John O'Donohue: At the End of the Year

Photo by Molly

 At the End of the Year

The particular mind of the ocean
Filling the coastline’s longing
With such brief harvest
Of elegant, vanishing waves
Is like the mind of time
Opening us shapes of days.

As this year draws to its end,
We give thanks for the gifts it brought
And how they became inlaid within
Where neither time nor tide can touch them.

The days when the veil lifted
And the soul could see delight;
When a quiver caressed the heart
In the sheer exuberance of being here.

Surprises that came awake
In forgotten corners of old fields
Where expectation seemed to have quenched.

The slow, brooding times
When all was awkward
And the wave in the mind
Pierced every sore with salt.

The darkened days that stopped
The confidence of the dawn.

Days when beloved faces shone brighter
With light from beyond themselves;
And from the granite of some secret sorrow
A stream of buried tears loosened.

We bless this year for all we learned,
For all we loved and lost
And for the quiet way it brought us
Nearer to our invisible destination.

 — John O'Donohue

Opening Our Hearts to Care for the Suffering of All Beings and Engage in Compassionate Action

A wise quote from William Sloane Coffin. I would also frame this as being related to the continuum that I humbly believe we humans are all on with ignorance, fear, and separation on the one end and consciousness, connection, and love on the other.

I am also reminded of the courage and support that it takes to be in this world with the eyes of our hearts open. And this is why we all need each other for inspiration, insight, and compassionate and loving support. Otherwise, in our ignorance, we may bring apathy or judgment to those who suffer, including ourselves, and unknowingly be complicit with systems and beliefs rooted in dehumanization, separation, and harm.

May we all inspire each other to be passionate seekers of truth, courageously peeling back layer after layer of our ignorance, indoctrination, and illusions. May we all increasingly embody the compassionate actions and love that we and our hurting beautiful world yearns for.

🙏 Molly

Thích Nhất Hạnh: God Is On Earth, Inside Every Living Being

Photo by Molly

God Is On Earth, 

Inside Every Living Being

I think God is on Earth, inside every living being. What we call “the divine,” is none other than the energy of awakening, of peace, of understanding, and of love, which is to be found not only in every human being, but in every species on Earth. In Buddhism, we say every sentient being has the ability to be awakened, and to understand deeply. We call this Buddha nature. The deer, the dog, the cat, the squirrel, and the bird all have Buddha nature. But what about inanimate species: the pine tree in our front yard, the grass, or the flowers? As part of our living Mother Earth, these species also have Buddha nature. This is a very powerful awareness which can bring us so much joy. Every blade of grass, every tree, every plant, every creature large or small are children of the planet Earth and have Buddha nature. The Earth herself has Buddha nature, therefore all her children must have Buddha nature, too. As we are all endowed with Buddha nature, everyone has the capacity to live happily and with a sense of responsibility toward our mother, the Earth.

— Thích Nhất Hạnh 

https://plumvillage.org/about/thich-nhat-hanh

Chelan Harkin: Listening To and Honoring the Voice of Our Truth

Such a wise, heartfelt, and soulful message. And such a deep, wise, beautiful book. As are all of Chelan Harkin’s books. I’m so very grateful for each one, which are deeply needed in these times. And all times. Chelan’s books, and now including Wild Grace, are also what I’ve been gifting to family and friends for some time. Deepest bow of gratitude, respect, affection, and love. 🙏💜 Molly

Chelan Harkin's latest book, Wild Grace

Listening To and Honoring the

Voice of Our Truth

To recognize the need to honor ourself is terrifying. To recognize this is for our listening to grow in sensitivity to our inner truth. The voice of our truth strengthens as we resolve the pain from our past that muffles it. And it is terrifying because once we hear it, we must begin to work toward responding to it. Because once we hear it, the dissonance that grows in us as we don’t respond to it and align our lives with it becomes unbearable. But when we respond to it, everything in our life that has not been based on that self-honoring, that has required neglecting our truth, that has not reflected our path to wholeness is invited to change with us for we become unable to stay with it as it was. And if it does not grow with us, it falls away. This is the crucible of choosing authentic belonging over familiar fragments—we do not know what will grow and what will fall away and still we must grow.

