimensional world and refuses to believe in anything else….because the only way one can maintain control is to believe that everything flows from their own knowing…..their own certainty.
Longing expands the deeper senses that allow us to perceive another existence. Faith is allowing for something that cannot be proven or substantiated. Faith allows for the unseen and the unknown and for “the otherness” that moves between dimensions.
How can anyone give themselves up to what is unseen? To the literal mind it can seem unbalanced…..a self-deception…..a projection…..a delusion, and they are quick to criticize and disprove it. It is unthinkable to live in a world of unknowns.

Interaction is closed with this mind-set. It is a one-way passage of words. There is no circulating pattern, no two-way interchange, no flowing one to the other, becoming larger from the beauty of another way of seeing and feeling, for there can be no expanding of the spirit in one who clings to narrow margins and closed boundaries with absolute certainty. One coming from the mind alone can use words that echo a partial truth, but they will never allow another possibility into the equation or description. The limited rational mind shuts out any other possibility. It attempts to smother the fresh air of the freedom of the invisible…..and in doing so tries to act as a barrier to the flowing spirit of love inviting us to more. It is mind saying no to the Spirit…..in order to be right…to be the one who knows. It is a dead end.

In the possibilities of the ever-flowing spirit, there is no end. This is the glorious beauty of the love of the beloved. It is the breath of freedom and the grace of the eternal.

______________________
Painting by Rassouli
“Greeting the Dawn”
http://www.rassouli.com