Resolutions

Photo: (c) Jamie K. Reaser

I resolve:

To spend more time

talking with trees;

To speak my truth

and the truth of those

who cannot speak

for themselves;

To let Nature set the

rhythm of my days

and nights

and the seasons of

my belonging to

this world;

To laugh with children

and some adults too;

To throw a wayward

starfish back

into the ocean;

To dance to the music

that moves me;

To mend a broken wing,

mine,

or someone else’s;

To shine as light in the darkness

and become an ever-truer

friend to my shadows

and demons;

To pick up my paint brushes again

and write songs that

I will never sing;

To learn the constellations

and share nights with friends

under starry skies;

To wear purple more often

and paint my toenails

red,

and start contemplating

how I can become

one of those cool

old women when

the time arrives;

To make love,

honoring the sacred

and enjoying this embodiment;

To smile in pictures,

and smile when there

is no one around to notice

that I am smiling;

To find myself in awe of life,

every day;

To hike in the rain more often,

splash in puddles,

and listen to streams;

To see gardening as co-creative process

and value the time shared

with the Mother;

To be fully present as I prepare my

meals and as I nourish my body,

savoring each bite;

To be of service in my work

and play

and to play;

To meditate on abundance

and express gratitude

at least as often as I

breathe;

To forgive as an act of

duty to my soul,

a means of

expanding my heart,

and the laying of a

stepping stone on the

path to a better world;

To build community

and mirror beauty

back to all beings;

To be courageously vulnerable

and hang out with uncertainty

as if we were childhood

friends.

To simply be enough.

And.

To love you,

because I can.

~ Jamie K. Reaser, Author

Published in "Sacred Reciprocity: Courting the Beloved in Everyday Life" 

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The Beloved

Photo: (c) Jamie K. Reaser

I have not complete knowledge

of who or what the Beloved is

for I am not complete.

Longed for by name,

the Beloved

draws near enough

to share my breath,

but the Beloved’s touch

is yet too holy to grasp –

I am loved most in the

act of being forsaken

to the Great Mystery.

Truth must be a candle

without a flame

because in the spark lies

the light and the self-destruction.

Courting the Beloved

is the act of apprenticing

to the way Home.

There is no possibility

of return other than to

step upon one’s own

heart –

Again and again,

until,

Broken,

the doorway

yields.

It is at this threshold

that the Beloved

recognizes

the Beloved.

In we go.

© 2011-2017/Jamie K. Reaser

Published in "Sacred Reciprocity: Courting the Beloved in Everyday Life" 

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Out Into the Night

Photo: (c) Jamie K. Reaser

I wish we could have sat in council

and I could have held space

for your story.

It doesn’t seem right that

women still have to walk

out into the night alone to

unburden themselves

of anguish.

What these constellations know

of the suffering heart must

be something terrible,

and true.

I wonder if you are aware

of your own bravery.

Warriors of this kind aren’t

given commendations.

Did the Parvin ever speak to

you of your beauty?

I pray for you a place among

these distant sisters:

How well they understand

the mercilessness of

a love that relentlessly

pursues the soul.

The grief I’ve shed in this darkness

is for a world yet too small

to accommodate so

large a heart.

But,

night’s more than half gone

now my dear and it’s time

we return to the tents.

At sunrise only the

other women who have

trekked across the sands

will know

of our courage.

and,

for now,

that has to be enough.

~ Jamie K. Reaser, Author

From "Truth and Beauty: Poems on the Nature of Our Humanity"

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