This is why so many are disconnected from what they truly want, from what is true within them—not because inner guidance, clarity and truth is not within them and available to them as clearly as it is within anybody, but because they’d have to dramatically change to accommodate it. Because of this, many lives are made up of maintaining pain which actively blurs and buries the clear voice of truth. And the blade of our knowing, that if brought forth would slice illusion, remains sheathed. And our luminous beholding of reality’s face remains veiled.

— Chelan Harkin

https://chelanharkin.com/selected-poems/

The Way You Alchemize a Soul-less World

Photo by Molly

The way you alchemize a soul-less

world into a sacred world

is by treating everyone as if they

are sacred until the sacred

in them remembers.

— Sarah Durham Wilson

Do Not Let the World Make You Hard

Photo by Molly

Be soft.

Do not let the world make you hard.

Do not let pain make you hate.

Do not let the bitterness steal your sweetness.

Take pride that even though the rest 

of the world may disagree, you still believe 

it to be a beautiful place.

— Iain Thomas

Once You Are Real

 May we all open our hearts to appreciating what

is real, to loving ourselves, our beautiful 

authentic selves, just as we are.

Just imagine if we could all 

increasingly see and understand 

the beauty of who we are,

if we could value and love 

what is real...

🙏 Molly

He said,

"You become. It takes a long time.

That’s why it doesn’t happen often to people

who break easily, or have sharp edges,

or who have to be carefully kept.

Generally, by the time you are Real, most

of your hair has been loved off, and your

eyes drop out and you get loose

in your joints and very shabby.

But these things don’t matter

at all, because once you are Real

you can’t be ugly, except to people

who don’t understand."

— Margery Williams

Excerpted from The Velveteen Rabbit

What Does a Dog Smell Like?

 Oh, I love this!! So true!

💜 Molly

Our Shira. Photo by Molly

What Does a Dog Smell Like?

They told me...

That my house

Smells like dog...

And I asked them...

Do they know what a dog smells like?

A dog smells like:

Gratitude...

Loyalty...

Nobility...

Honey...

Pure and Unconditional Love!

and despite all they have suffered

they don't smell a grudge....

So...

I feel blessed

My house smells like dog!

*author unknown

This Year, Make a Resolution To Be Yourself

Oh, I love this! It does indeed take courage to grow up and be who we truly are. No improvement needed. Just a brave ongoing commitment to peeling back the layers we’ve defended our hearts with that made love a stranger and something to be feared rather than experienced as the core of our being. 💗 Molly

My Simple Prayer at Christmas

 

My Simple Prayer at Christmas

Today is Christmas Eve. And tomorrow Christmas will be celebrated by countless Christians and non-Christians alike. And what this celebration will embody may vary widely. For myself personally, I very much look forward to gathering with my husband and our beloved family. Within our family, there are also a diversity of paths that we walk, some religious and some not.

I do not commonly identify specifically with any particular religion or spiritual tradition in my writing or conversations. This is rooted in my intention to be inclusive and respectful. There are people in my life who are Christian, Buddhist, and Muslim. There are those who are agnostic, those who walk the red road and practice indigenous traditions, and those who worship the Goddess and Gaia. And there are other often overlapping paths with many different names for God, Goddess, Spirit, Mystery, Great Mother...

I welcome them all. I welcome the diversity of people in my life whose beliefs and practices I learn from and am expanded by. Most of all what I look for is how do these religious or spiritual practices nourish and strengthen our capacity for humility and healing, generosity and gratitude, compassion and tenderness, connectedness and caring, joy and laughter, wisdom and love?

In these times, and all times, I believe that it is important to look deeply into how our beliefs and traditions, whatever they are, serve as an antidote to othering, to fear and judgment, to dehumanization and polarization, to the messages that we humans are divided up into better than or less than, into saved or unsaved. Who is included in our circle of caring? Who is excluded? How conscious are we of the sacred thread which is woven through us all and through all of life?

These are the questions that are important to me. Essential is this: how is my spiritual practice healing and transforming my human wounds and illusions, deepening my heart and my connection with all beings, and expanding my capacity to love? 

