Your breathe makes me quiver
like aspen leaves do
with the most subtle whisper of your essence
dripping thru the air
You delite me in ways indescribable
Sensually stirring me beyond the physical
Stilling me
I am captivated
Speechlessly in awe of your embrace
I can not move
yet all of me is flowing
I can not think
yet all of me lives in knowing
I can not breathe
yet your breath sustains me
I am yours and you are all that I am
Waves of fleecy swaying grasses hypnotize me
holding me captive
Enraptured by the way you kiss me
body, mind and soul
And in these moments with you
the rest is silenced
I am whole
Full beyond fullness
One beyond Oneness
With you Beloved
I am free
I am home
I AM
Cheri Shanti
Aug 26, 2010
Showing posts with label nature. Show all posts
Showing posts with label nature. Show all posts
Monday, August 30, 2010
Monday, August 10, 2009
Gratitude for the Goodness of Life
Softest orange twilight tonite brings my open heart to grace once again.
I feel, so often, the blessings of this divine play of life and I find myself crying with gratitude and joy at the magic that this life has offered me. In truth, it offers itself to all of us, but many of us (me too sometimes I admit) stay so busy and occupied by the mundane that we can often forget, for days, months and sometimes, for some, for years or even a lifetime. A few moments sitting quietly with nature though and I am quickly brought back to my senses!
Reflecting in this quiet time on the many amazing moments of a lifetime. The good dear friends who make me smile, those who reflect such beauty and wisdom to me are so cherished; yet it seems impossible to express the depths of my love for them in any way. I Love you is just such a tiny piece of the equation.. I am you.. I see myself in you, I honor you.. still not even close to what I feel in my heart for those special lights who have walked some piece of my path with me. There truly are no words to express the profundity of love.
Tonite, sitting watching the last sensual embers of light fade into the dark of night I sent my love to them all, in all the corners of the earth that I have been blessed to touch my feet upon where I met their smiling (and sometimes not smiling) faces. Waves of peace and gratitude for the parents who, though they do not understand me, gave me my foundation to become the woman I am becoming. The woman I am learning more and more to love with great passion and tenderness. Not the egoic love of "I'm great," but the true acceptance of myself, with all my "faults," all my weird parts, my neurocies even. Love is acceptance and I am finding every day that I am learning more and more to accept all of myself with grace. A lifelong practice it seems to offer me. May we all bless our parents, even those who really didn't do as good of a job as we think they should have, for they gave us the greatest gift of life, and maturity is facing that acceptance that no one can ever be perfect for us but ourselves.
I watch nature and it gets easier and more simplistic to comprehend acceptance:
Does the earth try to change the plants that grow forth from it?
Do the plants complain to the weather that it's too hot or too wet?
Does the butterfly try to change the smell of the flower it suckles?
Does the hummingbird, whom I have been seeing every few minutes here, dislike the whirring of it's own wings?
Does the coyote question the strength of the herd it's stalking or simply await it's dinner if fate chooses to weaken one calf or not?
Does the river say to the sea, "I wish you'd get out of my way already, you're blocking my flow."
Love is total acceptance and total being of itself, and truly, nature embodies love in all it's forms.. wild, raging, hungry, passionate, animalistic, reflective, on and on.. there is for me no greater sanctuary, no more complete temple than the planet we live on. When we learn this, all that we must endure become gifts for our greatest unfolding. When we learn this, we are always in prayerful embodiment recognizing the divinity in all we see from the pauper to the prince, the parasite to the pretty flashy feathered peacock. We realize "church" isn't a building, the temple is within us, around us, underneath our feet; prayer is alive always in our senses and our touch. As above, so below. We are that which we seek outside of ourselves and when we get still, we know this to be true. No one else can make us complete, not a lover, not a job, not a house, not a man or woman alive can complete us, they can only compliment us and teach us and share with us our own self.
Nature is the greatest teacher I have ever known or will ever know I'm sure.
I was feeling tonite into my own life. My life has been, as truly I believe all lives are, an amazing experience. I have been blessed beyond what I often feel I am worthy of with good solid people, wise and loving reflections, and funky whacky trippy opportunities and people who remind me to live life as fully as I can; and though I may not ever have many of the "normal" comforts of "security" that many people value above all else, a "job," "house," "marriage," etc. I realize that what I have been gifted is pure grace to experience life in ways that many people may never know. I find myself regularly in complete humble astonishment at the beauty around me and within me when I allow it to unfold.
