 Dear Friends,
We don't know about you, but it doesn't seem to matter how many times we read that nothing can separate us from the Love of our Divine Source, nor how well we know this intellectually, we still act as if it isn’t true amazingly often, and allow things like guilt, fear, regret and stress to cut us off from the flow of universal Love. Louisa was feeling like that the other day – you know: all drab, regretful and wrong – because of something quite insignificant really; it was just that it didn't seem insignificant at the time. Then, in a book about Andean shamanism called The Gate of Paradise by Chamalu, she read this powerful command:
‘Let not your mind be the tomb of your spirit
or your thoughts the prison of your heart.’
Oh how many times do we incarcerate ourselves without even noticing? Who builds those prison walls of imaginary restrictions and limitations – walls to which we are so habituated, we mostly just take them for granted? Our minds do. We do.
Released back into the Flow at last by Chamalu's advice, Louisa wrote the following words which she wanted to share with you:
“Everyone loses their way. We just notice one day that something is missing... we don't feel that familiar presence, the love that usually surrounds us. We even forget how it feels. A sunrise is just a sunrise, the birdsong in our garden is just an everyday sound, food is just something we need to fill our stomachs because it's seven o'clock. This is so frustrating because we know there should be more. It's lonely and empty and can last a long time. Some get submerged in this place, and live there for years or have always lived as if there were no other. But even when we can't feel the Universal, it's there. And always will be... for everyone. The love and the magic of eternity cannot be shaken off by human error. Our ideas of guilt or fear are just thoughts. Our mistakes mean nothing to God. Our true essence has never stopped loving. That's why I want to remember next time I feel lost, not to torture myself over it, not to struggle against the tide to get back, but just to let go. Let me remember, next time, just to relax and trust, and the tide will carry me back to the sea.
Realising this, after reading Chamalu's words (which I want to repeat because I love them so much!): ‘Let not your mind be the tomb of your spirit or your thoughts the prison of your heart’, I looked out of the window. There I saw the most beautiful world just waiting to welcome me back. And this poem came to me, maybe to remind me of this important lesson the next time my mind starts to build prisons. I hope it will remind you, too.
The Autumn Path
Crisp and cold the morning air
My love drifts silent and still
Rusted leaves crackling under icy toes
Naked and numb but dancing still
Meanings, future, reassurance
Not needed in this blissful dawn
Fairy fool, dancing diva
Too far gone or one step nearer?
Amber clouds open
To a glittering cosmic blue
If you stood here with me
I wonder if you'd see it too
Yet, too content to worry of disillusion,
'Neath sleepy arch of orange I step
Draping leaves brush through my hair
I know my garden path
Though I know not where
It leads me now ... a secret well kept!
Still, I dance on through this moment
Glad as a child
To watch the hand of autumn
Paint a picture so wild
I breathe in the air, ecstatic
It cleanses my lungs and my soul
I let go ...
Now I know
My mistakes don't matter
They can't stop the seasons
They can't dim the sun
They can't rust the gold
I let go ...
Like the trees
My emotions are my leaves
With ease they slip away
Autumn passes kindly
Carries them with her breeze
Yet rooted I stay
Comfortably bare
Exposed to the elements
Humble in the face of God
Surrounded by simple wonder
I know now where I've been led
The only place where dew drops shine like diamonds
Where wind blows tainted thoughts clean from my head
Where all the small things bring ultimate bliss
Where nature is love and her portrait a kiss
I had only to let go ...
And trust that all is One
Now I know
That I live in the Garden of Eden”
With much love from all of us.
Geoff, Ann, Martyn, Jackie, Jacqueline, Eileen, Sarah, Lynette, Regina, Irina, Penny, Belinda, Catherine, Richard, Brian, Alison, Mary, Derek, Eddie, Louisa, Jon, Sam & Pat
Text & photographs © Cygnus Books 22-Dec-2002
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