What are we bringing to our gatherings with family and friends over Christmas and over whatever other holidays we may honor and celebrate? Hopefully it is the spirit of peace, of openness and acceptance, of welcoming and respecting diversity, of inclusivity and nonjudgment, of consciousness and generosity and love. And hopefully it is the recognition of the sacred in one another that sparks and grows ever greater love within our hearts and the heart of our world.

And this is my vision and my simple prayer at Christmas and beyond:

May all beings be filled with lovingkindness.

May all beings be free of suffering.

May all beings be at peace.

May we be healed.

May we know the truth of

our sacred and beautiful true nature.

May we undefend our hearts.

With love & blessings to all,

💗

Molly

Chelan Harkin: On This Path Into Honesty, Humility, and Every Ancient Unresolved War

Photo by Molly

On This Path Into Honesty, 

Humility, and Every Ancient 

Unresolved War

Don't go

on this embodied path

afterall.

Feel as little

as possible.

Stay hidden

and numb.

I understand now.

For on this path

into honesty,

humility,

into every ancient

unresolved war

made of the deepest

frailty

our bodies still hold,

You will be asked

to let go of everything.

It is the path

of the deepest renunciation

of every pride,

of every polished

weapon

separation so cleverly uses

to defend itself,

of every leveraged beauty,

of everything wielded

by hands that would other.

You become increasingly

naked,

poor

and empty

of anything

that would protect you

from God.

— Chelan Harkin

https://chelanharkin.com/selected-poems/

Our 2023 Holiday Letter to Family and Friends Near and Far

December 2023

Warmest holiday greetings to our family and friends near and far! Ron and I have experienced many gifts and blessings this year. Included is Ron’s greatly improved health and a very noticeable diminishment of symptoms related to the statin induced necrotizing myopathy that he was diagnosed with last year. Ron has been able to resume projects around our home and enjoy a return to most activities that were not possible before. We are so grateful! 

And in 2023 we made up for the limitations of the previous year with camping trips to Central Oregon and the Oregon coast and Lopez Island, travels to Victoria to visit Kevin and Arlyne and Ethan and our Canadian family and also to Colorado to visit Ron’s sister Roxane and her husband Curt, and our week long trip to Oaxaca during Dias De Los Muertos – which was truly extraordinary! Of course, it also continues to be such a joy for Ron and myself to be Grandpa Ron and Grammie to Audrey (4), Ethan (5), Eleanor (6 ), Carsten (7), and Oliver (8). They are each so precious, so beautiful, so loved. And now Matt and Rubi are soon expecting their first child! We are all so excited to welcome baby Mateo to the world! 

As we are all aware, these times are also deeply sad. Ron and I are acutely aware of the suffering of humans and other beings near and far. There is so much and it is hard to hold. Gratefully, there are many antidotes to the sorrows of our hearts and the heart of the world – beauty, activism, laughter and joy, connection and belonging, healing and transforming trauma, nature and consciousness of all that is sacred, compassion and gratitude and love. 

Through life’s many challenges and heartbreaks, Ron and I remain connected with our loving family and friends, gratitude and beauty, and consciousness of how blessed we are. May you too be blessed with loving connections and what most nourishes your heart and soul. May love be your guiding light. 

With love...❤ Molly

A Collection of Poems and Writings to Share From My Heart to Yours

These are a collection of poems and writings that I had made into booklets this year which I gifted to several friends and family members. I am also called to share these here with whoever may be nourished by this wisdom and beauty. Also included with each poem and writing is a photograph that I have taken, mostly over the past year or two. The butterfly in the Ancestry poem was one that I'd captured in Michigan on the shores of Orchard Lake where my ancestry stretches back five generations. In addition, I am sharing here a link on my blog to each poem that I printed for the poetry booklets. Poetry offers such a gift to our hearts and souls. Blessed be.

🙏 Molly

A collection of poems and writings

shared from my heart to yours.

May you find something here of

nourishment, heart, and meaning

for the holiday season and the

New Year and beyond.

