The Moment

Ever have one of those moments when you meet a beloved soul, one that you know from some other world, some other time.. eyes meet, hearts are instantly connected, you know you could sink into those arms and be as one heart, as lovers, as makers of magic? Here's a little poem about an experience I had a few nites ago with a new friend... Enjoy1

The Moment

Timeless Moment
The veil between the worlds melts
Wrapped in surrender

As two become one
Eternity stretches out it’s arms
Enfolds me in it’s full presence
I enter
Willingly seduced

Awareness
Expands beyond beyond

I am
Whispering wind
Shuddering Earth
Embodied fire
Tears of grace
Like the seas of eternity
Washing all time away

For one dance
One encapsulated jewel of time

Sipping curiosity
With a twist of bliss

Softness I am

Bliss of Being

Bliss of Being
When I play
I am alive again
The joy is instant
the passion's power tremendous
Flowing thru me like waves of grace
I am in bliss

The Bliss of Being
when hand strikes skin
rhythm begins
And I remember my true purpose
is for this...

Heard or unheard
I arrive at myself
Present
Empowered
Passionate
alive
Pulsing perfection

Sanctuary

Sanctuary within my skin
The rhythm brings me in again
To pray at lotus feet upon which I stand
as movement lifts me into my own Promised Land

The temple I am
this form holds the formless
merging worlds above and below
My body teaches me
what I need to know

Silently hovering in ether's embrace
one arm drifts down
mesmerizing
I am entranced
I am danced
I am bedazzled by the glow I feel
Igniting spirit thru flesh
Nothing else is real

Sanctuary within my skin
Temple I am
Without and within

Creekside Muse

I never want to leave you
once I've sunk back into your embrace
Your tender stillness empties me

Time becomes like a lost happy child
wandering aimlessly
exploring the forests of possibilities
with curious eyes and an innocent heart
Known to no one

Here by creekside's constant cooing
my heart cracks open
I am soft
spilled into tranquil pools
where rocks like my heart
are softened to sand
washed away into the vastness that is your love
My body melts
My body vacant but for you

The willow's swishing soft hair-like tendrils
brush gently against my skin like a lover
The one you are for me
Stirring me to stay longer
I succomb willingly
opening to your breath again and again..

Nothing is as this
No place else is home
My beloved lives here
Naked, unadorned, freely dancing in the wind
Turning white fluffy clouds into magical imaginations of the mind
hovering above me as this earth spins
Turning leaves and water and air into symphonies of perfect grace

I never want to leave you

Moment of Stillness

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

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

Message from Peace

To know me is to love me
To feel me is to cherish your truest self
I am always here
Awaiting your remembrance
of the gifts I offer you

Tranquility
Magic
Mystical awakening
To the depths of your inner being

You and I are the same
Only you sometimes forget me

I welcome you to my abode anytime
Day
or night
My heart longs to feel your breath
slowed
Empassioned
Awakened fully to the love I hold for you

I am eternal
I am the dawn
I am the mid-day heat radiating my warmth
I am the soft surreal colors streaming from sunset's kiss

I am yours
Come to me
Again and again
And I will always hold you

I am your eternal lover
I will never forsake you
Though you will forsake me
Time and time again
Until...

You learn that I am here for you
Absorb me
Learn my ways
Rise into the heights of the glory of grace

Choose me
And I will return to you
Every day
In every moment that you let me
I will be the lover that you can never find in another

I alone can gift you eternal joy
I alone can be your ally in the darkest night

I alone

Breathe
And you will feel me breathing
Move
And you will feel me moving
For I am the blossom
I am the birdsong
I am the lone coyote
wandering the desert
with the rabbit and the fox
the elk and the deer

I am the magic
I am the mystery
I am the muse
I am
that I am

Yours Eternally

Midnite Moonlite Muse

Bright sweet mistress
Enraptures me
Entices me
Reminds me of slow, sensual sweet surrender
Like a lover
Soft
Deep
True
Creating heat in the cool night's kiss
My skin shivers
My spirit awakens

The Goddess on Sacred Ground
She shines down
Cascading mystical remembrances
Of the Truth in Being

Soft
Sensual
Delightful to all senses
She pulls me in
Like I would a lover tonite
Deep into the womb of warmth
Dripping ectasy

Magic is always here
And she reminds me
to find the grace in simple solitude
and body awakened to purity
As coyotes sing now
To the stillness of my heart
with one soft candle whispering flickering shadows

My body pulses to her call
I am awakened
Deep in the night
Thinking of the lovers of love
Feeling the call of divinity
Flowing
Effortlessly

Embracing me
I dance within her in midnight's magic
Willingly her lover
Always and forever more

Chaos: the sweet surrender to the great unknown

Swirly void
Envelope me
Find me in my peaceful place
Stir me
Shake me to my core
Remind me
To find you once more

You
who so often is feared
Left out in the far away places
Afraid to be seen
An untouchable
Yet I welcome you now

Come
Teach me of your depths
Limitless potential
Boundless energy
Fullness of all that is nothing

Infinite potentiality
exists in your disguise
The great unknown
Mystery
Like the deep heart of night
But much less still

Find me
Remind me
Teach me
Unleash me
Let my edges be pushed to the places I have forgotten

I surrender to you
And out of you
I find the Grace
I know I AM
Emerging softly
thru my tears
Thru my resistance

And on the other side
I see once again
The light of God.


