BODYPSALMS

The earth is shaking within its core
and our cores in turn are shaken
now is the season to wake up
from the inside out
proclaim the interconnection
to all living beings –
neighbors near and far
sun, stars, sea, plants and plankton
and most of all
the fertile earth
which both gives and takes away

May we return to humility
where humus, humans and humor are born
and taste the mystery and beauty
beneath our feet and bellies

May our limbs stretch to the sky
our soles/souls kiss the ground
and may hope soak
our minds and bodies
through changes of weather
both of the heart and land

May we bear grace in our bones
and be rebodied to the truth –
our flesh is the earth
and the earth is our flesh

May compassion arise from our well
as we return to the fire of love
which has the capacity
to hold more than we know.

Photo of Rebecca Lux Parks and Celeste Snowber by Gary Bandzmer.

One size fits all by Dobee Snowber

Now is the time to love yourself
the way you’ve loved others
with fire so bright you can crease the sky

Be a kiss to your sweet self
take yourself out at home for valentines day

Be the love that you have given
you may or may not have a sweetheart
 what is important
is that you are a sweet heart
you are love in many colours –
tears are love – joy is love
meals are love–resilience is love
and so live boldly &  creatively
in this paradoxical passage of being human

Dance on the skin of time
caress  wildness & tenderness
Witness the ripeness of your own heart
this is no sappy pink
but the passion of deep being
broken open in your body 

Out Any Window                            Dobee Snowber

The New Year is not outside you
inside is a thousand new years
built of syllables and sentences
of a new way of seeing

It is not the weight on your body you need to lose
but the thoughts which carry far more gravity
than any pounds or kilos of extra flesh
you are being called
to a flesh of heart – a heart of flesh
where body, mind & soul
usher you to a season of compassion

for everything and everyone
you could imagine or not imagine
your own unmet expectations and judgements
unfinished projects and dashed hopes
your untidy home or heart

Now is the time to eat and drink
the small beauties within and beyond you
become wide awake to the life you are in
so take off your socks or put on your socks
and step into this New Year
with the only life you have.

Live the glorious imperfect.

Go back to your priorities.
Don’t focus on the resources you don’t have.
Focus on the creative unfolding.
Nourish this every day.
Tend it as a newly born child.
Sometimes you have to go back again and give your self
the milk of what lies within you – the heart of wider love.
Accessing this love is a continual exercise in daily compassion
And most of all – be gentle with all your decisions.
You have done the best you can with the limits you have had.
Now is the time to have grace towards all your limits.
This is the time to trust in the One
larger than yourself and more importantly –
than in your own circumstances that seem insurmountable.
They are just details, not larger than
what can be accomplished by you compared to the ant.
When you keep focusing on the problem you get the problem magnified.
It is time to focus on the wonder.
Wonder begets wonder.
You are rich in experience, friendships, and surrounded by love
not to mention the muted light caressing the ground beneath you
You might not have planted maples, oaks or cedars
but they are rising from the earth wherever you peek.
You don’t always have to plant the seed to savor its beauty.
You have planted other seeds –
nourishing others with the seeds of imagination.
Sprout outrageously
has been your method of teaching and it is contagious.
These wonders do not reveal themselves in monetary value
releasing you from financial worries.
You have planted joy and there is not a price on joy.
It reproduces as a wild orchid growing on the side of the road.
There are such flowers of wild untamed beauty
Remember this:
It is in the noticing where the extraordinary life lies.

Celeste Snowber
March 27, 2009

Let go of expectations
how life should unfold
or how many pounds is ideal
for your perfect weight,
footwear, friends, food, family, finances
all the shoulds rolled into one  BIG  s h o u l d

Throw all the shoulds out
put them in the recycling bin
transform into another object
and OBJECT as a verb
instead of count objects

This is the wisdom for gratitude
nothing ever turns out as you think
it is always different— worse & more magnificent
 than you might imagine

Live with VERBS
Gratitude is not a one time act, a date on the calendar
it is a way of living
that  gives life back to yourself
giving in thanks
thanks in giving
thinking as thanking

Stop and and smell, taste, see, and touch
what beauty lies
at the table within and before you

Find the outrageous love of being alive
NOW
without tasks or agendas done
open your sternum and chest
get ready for the mystery that awaits

Be in gratitude for what you seldom notice

Dance your way into the next step
which calls us to 
not give thanks
but  be thanks.