❤️

With love & blessings,

Molly

1. The Best Poem Ever by Brian Doyle  https://mollystrongheart.blogspot.com/2023/10/brian-doyle-best-poem-ever.html

2. On Any Given Day by Rosemary Wahtola Trommer  https://mollystrongheart.blogspot.com/2023/12/rosemerry-wahtola-trommer-on-any-given.html

3. Ancestry by Fred LaMotte  https://mollystrongheart.blogspot.com/2023/08/fred-lamotte-ancestry.html

4. The Sacred Web of Life by Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee  https://mollystrongheart.blogspot.com/2023/11/llewellyn-vaughan-lee-sacred-web-of-life.html

5. When I Am Among the Trees by Mary Oliver  https://mollystrongheart.blogspot.com/2023/11/mary-oliver-when-i-am-among-trees.html

6. Wild Grace by Chelan Harkin  https://mollystrongheart.blogspot.com/2023/12/chelan-harkin-wild-grace.html

7. Mysteries, Yes by Mary Oliver  https://mollystrongheart.blogspot.com/2023/11/mary-oliver-mysteries-yes.html

8. Try To Travel by Gio Evan  https://mollystrongheart.blogspot.com/2023/12/gio-evan-try-to-travel.html

9. My Beloved Child, Break Your Heart No Longer by Swami Kripalu  https://mollystrongheart.blogspot.com/2023/03/my-beloved-child-break-your-heart-no.html

10. I Am Enough by Emma Seppala  https://mollystrongheart.blogspot.com/2023/03/emma-seppala-i-am-enough.html

11. An Invisible Summer by Albert Camas  https://mollystrongheart.blogspot.com/2023/11/albert-camas-invincible-summer.html

12. We Are So Powerful by Chelan Harkin  https://mollystrongheart.blogspot.com/2023/12/chelan-harkin-we-are-so-powerful.html

13. Working With the Stories of Our Lives by Clarissa Pinkola Estes  https://mollystrongheart.blogspot.com/2023/03/clarissa-pinkola-estes-working-with.html

14. The Heart That Fills With Compassion by Jack Kornfield  https://mollystrongheart.blogspot.com/2023/06/jack-kornfield-heart-that-fills-with.html

15. A Dedication to Kindness by Sharon Salzberg  https://mollystrongheart.blogspot.com/2023/09/sharon-salzberg-dedication-to-kindness.html

16. Today I Am Taking the Side of Peace by Rabbi Irwin Keller  https://mollystrongheart.blogspot.com/2023/11/rabbi-irwin-keller-today-i-am-taking.html

17. A Vow To Care For One Another by Pema Chodron  https://mollystrongheart.blogspot.com/2023/11/pema-chodron-vow-to-care-for-one-another.html

18. Saving Grace by Rosemary Wahtola Trommer  https://mollystrongheart.blogspot.com/2023/10/rosemerry-wahtola-trommer-saving-grace.html

19. A Poem On Hope by Wendell Berry  https://mollystrongheart.blogspot.com/2023/12/wendell-berry-poem-on-hope.html

20. No One Ever Told Me by Susan Frybort  https://mollystrongheart.blogspot.com/2023/08/susan-frybort-no-one-ever-told-me.html

21. The Way It Is by William Stafford  https://mollystrongheart.blogspot.com/2023/12/william-stafford-way-it-is.html

22. Praying by Mary Oliver  https://mollystrongheart.blogspot.com/2023/08/mary-oliver-praying.html

23. What If Our Religion Was Each Other by Ganga White  https://mollystrongheart.blogspot.com/2023/12/ganga-white-what-if-our-religion-was.html

24. A Blessing of Angels by John O'Donohue  https://mollystrongheart.blogspot.com/2022/12/john-odonohue-blessing-of-angels.html

Chelan Harkin: Rumi's Heart

Last night I experienced the great gift of deep sharing and heartfelt connection and celebration within a community of beautiful hearts. This unfolded on a zoom call with Chelan Harkin celebrating all of her amazing work and the release of her latest book in particular. 

I now have all three of Chelan's books — Susceptible to Light, Let Us Dance, and now Wild Grace. And what gems they are!! I truly cannot recommend the work of Chelan Harkin more deeply, something so needed for us as individuals and collectively. There is a path of reconnection to ourselves and one another and all that is sacred which is healing and transformative beyond words. And yet what Chelan illuminates is exactly that which most of us cannot find the words to express. Such a gift.

