To Reach the Kingdom of Heaven

We must travel light
to reach the Kingdom of Heaven.
We cannot carry fear
nor shame
nor guilt
into the Kingdom of Heaven.
We cannot carry worries
nor judgements
nor anxieties
into the Kingdom of Heaven.

We may only bring
that which lifts our hearts:
love, gratitude, peace, and joy.
We may only bring that which lifts our souls:
faith, self-love, and awareness of our worth.

Fear, shame, guilt,
worries, judgements, and anxieties...
each of these make up a burdensome weight;
whereas love, gratitude, joy,
faith, self-love, and worth work as Sherpas.
Meaning they work to lighten our load
so that we may move easily and effortlessly
toward our destination.
These things carry us through
whenever things get tough.

So travel lightly to the Kingdom of Heaven.
Drop each of your burdens and invite
all of your Sherpas along with you
so that you will not be discouraged
by the circumstances of your journey.

Today and Forever More

I align my will with Yours, dear God,
today and forever more.
I align my love with Yours, dear God,
today and forever more.
I align my peace with Yours, dear God,
today and forever more.
I align my consciousness
and I align my thoughts with Yours, dear God,
today and forever more.

For today I acknowledge
that I cannot help the beings on this planet
until I am in alignment with all that You are,
dear God;
I cannot help the beings on this planet
until I have let go of all my past patternings
that no longer serve me.
For I no longer have to survive, God.
It has been Your will that I thrive happily and healthily.
And as I align with Your will for me,
I open up to all of the possibilities
the future has in store for me.
I see with clarity the prize that awaits.
The prize of shared joy,
the prize of shared love,
the prize of shared ecstasy.

For as I replace the burdens of the past
with your endless blessings of the present,
my happiness shall overflow
to all those whom I encounter.

Poetic Stream of Consciousness; I Remember Now

I am ready for a change.
I am ready to fight for my peace of mind.
Wait a moment, that's not quite right...
I am ready to settle into my peace.
I am ready to immerse myself in peace.

My sense of peace has been distorted my whole life;
my equilibrium thrown so far
out of balance
that I never knew what it was to feel at peace.
So, in my mind, I have had to fight
to get my peace back.

Peace was supposed to be my home.
Love and joy were supposed to be my home.
But instead, I was abruptly dragged away from my home
and left alone in the frigid, starless dark.
I spent most of my life shuffling through the blackness
with a withering coat of denial wrapped around my shoulders.
I clung desperately to that illusory coat
for I could not face the truth....
I could not face the monster
that had dragged me away
from my rightful home.

And then a day came
when the truth was thrust on me
like a load of bricks.
In that moment,
the night felt even bleaker than before.
And I spent another decade
scrambling in the bitter night
without the hollow comfort of denial.

I did not know where I was going,
only that I didn't wish to stay in the darkness.
So I have decided at last
to take the time to bring my home of peace to me,
to bring my home of love and joy to me.
I should not have to fight for my peace of mind,
I should not have to fight to feel loved,
I should not have to fight for my worth or earn my value.
And this should be obvious...
but is sadly counterintuitive for me.
I felt I wasn't loved as I was...
not by my biological parents...
so I began to believe
that I had to prove my value to others
or else they'd never see it.

As I sit in the dark tonight,
I call peace and love and joy back home to me.
I call forth my courage and my confidence.
I call forth my feeling of worthiness.
I call forth my self-love.
I call forth all of the positive feelings
that became foreign to me
the moment I was dragged out of peace.
They have always belonged to me,
but I forgot.

In my fear, I forgot my courage.
In my pain, I forgot my peace.
In my perceived degradation, I forgot my worth.
But I remember now. I remember now. I remember now.
I remember now that I have always been worthy.
I remember now that I have always been loved.
I remember now that I have always been courageous.
I remember now that I have always been peace.
I remember now that I have always been love.
I remember now that I am a Beloved Child of God here on a mission.

Today I Choose Ascension

Today I choose ascension and discard the bricks
of shame and guilt from my pockets.
Today I choose ascension and break free from
the shackles of fear and doubt.
Today I choose ascension and shrug off
the layers of unworthiness.

Today I choose unbridled joy, freedom, and happiness
and leave behind my sorrows and my grief.
Today I choose infinite love and light,
and leave behind the sightless nights.
Today I choose to see everything
as an expression of the love of the universe;
the sunlight streaming from between the clouds,
the wind whispering secrets to the trees,
the creek caressing and cajoling the crawfish and the minnows.

Today, everything I see
and everything I experience
is an expression of love from the universe.
Today I choose to see nothing but love
and experience nothing but joy.
For even if I shed tears of sadness,
I would do so knowing
that I am making room for happiness;
I would do so knowing
that I am now able to hold
both joy and sorrow simultaneously.

To Bivouac in the 'I' of the Storm

A continuation of  yesterday's word play.

After spending much of my life
in the midst of a nigh on endless monsoon,
and believing I was a part of the storm,
I am beginning to cultivate
a strong sense of inner peace.
Where I once believed
that my pain and weariness
made me feel alive,
I know now that I had simply
grown used to surviving.
I would weather the tempest
because that was all I knew;
true peace was foreign to me.
So now, with my new awareness,
I call upon my higher self,
I call upon Mother, Father, God
to help me bivouac in the 'I' of the storm.

With God's impenetrable bulwark of grace,
no gust or gale shall sweep me off my feet.
With God's all encompassing, comforting love,
no almighty onslaught shall cause me to question my safety.
And with the divine knowledge
of God's unquestionable steadfastness,
no tempestuous squall shall tarnish
my hard-earned tranquility,
my precious peace.

In this treasured moment, I now know
that whenever the high winds and heavy rains return,
that I can simply pause, take a deep breath,
and picture the perfectly made
bivouac in the 'I' of the storm
and watch as my calmness
and my stillness radiate from me.