Tag: hope

The Railings of My Cell

Finding my way to the beginning

Image by Begoña Carreres — used with permission | The author retains all rights and permissions for the use of this image

I beat upon the railings of my cell
When I discovered them
I found the walls that kept me
In my self-constructed hell
I walked the steps that then appeared
And met the maker of my show
The self that I’d projected
Onto God and onto you as well

I’d sailed within the darkness
And beneath the sunshine’s balmy glow
Until I’d brought the storms that raged
And fought the battle with my foe
The self that is deluded
And determined to be bound
Attacks with rabid vengeance
As my cries to freedom sound

The depths of my discovery
That haunted me these live-long years
The clues, so reprehensible
To all that tried to keep me here
In chains of insecurity
The fear of being free
Of being light and magnitude
The power I now see

You can’t beat a cacophony
Upon the walls that keep you bound
Until you have discovered them
And know where they are found
You can’t confront the God you made
Your maker can’t defy
Until you find him standing
Deep within your self-fuelled lies

You cannot choose escape
Until you understand you’re bound
Can’t cast a restless beat upon your bars
Until they’re found
So make the mission of your life
(The quest will serve you well)
To find the edge of what you’ve made
The railings of your cell

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 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

Beyond the Boundaries

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Surrendering it all

Nebula clouds, space, beautiful colours, textures
Author image, thanks to NightCafe AI

I give every moment 
Of this life I’ve made to you
Take it, hold it, mould me
To the truth I am in you

I’ll no longer listen 
To the obstacles I’ve made
Deep within the mind 
That wanted only to betray

Open me with blessings
Or with scalpels, as you need
Take a wrecking ball
And smash apart the games I’ve played

Tear off masks of hopelessness
My folly and my woe
And bring me to the memory
Of the beauty that you sow

In the recognition
Of the heart that holds the prize
Waking in the centre
Of the mind ceasing to try

Lies the joyful mystery
That is finally opened wide
Clear to see, impeccable
In light within my mind

Here’s the burning passion
Of the one that cries to know
Anguished heart that rises far
Beyond its stories sown

Reaching past the quandary
Of the self it chose to be
Out into the universe
Of breathtaking simplicity

Out into the widest breadth of mind 
That it can go
Taken far beyond itself
As now it seeks to know

All that it has hidden from
And all that it can be
Out beyond the boundaries
Of a faded, hopeless dream

Everyone Knows

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Everyone knows how beautiful you are
Everyone knows the extent to which you give your whole heart to everyone
Everyone knows how extraordinary the light that pours from your purity of soul
Everyone sees it, throughout the universe and further into realms that words do not have presence for

Everyone knows how much you shine
Everyone feels the light that radiates eternally through your expression
Everyone knows the beauty of your sacred smile that blooms and sheds its petals in swathes of gentle colour, lighting up the pathway for the ones who follow on

Everyone sees the depths you think you go to, to deny the promise that you gave us
Everyone sees, and no one cares, but you

Everyone just… waits
Waits for you to finally understand
That everyone knows how beautiful you are, how much you give, how much you love for the pure sake of loving

Can you not now give yourself to this…
This that everyone, everyone knows?

In My Loving Service to You

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Inspired by Sri Chimnoy, from Seventy Seven Thousand Service Trees

The beauty of self-giving
Eventually grows into
The fragrance of God-becoming.

Sri Chinmoy, Seventy Seven Thousand Service Trees, part 10, #18

In my loving service to you
Let me be gratified in depths before unknown
Unreached by chimes of playful servitude

Let me experience the need of my soul
To give truly, unexceptionally, perfectly
Without the mask of human intervention

Let me be released through giving to the joy of your true gratitude
That welcomes all who come with gentle determination to be truly free

In my loving service to you
Let me be taken apart and rendered unimaginable without you

In my loving service to you
Let me at last in sincerity abide
Let me at last to your wholeness attend
Let me at last bequeath my wanting to your waiting heart
And commit at last to wanting only you

Your intrinsic heaven is your constant gift to all who seek for meaning in it’s only home
Your intrinsic wholeness is the life that beats it’s constant glorious drum
Harmonising with Itself, attuning to it’s own accession with everything that it counts in as it’s own

Allow me to include myself in this heavenly, uniting chorus.
Allow me to experience myself as truly part of your whole, expressive joy

Help me allow myself release of every boundary I have clung to
As I learn to give myself, through my loving service
To the guiltless ardour of your eternally encompassing arms

Heaven is the decision I must make. I make it now and will not change my mind, because it is the only thing I want.

A Course in Miracles – Lesson 138