This mystical and deeply human poet embodies a depth of wisdom and compassion and love found in other mystic poets such as Hafiz, Rumi, and Kahlil Gibran. And she has the great gift of making it accessible to us all. What comes through her is truly Sacred and serves as an antidote to the suffering of shame and separation, dehumanization and delusion, fear and all of the many faces of violence. In the work of Chelan Harkin you will find great beauty and a soothing balm for our hearts in these challenging times and all times.

The poem here is but one tiny glimpse from her latest book. Blessed be. 💗🙏Molly

Photo by Molly

Rumi's Heart

Rumi's heart,

more than an orb

of unattainable light

set above you

was more likely

a hopelessly unfixable

broken pot

through which light

was merciful enough

to continuously spill.

Hafez, most likely,

was a gardener of sorrow—

he knew how to bring its aching

to blossom, and open you

to beauty there.

I'm sorry if this disappoints you,

that even the greats

weren't elitist untouchables

that have defied suffering.

Even Jesus, Muhammad, The Buddha—

all those Great Ones—

must have held tenderly

in their own chests

the deepest ravines of humanity's sorrow—

how else could they have known

compassion like that?

They simply knew

how to kneel down deeply enough

to kiss that wound.

Don't do that unnatural thing

of separating the sacred

from its sorrow.

Artists of the deep heart

are not apart from suffering.

They've learned the craft

of melting it into gold.

They don't flee from fire—

they make it their medium.

— Chelan Harkin

From Wild Grace

https://chelanharkin.com/selected-poems/

John O'Donohue: Solstice Blessings

Photo by Molly

Solstice Blessings

Somewhere, out at the edges, the night
is turning and the waves of darkness
Begin to brighten on the shore of dawn.
The heavy dark falls back to earth
And the freed air goes wild with light,
The heart fills with fresh, bright breath
And thoughts stir to give birth to colour.
I arise today
In the name of Silence
Womb of the Word,
In the name of Stillness
Home of Belonging,
In the name of Solitude
Of the soul and the Earth.
I arise today
Blessed by all things,
Wings of breath,
Delight of eyes,
Wonder of whisper,
Intimacy of touch,
Eternity of soul,
Urgency of thought,
Miracle of health,
Embrace of God.
May I live this day
Compassionate of heart,
Clear of word,
Gracious in awareness,
Courageous in thought,
Generous in love.

— John O'Donohue

From To Bless the Space Between Us:

A Book of Blesssings

Wyrd Sisters: Solstice Carole

In celebration of the Winter Solstice.

🙏💗 Molly

 

Chelan Harkin: A Light That Transforms Our Darkness Into Medicine

Photo by Molly

A Light That Transforms

Our Darkness Into Medicine

We liberate ourself and others by talking about our darkness, by bringing it to light. This happens when we know we are not our darkness. When we express our darkness from this place, our expressed shadow becomes a tonic, a gift, a great key.

Shame is the prison key that holds our darkness down and with it, the cascading, revivifying expression of our soul, that torrent of aliveness and gifts.

Sharing our darkness has nothing to do with affirming the darkness or our identification with it. It’s about moving it out of the way of what’s beneath it—our deep, astonishing light, a light that transforms the once darkness into medicine and has no opposite.

— Chelan Harkin

https://chelanharkin.com/

Chelan Harkin: Healing Hierarchy

Healing Hierarchy

Racism, sexism, any imagined hierarchy is a leveraged weaponizing of worthlessness.

The imagination is one of humanity’s greatest and most fascinating faculties. When we sully this capacity by imagining ourselves to be superior, we make this faculty a depraved slave of our woundedness.

Any thought, feeling, reaction, motivation, choice that comes from superiority reveals an insecurity and inferiority within us that we feel too frail, ignorant or under-resourced to acknowledge.

Far from a show of true status, to play into the wretched game of superiority that has gone on for far too long, is to flaunt a crippled humanity and a stunted relationship with our own soul.

To begin on the long path of healing hierarchy, we must acknowledge what is beneath it.

— Chelan Harkin

https://chelanharkin.com/