Beginning Something

Photo: (c) Jamie K. Reaser

In the belly of the Earth

there is a quickening,

an expectancy of light

and warm touch, an

increase in the tempo

of the invisible pleadings

that call life forth through

the oh-so-necessary

breaks in seed and bulb,

shell and womb. And, in

the heart too, there is

self-evidence of departures

from darkness into a place

of witnessing.

What’s happening in

the branches is delightful!

The birds, every single one

of them, is now an artist

imagining deeply cupped

masterpieces, maybe of twigs

and moss, maybe of the hair

the deer gifted when they

passed greenbrier thorn

while being hunted. What

is to be well-tended,

must be provided a place

of holding.

If you stay small now,

it can only be because you

choose not to respond to

everything that wants

to grow, wants to feed

on newness, wants to be

among those living with

eyes recently opened to

the view of something

astonishing looking back

at them.

It’s a time of offerings:

Gratitude for what was

Gratitude for what will be

May you bless your restlessness

by beginning something on

which life depends.

~ Jamie K. Reaser, Author

From "Truth and Beauty" (a work in progress)

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When You Stand

Photo: (c) Jamie K. Reaser

May your feet, here now, know the support of the Earth,

the mother of your mother’s mother’s mother and all

the mothers before her.

May, in this light, you know the guidance of the Sun,

the father of your father’s father’s father and all

the fathers before him.

May you know the sisterhood of women who

will embrace and hold space for your soul’s seed

to break and who, in their own way, pray that because

of this necessary breaking, there will emerge and grow

something that serves others without

demand of reciprocity.

May you know the brotherhood of men who

stand beside you as you stand beside them,

all familiar strangers, dedicated to protecting the ache

of uncertainty, difference, and belonging

so that we may liberate the fears that otherwise

divide, diminish, and destroy otherness.

May you stand in the presence of my gratitude.

Thank you for showing me where blessings are needed.

~ Jamie K. Reaser, Author

From "Bless this Day" (a work in progress)

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Bluebirds

Photo: (c) Jamie K. Reaser

We were given bluebirds. Have you

thought about that? Something wanted

us to find some kind of happiness

flitting about in our being. Imagine

the foresight! Humans with our

befuddling ache for something other

than the miracles all around us.

Bluebirds.

What can you do with a bluebird

other than say, “Oh! This day is so

much better now.” That wasn’t

a question, actually. Because it’s

simply true. True like the branch on

which the bluebird perches, or the fence

post beside the old orchard with tart

heirloom apples.

What if a bluebird perched on your

heart? Yes, imagine that! Imagine

what could become of this

unhappy miracled world.

~ Jamie K. Reser, Author

From “Truth and Beauty” (a work in progress)

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Something Dark

Photo: (c) Jamie K. Reaser

If you have not been visited by something dark,

beg for it. This world needs your active grieving,

to feel into its voids and diminishments and

ache so heartedly for the absent that it has

a chance to appear, that it can remain long enough

to be considered nothing exceptional at all,

rather, an exquisite, glittering normal that bonds

our likenesses.

For me, it was a raven. It had given away its

song and I was set upon the task of finding it.

I got lost along the way and when I called out

to myself in the hope of being found, I suddenly

recalled that the raven is a well-known

trickster. It never had a song.

~ Jamie K. Reaser, Author

From "Truth and Beauty" (a work in progress)

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