Music, poetry, sensual passion that is unbridled and wild, magic, mystical awakening to greater truths than money or the "American dream" have been part of my life since I was a small child. I have always known the Divine and been in awe and that to me is one of the biggest gifts I could have been given or chosen. I often try to deny those gifts, thinking that's not "enough" and I have to be "successful" in the ways society expects. Then, on nites like tonite, I get real and realize the illusion vs the reality of life: stillness, unparalleled natural beauty, mountain tops, a life where friends are making me smile and laugh on Facebook from all the different parts of my life, from highshool, my drum circle years, my professional musician colleagues who sings songs that make me fall in love with them to their bones hearing their passion that resonates with mine, Costa Rica connections, and I feel deeper than ever how much love I have been allowed to experience and how loved I am by so many whom I love and adore with all my heart.
What could I find more enrapturing right now than a night like tonite, alone in thousands of acres of desert and mountains, with no sound but crickets, no breath buy my own, no distraction whatsoever from my own depths, a shot of good tequilla and a sacrement of stillness?
I live in gratitude
I walk in gratitude
I breathe in gratitude
and in that gratitude there is such deep celebration in my heart for this life.
Thank you to all of you whom have graced my life with so much sweetness, humor and reflection of greatness. Though the words can never touch the true depths of my love for you, I LOVE YOU!
If I left the planet tonite, I would leave content and grateful for this walk on Planet Earth, for getting to know nature in the way that I do, for the coyote's song, for the crickets and cicadas, the howler monkey's, the sweetest yummiest jams and grooves by firelight, on stage, in living rooms, at my campfire last week in Crested Butte, with big lights or no lights, for the poetry that has floated effortlessly thru me from the Divine spirit of the Muse, for my family, for my sweet nephew who is now a man, for my dear sweet mother who I pray finds peace, and my father who I believe is maturing into his own grace, for my beloved partner Jessee of 7 years, for Matt who gifts me this sanctuary in Crestone every year, for Wolf and my drum brothers and sisters, for so much amazing life...
When I do go, have a big all night fire ceremony for me and play, dance, sing, and celebrate the joy that I know to be truth in this life that you have shared with me.
Cry but not for me.. I have lived a full life already and if this were my last night, I would go
In peace
I feel, so often, the blessings of this divine play of life and I find myself crying with gratitude and joy at the magic that this life has offered me. In truth, it offers itself to all of us, but many of us (me too sometimes I admit) stay so busy and occupied by the mundane that we can often forget, for days, months and sometimes, for some, for years or even a lifetime. A few moments sitting quietly with nature though and I am quickly brought back to my senses!
Reflecting in this quiet time on the many amazing moments of a lifetime. The good dear friends who make me smile, those who reflect such beauty and wisdom to me are so cherished; yet it seems impossible to express the depths of my love for them in any way. I Love you is just such a tiny piece of the equation.. I am you.. I see myself in you, I honor you.. still not even close to what I feel in my heart for those special lights who have walked some piece of my path with me. There truly are no words to express the profundity of love.
Tonite, sitting watching the last sensual embers of light fade into the dark of night I sent my love to them all, in all the corners of the earth that I have been blessed to touch my feet upon where I met their smiling (and sometimes not smiling) faces. Waves of peace and gratitude for the parents who, though they do not understand me, gave me my foundation to become the woman I am becoming. The woman I am learning more and more to love with great passion and tenderness. Not the egoic love of "I'm great," but the true acceptance of myself, with all my "faults," all my weird parts, my neurocies even. Love is acceptance and I am finding every day that I am learning more and more to accept all of myself with grace. A lifelong practice it seems to offer me. May we all bless our parents, even those who really didn't do as good of a job as we think they should have, for they gave us the greatest gift of life, and maturity is facing that acceptance that no one can ever be perfect for us but ourselves.
I watch nature and it gets easier and more simplistic to comprehend acceptance:
Does the earth try to change the plants that grow forth from it?
Do the plants complain to the weather that it's too hot or too wet?
Does the butterfly try to change the smell of the flower it suckles?
Does the hummingbird, whom I have been seeing every few minutes here, dislike the whirring of it's own wings?
Does the coyote question the strength of the herd it's stalking or simply await it's dinner if fate chooses to weaken one calf or not?