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Chaos is, as I talk about in Muse Power, the wellspring of creation, the void of new birth, and it is a wonderful and magical experience to emerge from it's swirly soup with clarity, and newness awaiting discovery!

It's all about the surrender.. those of you who have Mused with me in the Muse Jam's, you know this place, we go thru it in every Muse.. and every single time, the magic that comes through it is so beautiful.. for me, the Muse is my metaphor for life.. what happens there, I KNOW is what will happen in life.. if I follow the same course of surrender, allowing and letting go... The Muses are my guide and reminder in moments of chaos, or stillness, or perfection.. all of it.. they teach me everything I need for life skills... I know many of you know this too! :) That's why I wrote the book after all! :)

Please share your experiences of chaos and it's passionate place in your life! :) Love to hear from you!

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.

From Crestone with Love

Windy Day
Blows me open
Blows thru me like the mystery

I am raw
Unbridled
Unhinged
Unkempt
Free like the wind

Oya: My beloved sister of eternity
Pulsing around this globe of grace

Infinite kiss of the Divine
Blessing me
Eternally

This magical place
Stillness reigns supreme
It is tangible here
The peace
The depths of stillness
Even as the wind rages wild dust tornados

Stillness Lives here

This is it's home
I am blessed once again to dance with her here.

Pulse of Gaia

Beneath me
I feel her pulse
Calling to me
Always, eternally..

She is the medicine I take voluntarily
To soothe
To teach
To acknowledge grace
To remember truth

She is always waiting..
Echoing
Loud
Resonant
Seductive rhythms of nite

Calling me inward
to the sanctuary of my self

The outer worlds of distraction
Gone
The chatter of the mind
Gone
The business of the day
Gone

Only the Pulse of Gaia
Resounding in my ears
Thru my body
Nature is my confidant
My eternal ally


Day by day
Side by side
Hand in hand
Step by step
I learn this wisdom way

Rhythms of Yemaya
Entrancing
Evocative
Always present
Big pulsing power of ocean blue
Like the blood in my veins
Like the breath thru my spirit

Effortless
Always returning
to the shores of renewal

The Pulse of Gaia

Techno world forgotten
Cars, traffic, rush rush rush
Forgotten..

As I merge
Again and again
In silent seductive surrender

Take me, Yemaya
Far out to the depths of your eternal blue
Into the heart of the swells
to ride in joyful playfulness
with the dolphins and the whales

The Eternal wisdom keepers...

Pulse of Gaia
Frog songs at night
Bird songs when dawn returns

Always the Pulse of Gaia lives in me

Remembering the wisdom way

Remembering
The Pulse of Gaia

Day by day
Side by side
hand in hand
Groove by groove

Eternally dancing in delite upon her womb

Gaia
Yemaya
Seductive passions of love's truths
I will always succomb... willingly
Joyfully..

Polalu Valley: Hawaii

Trembling
bone crunching
jowels of hell
With eyes of fire piercing eternity

Eternal Guardians
Always watchful
Always foreboding
Always vengeful

Some place of evil doings
Terror beyond the imaginable
Lives here on this island

Spooky
Cursed
The forbidden land
Protected but wrongly taken

Deep pulsing mother earth
Yoni fat and moist
Dripping most enticing delites
An Eden poisoned.

What stories live here
I feel the bones
I see the blood
I know mine are here too
My blood and bones

Savage beyond the conceivable
A fortress impenetrable by design

Haunted forests
Ironwood dancing
Featherlike in the raging wind
The wind that never sleeps here

He he o a na..
He he o a na...

I come to pay my respects
I come in peace
I go in peace.

Raining the Tears of the World

God is dumping the seas upon our heads
Days and days of rain
Relentless
Like a flood pouring from the skies.

This island is drenched
Saturated
Soaked
Like I would be
Were it not for this screened
Roofed sanctuary

The rain comes thru
In little spatters
Spits on me and this screen

Sweet sounds
Water makes
Smacking big green tropical leaves
Thumping a constant drone
Like the raging seas
Smacking again and again
Into black, volcanic rock

It is night again
The Cokee’s sing still
With sheets of water pouring upon them
Still they sing
Finding each other
Thru the eternal watering

Rhythm songs
Frogs are masters
Echoeing above it all
They pierce the night
Melodies divine
Rhythm rhapsody ride

I love to listen
All night long
Sometimes it’s hard to sleep
I want to hear it all
To absorb it
To make it part of me

This place
Pure, Free, Abundant in Life
I want to merge with it
So I stay present thru the night
Listening in my dreams

The rain always comes again here
Breathing moments before it falls again
All night long
All day long
The rain is my solid companion

Barely above the wind and rain
The ocean roars
Loud in my ears, I breathe to it
In and out with the surf
Rhythmical
Always present
Always powerful
Wild, white water
Cascading against black rocks
I see it in here
From my bed
I see it
As part of me now

God is weeping the tears for a million lives lived
For those whose lands are filled with terror
Whose eyes may never see
The beauty that I know
In every moment
In every day

Even here
With the rain falling
Hard, fast and constant

Still
There is beauty beyond beauty

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

Hawaii Rhythms of Truth

Rhythms of truth
Sing thru the sea
Sing thru the wind
Sing thru me


Life itself
Is simple

It asks
For nothing

It gives
All of itself

Here in Heaven
I Am Remembering life

As a way of being
Like the whales
Like the palms
Like the birds

Effortless
Simply being

These are the Rhythms of Truth

Slow
Soft
Sweet
Always present

Essence is Truth
All else is Illusion

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.