Welcoming

I am grateful for the sunshine today.

Sunshine has broken free from the darkness

June has broken free from May

And it’s a new day!

My life may be complicated with sorrow

My life may be heavy with grief

I may be alone

I may be unsettled

And I’ve got me.

I’m the best remedy for me

I believe in me

I am listening to me

I open my gate and let love in.

I look into my eyes and see respect.

I feel my body and know acceptance

I welcome me home.

Bluest Sky-Blue a nd Feral Green Moods

By Carolyn Riker

When I can’t

describe a mood

I turn to Nature

and she

in all her wisdom

will paint a vision

it starts with

the bluest sky-blues

complimented with feral greens

running with a paintbrush

over hillside

turned to a meadow

tumbling

down a mountain

as the mood reaches

the ends of the earth

pulled in by the deepest seas

cresting with a nest

of whitecaps

you should stop there

and become the salt

on the rim

of each wave

touching your cheeks

you know that feeling

you might get

from spinning and spinning

laughing ‘til crying

because happiness

can touch sadness

as easily as a thread can unravel

a handsomely knit sweater

those moods

the ones that are indescribable

as well as palatable

so much so you can taste them

sipping the sky

walking side by side

next to a cloud

pouring juice

from a crescent moon

spooning this amazing love

funneled from here and there

tapping into memories

still alive

although yesterdays

are somehow suspended

and life has merged

with a blend of

I love you

for being the one

who can finally say

I hear bells ringing

on the tips of leaves

blowing in a breeze

being one with everything

and nothing

maybe that’s the best mood

the self-love we choose

Participants’ Reflections:

• Thank you so much for this reading. It was a rich time for me during the meditation. At the front end of your reflection, you said life has broken free from things. The other big thing you said was I am the best remedy for me. That brought me back to talking to the mirror. I haven’t done that in a long, long time. I want to go back to that practice. By the end of your reading, with the focus on nature—the gift of nature, the plants, the birds, the breeze, the changes in the weather—all of that is akin to the joy a pet owner experiences. Nature is a companion to us with no words. Words can get me into tangles. Nature is just there with me, greeting me every day anew and showing the unlimited potential. So thank you. that was rich.

• Thank you. I love what you wrote and the poem. I loved the last line of the poem about the self-love we choose. I know I have experienced different types of self-love, all the way from not even beginning to understand the concept to accepting myself and to eventually loving myself and finding any way I can to stay loving myself no matter the screwups I’ve had. I’m dealing with loving myself through a time of not using food as a way to make me happy. I’m separating myself from food so that it’s just for sustenance. Yesterday, we had friends over for a pizza party. I struggled to enjoy it but to stay on my path. It was hard. I had to practice loving myself through it. It caused anxiety. That’s a key—loving myself and accepting myself through this process. Thank you.

• I so appreciate people who are able to feel deep enough to write the poems I find. It’s not an easy thing feeling deeply, because not only do I feel deeply for myself, but I feel deeply for the ones I love, and I feel deeply for the suffering in the world. It’s hard. The past few days, I’ve been feeling like I want to cry but I don’t have anything to cry about. I give myself permission to cry and I don’t know why I’m crying. I used to beat myself up over that but I don’t anymore because I am feeling so widely. I feel the pain of everything and it’s hard and it takes courage.

• With that in mind, with the pain we feel, with the suffering around us, I see the bigger picture. The shamanic version of levels of living and the eagle’s eye view was shared recently and it helps me understand the suffering so that I don’t feel it so devastatingly painfully. I wish you all a perspective that helps you deal with your pain. With gentleness, we go into the day. Thank you.