Does the river say to the sea, "I wish you'd get out of my way already, you're blocking my flow."
Love is total acceptance and total being of itself, and truly, nature embodies love in all it's forms.. wild, raging, hungry, passionate, animalistic, reflective, on and on.. there is for me no greater sanctuary, no more complete temple than the planet we live on. When we learn this, all that we must endure become gifts for our greatest unfolding. When we learn this, we are always in prayerful embodiment recognizing the divinity in all we see from the pauper to the prince, the parasite to the pretty flashy feathered peacock. We realize "church" isn't a building, the temple is within us, around us, underneath our feet; prayer is alive always in our senses and our touch. As above, so below. We are that which we seek outside of ourselves and when we get still, we know this to be true. No one else can make us complete, not a lover, not a job, not a house, not a man or woman alive can complete us, they can only compliment us and teach us and share with us our own self.
Nature is the greatest teacher I have ever known or will ever know I'm sure.
I was feeling tonite into my own life. My life has been, as truly I believe all lives are, an amazing experience. I have been blessed beyond what I often feel I am worthy of with good solid people, wise and loving reflections, and funky whacky trippy opportunities and people who remind me to live life as fully as I can; and though I may not ever have many of the "normal" comforts of "security" that many people value above all else, a "job," "house," "marriage," etc. I realize that what I have been gifted is pure grace to experience life in ways that many people may never know. I find myself regularly in complete humble astonishment at the beauty around me and within me when I allow it to unfold.
Music, poetry, sensual passion that is unbridled and wild, magic, mystical awakening to greater truths than money or the "American dream" have been part of my life since I was a small child. I have always known the Divine and been in awe and that to me is one of the biggest gifts I could have been given or chosen. I often try to deny those gifts, thinking that's not "enough" and I have to be "successful" in the ways society expects. Then, on nites like tonite, I get real and realize the illusion vs the reality of life: stillness, unparalleled natural beauty, mountain tops, a life where friends are making me smile and laugh on Facebook from all the different parts of my life, from highshool, my drum circle years, my professional musician colleagues who sings songs that make me fall in love with them to their bones hearing their passion that resonates with mine, Costa Rica connections, and I feel deeper than ever how much love I have been allowed to experience and how loved I am by so many whom I love and adore with all my heart.
What could I find more enrapturing right now than a night like tonite, alone in thousands of acres of desert and mountains, with no sound but crickets, no breath buy my own, no distraction whatsoever from my own depths, a shot of good tequilla and a sacrement of stillness?
I live in gratitude
I walk in gratitude
I breathe in gratitude
and in that gratitude there is such deep celebration in my heart for this life.
Thank you to all of you whom have graced my life with so much sweetness, humor and reflection of greatness. Though the words can never touch the true depths of my love for you, I LOVE YOU!
If I left the planet tonite, I would leave content and grateful for this walk on Planet Earth, for getting to know nature in the way that I do, for the coyote's song, for the crickets and cicadas, the howler monkey's, the sweetest yummiest jams and grooves by firelight, on stage, in living rooms, at my campfire last week in Crested Butte, with big lights or no lights, for the poetry that has floated effortlessly thru me from the Divine spirit of the Muse, for my family, for my sweet nephew who is now a man, for my dear sweet mother who I pray finds peace, and my father who I believe is maturing into his own grace, for my beloved partner Jessee of 7 years, for Matt who gifts me this sanctuary in Crestone every year, for Wolf and my drum brothers and sisters, for so much amazing life...
When I do go, have a big all night fire ceremony for me and play, dance, sing, and celebrate the joy that I know to be truth in this life that you have shared with me.
Cry but not for me.. I have lived a full life already and if this were my last night, I would go
In peace
Saturday, August 30, 2008
Music: By George Moore
Found this in a paper in Lyons, CO the other day.
So beautiful, wanted to share it.
"Music"
The first music was accident
perhaps, the clanging of a stone
against the solid resonance of tree,
the slipping of rocks down a stream
in high season, some impossible
whining of the limbs pushed
up against their leaning neighbors.
The ear picked it up almost
coincidentally, at first, a song,
something the brain said but
did not say. The pattern was born
out of a longing no one had known,
and appearance in the wind,
At the back of the mind.
This was the moment of music
but more, the moment of human
anticipation,of humanity,
springing to life within the animal skin.
There was something more
waiting in the wings
the rush of the senses in synchronicity.
