Five Acts of Shiva

Photo by Erik Dunham

…Creation

An unexpected songbird greeted me
On Monday morning as I went out
To meet the day.

Martin Luther King Day, the second
Inauguration of our first black president.
Unexpected in the chill of winter.

Tuesday was colder still
As I watched my students move
Through warming backbends
To shake off the crustiness
Of January.

On Wednesday the wind blew
And outside was even colder.
Our indoor cat wanted out on the porch but
Quickly decided against that.

What will Thursday bring?

…Preservation

Snow.
Thursday brings a light falling of gentle powder
Cold.  Cottony.  Inviting.

Even if it is only a few inches
I am glad to be alive to witness it.
My fullest expression of consciousness
Cannot help but feel hopeful.

In many ways we are a divided people
But underneath the layers of daily activity and confusion
There is a wholeness
A shared experience

That longs to be expressed.

…Destruction

Many things are changing at the end of the Mayan calendar,
Out of Pisces and into
Aquarius.

The sun sets on division
And rises again to meet a new challenge.
Cycles continue but there must be
A letting go.

Let go of the fear of darkness
It is only one way of being.
Your shadow informs your light
And that light is glorious.

But first constriction and barriers
Must. break. down.

…Concealment

I do not know what is hidden,
Cannot know intellectually
But it can be felt.

Daily I practice to sensitize myself
To what lurks in shadow.
The seeds of change hibernate
In darkness

Patiently waiting.  Accepting nourishment
Receiving grace herself
As only the universe can provide.

There are worlds inside,
Planets and stars, moons and space
Not yet awakened by the sunny glow of consciousness

Yet still waiting for that right time.

…Revelation

My body disappears and I become
A constellation.

Seven shining stars in a straight line
My spirit floats in outer space.

The deepest darkness speckled with all manner
Of pinpricks of light.

When my body reappears, as it always does,
I am transformed
Transfixed by the vastness of Self.

My seven stars are surrounded by petals now
The powers of sound, light, heat, water, earth.

Holding me here.  In the wake of history.

Thousands of petals grow and dance out of the top
Of my head
As my teacher looks on.

Four petals blossom and reach out from the base
Of my spine
In my lover’s embrace.

I welcome each one,
Each experience an expression of wholeness.

Playful, joyful, full of sorrow.
Contradictions, yes, but

Rich

With

Life

 

 

Next up: I Should vs. I Am.

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