BODYPSALMS

Bodypsalm for Bodybeginnings

Each day the tall cedar tree outside your window
unfolds its branches to the sky
an act of surrender
open hearted to breathe
for a new day

Await each breath as if it was pristine
your lungs living in the glory of
inhabiting air for the first time
everything is old today
everything is new today

all your issues remain
family, finances, relationships, work details, and
the endless domestic disasters
but there is a spring
rising within your torso
you know it by its pulse
the energy where you cry yes
to this tiny alive moment

let the morning birds sing inside your chest
and cultivate body beginnings
new ways for fingers to touch earth
glances for being a lover in the world
finding ease through baby steps

the big deals – the big problems
will be with you
but there is something else arising
a ripe heart – a softened soul
an eternal arm embraces your weariness
and calls you back once again
to body beginnings.

Bodypsalm for openings and closings

Every closure is an opening
not just because an ending is a beginning
but because the heart has more expanse
than you know
and it beats with openings and closings
in the physical and spiritual realm
as soon as there is a closure
you can be captivated by (re’s)
rethinking, reprocessing, regressing, reloving
as humans we recircle
time and time again
and here
we replenish

loving and leaving
is never a straight line
it is a destination with curves
and does not include a traveler’s map
its nature is rough terrain
one does not need to journey far for a pilgrimage
when you embark on the road of letting go
it has its own stoplights
places you are held back
to relish in the pause

just when you think you
had it all sorted out in your life
you may be rerouted
into a geography of grief
and questions which ache to be resolved..

but this is the land of no quick answers
it is a topography of questions and quest
it is too easy to think
if we just do a little more  processing
the door will be completely
open to the mystery of the heart’s lost love
whether that is disappointment, divorce or death

but all doors go to a wider love – a wider country
that has been waiting patiently as a lover
we are being called to the land of the Be/loved
where we will learn to BE
and be loved

Here
there are no closures
only openings
yet our ticket
is most often
one of those closures
that recreate
THE OPEN.

Bodypsalm for Internal Weather

Listen to the breezes
of your own soul
the weather of your own heart
has its seasons and sometimes
all in a day – melancholy cobalt blue,
ecstatic fiery orange, calm forest green
the whole palette of the rainbow.

You’ve noticed the magnificence
of rainbows after tropical rain
carving an arc of wonder
across the breath of sky
in the tropical air it is a daily occurrence
but home it is intermittent
yet never loses its raw beauty
all the colors are necessary to sip astonishment

The hues of your own internal weather
make up the gorgeous of you
if you could look from afar
you would take notice
but you are often to close
to the emotion to honor its
place in the arc of your own rainbow

So when the grief is there
let it be, with all it pungent
taste rolling through your tears and bones
know your ability to grieve
is your ability to drink joy
and when joy comes, let it dance
in the feet of your heart
and honor its ability to build
red fire in your sternum
and when melancholy comes
let the blue sadness draw
you into the garden within
and let cobalt silence soothe you
and when your despair
greets you at the door knocking
know that des/pair has a pair
a twin, which resides in hope
if not felt it underpins
the longing for the invisible

and it is the invisible
which calls your attention
summoning up all the colors
to be formed in a canvas
which is your own unique life

Praise be for internal weather
that reminds/rebodies you
to the reality that what is wider
holds you in the winter of your woes
and sustains you in the fall of your freedom
and seeks always to listen
with the beat of the Beloved
to cherish  all the ways
we are alive to
the life-force running through us.



AFTER GLOW by Dobee Snowber

Even when we don’t desire it God is ripening.  Rilke

There are many seasons
each has its own texture of waiting
when the season arrives you know

When the rains or first snow descends
you do not look for
your bathing suit or take out
the box of gloves and winter hats
when the burning sun reveals her face

It just is – and all the waiting
for the season does not
help its commencement
it is a quiet knowing
the state of weather changes

So it is with the art of waiting
a long arc of patience
fueled from within
the well of not knowing
a resting in the unknown
trusting in the timing
for all ripenings.

You cannot rush the tomato’s growth
if  picked before its time
the bold red juice will not split open
surrender to the duration of your own  growth

Not all things grow in the same time or cycle
nor does any human being grow in the same fashion
physically or inwardly
There are some seasons in life
that have made their way with you
and others you are still living

in the in-between of waiting
is a fertile riparian zone
an edge which is the center

When one ripening comes
another will need to come
waves of birth, death and renewal.

Relationships too have their own timing
of comings and goings, but always
it is about your own ripening
that Beloved is concerned with.

Trust in your own inner journey
know your soul is being wooed to the depths

 Embrace the rhythm of your own spiritual path
the advent of waiting is an avenue for joy
and patience is a return to
a long inward glance of the great silence
which holds all things.

Bodypsalm for Savoring

Enough is Enough
it is way too much doing, thinking, producing
and thinking about doing more when it may
be time to do less
be less, lessen and here is the lesson
You have already produced more beauty, generosity and
work through one creative endeavor or another for several lifetimes
not to mention children you have raised, parents you have attended to
gardens you have planted, literally and metaphorically
and brought more people, projects and passions to ripening
than can be counted
you are past counting
and now it is time to be countless
and perhaps be a countess

Relax into a place of knowing
that you have already
done enough
and now is the time to

S A V O R

Savor all the ways you have worked with your whole heart
and loved with your whole heart:
mothers, fathers, siblings, friends, children, lovers, spouses and
even those who have left your life through natural or unnatural causes

Accept all your luxurious beauty of soulfulness that has wrapped
around those you hold in your heart
and all the efforts you have made to follow meaning
in the world through work, words, worries and wantings

Vibrate with all that is going through you –
the rise and fall of internal waves
crashes of questions
hormonal fluctuations in a sea of ripenings

Own both your shortcomings and accomplishments
which means to name and rename what you truly
have done, don’t dismiss it in light of living into the unknown
Others own all your wonder, it is time for you to own it too

Relinquish the need to be superwoman or superman
have a funeral for doing too much
and celebrate not doing in some way
Enjoy being and know you are being formed into a wise one

You are being called to drink from the cup of serene
Each gesture is an act of love
a counteraction to a world of overdoing
an addiction to doing one more thing

when all along
the love in your eyes
the way you behold
who and what you love
is the fragrance of
the One who gave
the beautiful scent
of you.