Tag: gratitude

That Is Where You’ll Be

In your open hearted giving of the grace you’ve always been

Photo by Holly Rose Thomas / All rights & permissions reserved

There’s not a moment when I am not with you, breathing through the lungs that nourish cells vibrating to the rhythm of my grace

There’s not a moment when you will not find me if you look towards the certainty revealed as you recognise my face

My gratitude to you is inexpressible in words that fumble, falling to the nothingness that’s cast upon the winds

Within the peace of breathing to the rhythms of my heartbeat you are lifted to the angels and within their joy you sing

My voice is in the feeling of the sunshine’s rays upon you as you turn towards my presence and become the golden sun

My words are in the whispers of the breeze that wraps around you as you cast your arms wide open and embrace the Holy One

The voice that speaks of clarity, that pulls your mind from trenches where you hid from dangers stark and landscapes barren as the Somme

Reminds you in its sweetness and its depth of peace and gentleness that all you were constructing is a long time past and gone

You stand within my clarity revealing all your beauty as you open to the power to redeem and bless and save

And in your blessed receiving, overcoming your intrusions, you’re releasing every mind to feel the gratitude it gave

You open to my voice as you become the holy mystery that’s revealed in the longing of your heart for what is true

And as we step together through each moment that you let your loving soul flow from its fountain you are sanctified in truth

I love you as the seasons cast their gifts upon the landscape, in the sharp of winter mornings, in the haze of summer fields

I become you through your opening to my voice that’s all around you, in the rustling of the secrets on the branches of the trees

You’re breath is always bringing you to depths within my majesty, your constant friend and counsellor, the wind that purifies

The thoughts that you’ve been given by the Son that walks beside you are your contact to his healing and his great expansive mind

So listen to your heartbeat, feel the nourishment that’s moving, feel the energy that’s coursing through the rivers of your veins

Feel my blessed heart within you, feel the gratitude that’s flowing from the Mind that’s giving birth to you each instant as you say

“I am yours forever, this is heaven, this is peace, you are my constant love and every instant I remember you”

And in your declaration I will fortify your clarity, strengthening and nourishing your widely reaching roots

And as you feel the gently rushing energies of love lifting up your mind to grace as you become the truth in me

Your heaven will extend to every kingdom in the universe of universes, in your giving that is where you’ll be

Everything

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The everything that you are

Pencil crayon drawing of a tree with round green bobbles for leaves and round red bobbles for apples!
Artwork by Holly Rose Thomas | The author retains all rights and permissions for the use of this image

Everything wants to be with you
Everything wants to know
The limitless scope of your peaceful hope
The certainty deep in your soul

Everyone wants to be with you
The everyone that you are
Everyone joins with the precious coins
That flow from deep in your heart

Everyone wants to love you
To discover the love that they give
As their deathly hearts convulse with a start
Roused as they come to live

Everyone wants to know you
’Cause knowing is all you’ve been
Since the day you were born as truth beyond form
And deathly limbs became green

Everyone wants to help you
As helping you we become one
We demonstrate how the love we are now
Is the catalyst, all is undone

Everyone wants to be with you
The fruit that your branches bear
Is heavenly food for the seeds that you threw
Onto ground that was fertile but bare

And now as we join in the sunshine
Of heavenly treasures so true
Our gratitude swells as we open the wells
That will nourish us as we push through

And trees that bear their own rich fruit
Are humbled as they grow
Your orchard of love is the outpouring of
Your truth — the truth we now sow

Alive Within Your Heart

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An experience I received and that I cherish deeply — and pray to keep alive and powerful within my mind

Artwork by Holly Rose Thomas | The author retains all rights and permissions for the use of this image

Let me be created by you
On this day and every day
Let my heart be opened 
By the voice that paves the way

In this blessed instant
To the love I’ve always craved 
Opening, awakening to
Your beauty and your grace

No more do I depend
On those who walk in form
Now I am complete
Within the heart that’s ever warm

Ever rich in comfort
Ever offering me its own
Light that flows in rivers strong
That feeds the seeds it’s sown

Now I know your nourishment
Your warmth and gentle grace
Ever strong within me
All my darkness to replace

Now I know the strength of those 
Who walk within your love
Never more will care be worn 
While this mind’s thinking of…

Pondering and resting on,
Receiving what you are
I’ll never be alone
Now you’re alive within my heart

Do You Remember…

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…my love for you?

Two outstretched hands with forefingers almost touching
Thank you Shoeib Abolhassani on Unsplash for the image

Do you remember how many times
I told you I loved you and held your face
So close to mine, my hand on your head
Our bodies aligned, all fear erased

Do you remember now you’re in pain
Determined to fight with a past you can’t change
But can only forgive and render untrue
As a twisted perspective still living in you

Do you remember the infinite love
The passion we shared for reaching to light
The gratitude, wholeness, and beauty divine
The determination to rise above

Do you remember your humbler times
When arrogance cast to the floor, you could find
The gratitude, brimming with love, you were true
I watched seventh heaven arising in you

Do you remember? Can you say
To me in the clarity of today
This instant, ringing clear and true
That you’ve forgotten my love for you?