Pursue ease.
as a guiding principle
live with simplicity and clarity
cultivate more space in your life

Observe how you take such pleasure
in open expanse  –
geographies of sea and lakes
rocks and seaweed jetting out into low tide
the meeting of water and sky
the space between
what is solid and what is air

What you are drawn to outwardly
teaches you everything
about your inward leanings
the visual feast before your eyes
is a scent of the life you yearn for
rhythms of lapping waves are the rhythms of
your own life which nourish you
seasons of change are the canvas
of your emotional terrain
painting across your soul

You may be compressed on many sides
responsibilities can enhance and devour your life
Allow a horizon in your world
you need more than a slit of light
you require splashes everywhere
color infusing and interrupting
the rituals of daily activity
Bring on the oranges and yellows
in the midst of dark greens
reds in the midst of night black

Your love of the natural world
reveals your deepest longing
Honor all textures in the journey
The unexpected, the uninvited
each has its purpose:
nourishment, reflection, expanded living

Invoke spaces of reprieve
within acts of doing
rest in moments of pause
and know that each sip of beauty
in creation’s hand is
an invitation into ease.

You are being re-knitted from the inside out
the beauty of the threads within you
are invisible yet are luminescent
to the art of a soulful life

Honor all the textures of your years
the memories, losses, joys, forgotten secrets
which have shaped your innermost being
each color, hue and thread is knitted into your story
and formed the uniqueness of you

In this (w)holy place
there is an aesthetic of randomness
borne through the living place of creation
each child in the universe
is woven into the fabric of the larger story
the story whose name is
rewritten to
the place where we are known
and know

Embrace your doubts
as you do knots in the fabric
Caress your losses
as openings to honor the depths

Re-Knit your life
to the landscape of cherishing
each fragment you live through
this is the material for sweetness
your body-spirit made visible
in all the ways you honor
the fibers of the collective
story we knit together
into wonder.

Notice the texture
of your own yearning
listen for its tone
its shape, the circular
feel of how you are called
back again and again
to its mouth

The inner waters beckon you
they have as much expanse
as the open sea you adore
Be/loved in the breath
which holds you in an embrace
and waits as a patient lover

Rest you anxious one
and find home
in the elements within and without
wind, ocean, stone and sky
reach towards you
as your skin touches
the lip of creation

Listen for the stillness
in the gestures of your heart
and let your belly
usher you into the
crevices of your wisdom

Embrace shadow and light
both reside within you
they are partners in a dance
and form the constellations
of your inner landscape

Trust the salt of your own life
and know paradox is at your feet
and stars of wonder
release from your palms

Tread softly on the terrain
of this journey of being human
and return home
to the thirst within you
it is drawing you always
to the reservoir
where you can drink
oceans of love
and each small movement
is an invitation
to letting BE

Take these morsels
which are given
these are your wings
from which you stand
and which you rise.

Welcome back to the familiar
the land of the perplexed
where paradox reigns
and heart, mind, and body
are not in sync with
harmony, congruence or flow
and no matter how diligent
you are to reflect,
problem solve, brainstorm or bodystorm
it sits as a big mountain
in front of you
and cannot be climbed with bare feet

you are in the terrain of paradox
the geography of the unknown
where the brittleness of bone
lives amongst the stars
your task is to breathe deep
into the place you are perplexed

Take shoes for the journey
these aren’t any shoes
but these are your dancing shoes
the ones that look like sneakers
but have a support for your arch

Life holds continual
places of dissonance
it doesn’t matter the source:
disappointment or sorrows
with relationships, health or finances
Know this:  P A R A D O X
will always be there
singing at the door
waiting for you to

Put your dancing shoes on
give yourself the support you need
a bigger arch for life
and treat paradox as your partner
hold it tenderly
romance her and put your
arms around the dilemmas
soften your relationship
towards not knowing.

Breathe into uncertainty
knowing this is the
essence of life
and when it comes
know you are invited
once again into
the spirituality of practice:
loving-kindness towards
all that is not resolved
in your heart.