The words would follow but not
for ages, at first it was only noise
made to sync like a river, water
sounding it's own depths, moving
stones down it's long corridor,
cave echoes, the shouts of wordless
desires from god-high cliffs
But the words did not matter
when the body performed it's rite
swaying day out of night, grieving
voicelessly for the disappearances
But the music did not leave the trees,
nor the stream, it simply inhabited
the living and the dead,
those who would come back again
as if they were the very singing,
and the cave dwellers who knew
the earth was their mouth
and that they were the voice
of it's deepest shadows.
So beautiful, wanted to share it.
"Music"
The first music was accident
perhaps, the clanging of a stone
against the solid resonance of tree,
the slipping of rocks down a stream
in high season, some impossible
whining of the limbs pushed
up against their leaning neighbors.
The ear picked it up almost
coincidentally, at first, a song,
something the brain said but
did not say. The pattern was born
out of a longing no one had known,
and appearance in the wind,
At the back of the mind.
This was the moment of music
but more, the moment of human
anticipation,of humanity,
springing to life within the animal skin.
There was something more
waiting in the wings
the rush of the senses in synchronicity.
The words would follow but not
for ages, at first it was only noise
made to sync like a river, water
sounding it's own depths, moving
stones down it's long corridor,
cave echoes, the shouts of wordless
desires from god-high cliffs
But the words did not matter
when the body performed it's rite
swaying day out of night, grieving
voicelessly for the disappearances
But the music did not leave the trees,
nor the stream, it simply inhabited
the living and the dead,
those who would come back again
as if they were the very singing,
and the cave dwellers who knew
the earth was their mouth
and that they were the voice
of it's deepest shadows.
Friday, January 25, 2008
Sinking In: Nature's Truths Remembered
Firelight dancing beneath starry skies
Sweet orange disc rises above the swirling sea
Moonlight dancing now in me
Sinking into this way of being
So familiar
So effortless
So close to nature
The way God meant us to be
Eating the Fruit on the trees and fish from the sea
Serenaded by the rhythms of nature all around and within me
Sinking into this place
Inspiration returning
Re-learning myself
Sweetness in this life
We need so little, really, and have so much that distracts us from this truth.
Good food, a modest shelter, community, music, love, sun, clean air and safe haven to lay our heads..
All the rest it seems to me is some kind of candy..
Eye candy
Ear candy
Techno candy
Like sugar it rots us inside leaving us wanting more, unfulfilled and searching for the next fix..
Nature teaches us perfect grace, balance and harmony.
No false illusions, only truth.
Tonite, after firelight, moonlight and ocean breezes
A nice hot shower was like luxury, unnecessary, but so appreciated and such a magical experience
with tiki torches as my light and sweet silver moon peeking in on me above the bananna leaves and bamboo
Blessed are we who get to experience these ways
To remember that which is true and real
And to forget that that leads us astray
I give thanks
Sinking into sweetness.. again and again.
returning to remember
The simple ways of life feed me fully
Thursday, January 17, 2008
Slowing Down
Sweet sounds of night here on the magical island of Kauai: palms blowing in the soft breeze, ocean roaring and crickets and chickens singing sweet lullabies to me all night.
Slowing down is such the beautiful part of life. I've been here only 2 days, but feel like I've been here weeks. A day seems so long when it's not full of running about in the mind and body. This way of life that has been created, chasing the dollar, working to pay rent and bills, driving around incessantly from here to there, it has stolen so much from our lives, created such a neurotic frenzy in our minds of constant business. Slowing down gives the space to reflect, to open to the spirits of the land, and the deeper truths that we can be so blind to in our busy bodied embodiements.
I am so grateful for this time, and so cherishing the opportunity to just be. To garden, to put my hands in the soil, to feel the ancestral spirits of this land making contact with me in moments of stillness, to stare at the sea with no need of "going" anywhere or "doing" anything, to be UNAVAILABLE by cell phone.. WOW.. now that's a nice feeling, I must say! I am very much enjoying that!
Such a joy to experience the slowing down inside where time seems to be stretched, where time is NATURAL time, and not about the next appointment or the next "to do" item on the always increasing list. Such a joy to just feel soft and slow in each moment, no need to push, promote or do.
I am so grateful for this time..
Slowing down is such a remembrance of REAL life, REAL time, where the days are just days and the nights are sweet, deep nurturings serenaded by nature and spirit world.
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