Do you remember how many times
We stood together, your heart in mine
The greater majesty rang true
In every holy breath we drew

Do you remember being in light?
Tempestuous pasts redeemed in our sight
As everything that was past and gone
Was the sacred path we’d journeyed on

Do you believe I can’t see through
The jealous haven you’ve quarried to
The depths of hatred you won’t rebuke
Amidst the storms of desolate truth

Can you believe what I can see?
Devotion, loving, true, truly
Chasms that open, painful, wide;
Your own to choose to dive inside

But you can’t shake the truth I see 
Only pure, loving memories
A life entirely given to
The ones you understood could save you

Do you understand what it’s like to find
An angel of light right here in my mind
Who’s desperate to serve what’s holy and true
If only you felt my gratitude!

Do you remember how many times
I told you I loved you and held your face
So close to mine and we disappeared
Into the divine, His eternal grace

The Only Thing That Can Be Loved

Are you ready…?

Photo by Hamish Weir on Unsplash — thank you

The only thing that can be loved
That which is wholly real
The only thing that can’t be judged
It lives beyond impatient zeal…

To manifest a life of ease
Within the nothingness of form
It lives upon the grace
That is, beyond this world, the norm

It’s only to be known and seen
And felt, received, and helped to grow
Within the self that judges not
The seeds that it has sown

The only thing that can be loved
Is love itself, you are
Within this holy instant
The perfection of the heart

Within this breathless sanctitude
You are the life that leads
Gently, through the gathering dusk,
To all the soul could need

The light that shines upon me
From your dedicated mind
As you offer yourself
To that which swims in the divine

You offer all you are
To all the beauty you’ve been shown
As hearts that open wide
Become the One upon the throne

True majesty bequeaths its favour
Everywhere it goes
It knows not who or what it sees
But loves as it’s been shown

The love that’s been allowed is given,
Nothing else is seen
A torrent of such blessings
Reigns and rains and is received

Everywhere, in everything,
These blessings sprout and grow
The merging of the self
Becomes the torrent of the flow

The light that pours incessantly
From your devoted soul
That climbs in climax
Roars in ruth, explodes the paths of old

It tumbles over rocks and sandy bottoms
Gurgling on
The course that you have taken
Now delivers you in song

To tempests raging wild
Upon the waves that crash the shore
But for a moment all is still
As you are shown the door

The chasm, joyful opening
The bird pecked estuary
That, calm, awaits the moment
Of your joining with the sea

And as the moon awakens
As she rises and then shines
Reflecting beauty of the Father Sun
Within her mind

The waters rise within you
But you are no longer scared
You stand with arms wide open
With your mind alive in prayer

You whisper deep within the soul
Of what you’ve always been
“I’m ready to be taken out
Forever from this dream”

Begin

Beginning to believe

Photo by Holly Rose Thomas | The author retains all rights and permissions for the use of this image

When you say I paved the way
For all that’s happening now
The breath that courses into me
And beats upon my brow
Mistakes me for the one who recognizes
All the gifts they’ve sown
In heaven’s secret places,
In my precious heart of stone

The seeds that fell upon the rubble
Or the misty shoal
Admit the past and seek to feed
Its creases and its wolds
But those that fell within the heart
That looked so cold and bare
Went troubling its cracks
And took their humble roots in there

The stone cold circle rumbled
As the roots were gathering brawn
And suddenly a piercing cracking
Ripped apart the dawn
A river flowed where none had known
It’s raging path before
And I arose, a chalice held aloft
With glowing core

The gifts that had been given
Ever deigning to receive
The fruits of many labours
That had seemed to crush and wreathe
That finally built a circle
That could be seen and believed
That mystified but never sought
To chasten or recede

If you say I paved the way
Your blessings I can feel
If you acknowledge
What I have denied, I know it’s real
If you believe that I have given
More than I could see
Then I’ll believe you, as I begin to
Believe in me

All There Is To Find

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The seeking heart must some day find its gold

Under the surface of the sea, light rays shining in, beautiful clear water but you can feel the weight and the depth at the bottom
Photo by Cristian Palmer on Unsplash — thank you

I want to tread the deeper dives
Where blessings hold beneath the flow
The stillest waters, richest tides
A sweetness brought to light, sublime

A travesty it feels to give
Only this superficial slant
Fragmented personality
Divorced from what I can’t reveal

I want to tread the deeper dives
And stem the tide of surface flow
That, jesting, as its joker’s wont
Has ridiculed the depths I know

I want to be a truthful one
Who shows the innards of its own
Who casts an acted part aside
Its timbre ceased, its wings unflown

I want to ride the waves of flow
That authenticity has wed
To leap unbridled on the growing
Self that has straight past me sped

I want to know what lies beyond
Within and at the core of me
I want to let the self be dead
That still affronts, entangles me

I want to feel the death, complete
Of all that I have willed and known
I want to leap, unfathomed depths
Beneath me as I fall below

I want to hurry to the cliff 
And wrest this putrid body home
And catapult the self that shames itself
Upon the rocky road

