Cleansing

drops slowly form as I breath
deeply
water forms
first on my calves
then down my back
forehead
time passes
the sweat drips into my eyes
mixing with tears
or feeding them

release
water
like water you slid into me
i could hear the ocean wrapped in the folds of your sex
your waves crashed through me when you came
the ocean cries out for us
I heard her the other day

but when a wave crashes on the shore she always goes back to the ocean.

And so I sweat
in gratitude for the wave that is our love
and for the ocean that breathed it,

Happy Solstice!

Happy Solstice...
I had the sweet opportunity to celebrate this years summer solstice with some amazingly beautiful reclaiming witches out at Ocean Beach. We cast a glorious circle and as I entered the ocean to cleanse deep in sacred space I felt myself open up to her waters in a new way. Her breath cast it's glorious waves on my body as I shivered beneath the emerging stars in the sky. My body was cold but I was energized with her song sweetly singing to me.
I am so grateful for the ocean for her energy and for the gift of learning to be with her in a different and new way through my surfing practice.
I am grateful for the people in my life who bring me joy and love.
I am grateful for my teachers and I am grateful for my familiy.
I am grateful for the sun and his gifts of light and nourishment.
I am grateful for the earth, her cycles, her constant turning and how she reminds us that everything is always in motion.
I am grateful for motion.
I am grateful for change.

Blessed Be!

YAY GAY MARRIAGE!

You know I've never cared about marriage--in fact I'm kind of opposed to the institution but I gotta say that this week has been inspiring. I went down to City Hall on Tuesday to support an airport worker who's been targeted for being gay (kinda ironic) and it was the first day that couples were getting married...man it was beautiful. I walked out of the hearing hall and we were all talking about next steps and along came this beautiful family--a lesbian couple and their three kids. I couldn't help it--I just started crying. As fucked up as the institution of marriage it, the legalization of discrimination is even more fucked up and Tuesday was an amazing day towards liberation.
I spent a good part of the morning, at city hall with folks from the UU church and the Gay Jewish Temple dancing and celebrating. It was beautiful--each newlywed couple that came out was greeted by a crowd of cheers and people dancing and singing. Amazing--as I rode my bike back to work later that morning, I kept crying....tears of joy for the progress we've made...
This giant leap towards equality is inspiring. I am hopeful that we can defeat the initiative in the fall....

ps. the pic is of folks from the temple dancing the hora!

prayer from yoga practice today

Just thought I'd share this...a good mantra for the day...

May our hearts remain open
May our feet remain grounded
and May our bodies, minds, and spirits remain present.

A Little Stone in the Middle of the Road, In Florida

My son as a child saying
God
is anything, even a little stone in the middle
of the road, in Florida

Yesterday
Nancy, my friend, after a long illness:
You know what can lift me up, take me right out
of despair?

no, what?
Anything.

-Muriel Rukeyser

We Alone

We alone can devalue gold
by not caring
if it falls or rises
in the marketplace.
Wherever there is gold
there is a chain, you know,
and if your chain
is gold
so much the worse
for you.

Feathers, shells,
and sea-shaped stones
are all as rare.

This could be our revolution:
To love what is plentiful
as much as
what is scarce.

~Alice Walker

Water

Water flows from high in the
mountains.
Water runs deep in the Earth.
Miraculously, water comes to us,
and sustains all life.

Water and sun
green these plants.
When the rain of compassion falls,
even a desert becomes an
immense, green ocean.
~Thich N'hat Hanh

Prayer for Healing

May our eyes remain open even in the face of tragedy.
May we not become disheartened.
May we find in the dissolution of our apathy and denial,
the cup of the broken heart.
May we discover the gift of the fire burning
in the inner chamber of our being -
burning great and bright enough
to transform any poison.
May we offer the power of our sorrow to the service
of something greater than ourselves.
May our guilt not rise up to form
yet another defensive wall.
May the suffering purify and not paralyze us.
May we endure; may sorrow bond us and not separate us.


May we realize the greatness of our sorrow
and not run from its touch or its flame
May clarity be our ally and wisdom our support.
May our wrath be cleansing, cutting through
the confusion of denial and greed.
May we not be afraid to see or speak our truth.
May the bleakness of the wasteland be dispelled.
May the soul's journey be revealed
and the true hunger fed.
May we be forgiven for what we have forgotten
and be blessed with the remembrance
of who we really are.
-The Terma Collective

Shedding....

you slide through my dreams into the waking world
slithering onto the path before me
leading me down a unknown route
that's shaded and dark

I follow
and you stop
slither around my feet
I turn and see your skin on the path below
entact
an almost shell of your body

"a ghost of what i once was" you say
"yours is here too"
I look down and see my skin flaking beneath me
intense searing pain shoots through me

"Do it--NOW!" you say
Curling, spinning, slithering, sweating, I crawl out of myself
and into myself in the same moment
I feel pieces of me fall to the ground as I slither deeper into myself

then I am on the ground following her...
slithering along again down an unknown path

I turn to look behind me
at my shedding
only a puddle of me remains

I leave my sweat and tears
and slither on into the darkness

The Guest House

I've been having dreams of people with knives and swords who are out to get me. It's been a somewhat nightly battle which I have been loosing--until last night. Last night we conversed and I spoke reason to them and they were disarmed. I woke up feeling like something good had been acheived or transformed--a feeling of tai chi'ing negative energy.
Seems pertinent with all the relationship transition I'm going through. Each person is a gift, each experience is an opportunity, each breath is sacred.
I found this Rumi poem and thought of the people with swords....

The Guest House
By Rumi

This being human is a guest house.
Every morning a new arrival.

A joy, a depression, a meanness,
some momentary awareness comes
As an unexpected visitor.

Welcome and entertain them all!
Even if they're a crowd of sorrows,
who violently sweep your house
empty of its furniture,
still treat each guest honorably.
He may be clearing you out
for some new delight.

The dark thought, the shame, the malice,
meet them at the door laughing,
and invite them in.

Be grateful for whoever comes,
because each has been sent
as a guide from beyond.