I want the death that’s promised me
Within the pages of the tomes
The script that’s written, hands of light 
Bequeathing all the joy they know

I want to die a thousand deaths
To everything that I have made
And watch with gentle gratitude
As what I truly am is cradled

Gently by the opening shaft
Of sunshine that has borne the child
That I have never known before
Whose smiling beauty makes me wild

With happiness, an opening hearted
Calmness and tranquillity
Encompasses the instant
That I finally feel free

So if you look to find me
And you see that I have gone
And all that’s left is peacefulness
A gentle hearted song

All you can find is writing
Carved upon an ancient wall
This joyful death, with life becoming
Everything and all

If all you find within the tomb
Of death defying Will
Is that which troubles heaven
Not a syllable or swell

If all you find is gratitude
Within a peaceful mind
You’ve found the place where I discovered
All there is to find

The Portal Is Open

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The mind is free

A shady path leading into the forest with the sun pouring down in the foreground
Photo by Holly Rose Thomas | The author retains all rights and permissions for the use of this image

If I’d been willing to open my heart
To recognise all that was crumbling and dark
To welcome the demons that wrested the swell
From the power that rose up to vaporise hell

If I’d been willing to set my heart free
From the hopeless becomings that conjured a dream
If my light had been shining, my will had been true
I would have made this so easy for you

If I’d been faithful and followed your word
If I’d marched to the beat of the drum that you heard
If I’d been firm through resistance and mire
To dismiss the beliefs that bedeviled the pyre

Of the corpses that past culminations had sown
Into patterns unchanging and restless, ungrown
That were clearing so beautifully, turned by the flames of forgiveness
To smoke signals, peaceful and sane

I’m troubled in turns by the reams of regret
The temptation to focus on failure, to let myself
Fall from the grace of the sweet moment’s gift
To resist the becoming, the swelling, the lift

If I’d only been present, I’d only been whole
If I’d only discovered the grit of my soul
If I’d only been willing to set them all free
Then my mind would have been in divine industry

But the power to be and the power to give
Are recognised only the instant that is
Are understood solely and only right now
Are redundant in pasts that are gone as we plough

Through the depths of the karma, revealed and released
Till a space, wide and precious, fertility’s feast
Lies there before us, fresh seeds can be sown
In the mind that has sent all its past troubles home

So “If only I’d been in the present with you”
Is denial right now of the powerful truth
That we’ll always be joined in our heavenly task
Of becoming the present, releasing the past

We’ve always been here, the unmasking of time to eternity
Happens each moment, divine,
That I welcome the beauty of wholeness and see
That the portal is open, the mind it is free

Your Perfect Holiness

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A lesson in wholeness and gratitude from A Course in Miracles

A blazing light breaking in a dark sky.
Stock image purchased

The grasses they are speaking
The holy world is wide
Communicating with you
Your own dear breadth of mind

The universe is watching
And loving all you do
The spirit’s soul, perfection, whole
Is loving only you

Every breath you follow
To your sacred unity
Extends from deep within you
And blesses all you see

In every footstep you’re renewed
Releasing all to Him
Who’s heart, its rhythmic beating song
Gathers you deep within

“All things that live bring gifts to you, and offer them in gratitude and gladness at your feet. The scent of flowers is their gift to you. The waves bow down before you, and the trees extend their arms to shield you from the heat, and lay their leaves before you on the ground that you may walk in softness, while the wind sinks to a whisper round your holy head.”

A Course in Miracles, Workbook Lesson 156 — I Walk with God in Perfect Holiness

“Your plan I follow here, and at the end I know that You will gather Your effects into the tranquil Heaven of Your Love, where earth will vanish, and all separate thoughts unite in glory as the Son of God.”

A Course in Miracles, Workbook Lesson 326 — I Am Forever an Effect of God

I Entered In

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The gifts that greet the grateful soul

Pink centred sun, womb, fire, abstract beauty
Author image, thanks to NightCafe AI

I entered in the womb of God
It was your body, opened wide
From base to crown an opening of light
Arose before my eyes

It beckoned me to enter in
And taste the pleasures of the soul
And feel the glorious pressure 
Of the mind becoming whole

I entered in the womb of God
And at your heart that opened wide
A blessing to consume me
As I stripped to bare and dived

A flow, innate, of gratitude
Did humble me wherein I knew
The love of God surrounding me:
Synonymous with you

The walls were lush and turgid
As between them I did glide
Ever moving inward to the
Sacred space inside

A space where I am nourished
To the essence of my core
A comfort of such density
Aliveness, gentle warmth

The walls they hold me centred
Their pressure meets my need
For comfort and security
My everlasting greed

Insatiable desire
To be held, to feel at home
To lie and rest in certainty
That I am not alone

I feel the grateful rhythms
Of a heart that’s guiding true
Every mind that comes to him
For comfort and for ruth

I rest within a body
That body is your mind
I have a cord that feeds me
Without forage or find

I rest within your gentleness
Your peace is all I know
I rest within your certainty
Within your peace I grow

I enter in your kingdom
To rest a while from form
Till I’m released from density
Then from this place I’m born