Month: July 2018

Asking for Help

Why do we wait so long
to pray for the help we need?
Rest assured there are no perfect prayers
that must be memorized and said perfectly.
“Dear God, help me” is the perfect prayer,
with the right intention behind it.

Admitting there is a Higher Power–
One larger and more powerful than us,
is the perfect beginning point.
Knowing that we need help,
coupled with the willingness to ask for help,
is the perfect start to receiving help.

Being able to recognize help when it arrives,
is requisite to the help helping us.
Allowing the help we receive to incubate,
and fill our healing cocoon is vital
to our help taking hold and transforming us.
Let’s not wait so long to ask for help next time.

Winter Meditation

Winter’s eve drawing nigh,
Dark clouds hover, January sky,
Fading firelight, flickers gloom,
Dancing barefoot ‘cross the room.

Huddled shadows hushing night,
In your arms hold me tight,
Sharp-edged snowflakes fall so still,
White frost clings, nearby window sill.

Longing for what’s not there,
No comfort found, my rocking chair,
Sitting still, motionless,
Holding on, memories caress.

Brutal cold winter night,
Full moon shining, oh so bright,
Sitting still by the fire,
Surrender there, all desire.

Cancer as Spiritual Teacher

For each of us, life lessons to learn,
Meaningful truths to clearly discern,
Some lessons, mere cooking recipes,
Others, more demanding therapies.

Our spirits cry out when we are in pain,
A new understanding from which we can gain,
And if we are mindful and willing to change,
By opening to spirit, our life will rearrange.

Learning from cancer seems quite odd,
But listen, you’ll hear wisdom from God,
It’s all about balance, aligned living you could say,
Finding our essence, living it each day.

The spiritual lessons so far for me:
From fear and selfishness to be free,
And walk my path with trust and love,
Guided by healing wisdom from Above.

Look at your cancer, beyond a disease,
Its lessons abound for you to seize,
Be honest about what you see,
Spiritual truth is the key.

Cancer’s No Joke, but It’s Okay to Laugh

Laughter won’t kill me, so why not bust a gut?
No harm in a chortled snicker or a devious snort
at the prissy old lady in the room next door
who punctuated the air with a loud squeaky fart.

Sitting with my bags in the northwest corner chemo suite,
I heard a nurse exclaim: Dunkin’ Donuts can’t be beat.
Then, in unison I heard everyone sigh:
the donuts are gone, so sad we could cry.

Almost peed my pants, laughing so hard,
when a senior oncologist let down his guard—
sharing advice with a young resident doctor;
straight from Mother Goose, my what a shocker:

“For every evil under the sun,
There is a remedy, or there is none.
If there be one, seek till you find it;
And when you find it, get thee behind it.”

A ride in the elevator, so very telling about life,
Shall I smoke a joint before chemo, a man asks his wife,
A punch in his chest she landed with might,
I feared at that moment there could a fight.

I urge you to give humor a chance,
Let jokes and laughter through your life dance,
Some craziness at times all of us need,
Laugh at yourself, start a healing stampede.

On Cancer and Poetry

When we have cancer,
we are willing to try anything,
including poetry,
to stay alive.

Poetry helps us step delicately
into the vast river of life,
wash off our assumptions, and
flow with the river’s healing currents.

Cancer is
the stretch of challenging rapids ahead.
Let’s brace ourselves, and
ride them with courage and grace.

Did you know poetry sometimes
can be more dangerous than cancer,
by bringing out things inside us
that we never knew were there?

When we have cancer,
let’s give poetry a try—
It’s alchemical brews
can turn our lead into gold.

A New Path with Heart Ahead

A new plan ahead for my life–
I feel it brewing in my soul.
Longings first in the mist,
then faint singing voices from afar.
Memories rise, then they fall,
‘cross roaming fields of yesterday.

At times, it takes a wake-up call–
Things both strange and familiar–
A sudden brush with death, or even
a child’s first sweet whispered words.
Each a sign, a new path ahead–
One filled with heart and soul.

A place I’ve been before, very long ago.
A partial clearing now in view, and then
a sprawling patch of cheerful wildflowers along the edge
of the narrow winding path, up the hill it goes.
There I stop, in silence listen–
The mournful wail of bagpipes, echoing across the glen.

A new beginning, all this says–
An unknown path with heart calling out to me:
Walk this way in your life,
just beyond what you know.
Fear not, for I will walk with you,
till new feet on this path you grow.

Prayer #3

God give us the vision to see reality,
and to know the truth in a living way.
Grant us the wisdom
to know ourselves and others
in a loving and kind way.

Help us transcend our pain and suffering
by using them to grow stronger
in compassion and empathy.
Help us see the world in all its beauty
without judgment and attachment.

Help us replace our pride with humility,
and live in a fully human way.
Protect us from our own self-doubt,
ignorance of higher purpose,
and for underestimating our own true potential.

Prayer #2

God help us to see past our blind spots,
including our limited view of You, others, and ourselves.
Forgive us when we didn’t sacrifice enough for others,
when our compassion fell short,
and when we could only love conditionally.

Forgive us when we didn’t thank You
for the precious gift of life
You have given us.
Help us use our gifts to honor You
and bring about goodness in the world.

Whatever the Day Brings, Let Us Be Grateful

We can learn from our pain,
even our fear of lingering uncertainty.
Let’s not squander our precious life energy
on creating puzzles, hyperbolic machinations,
and self-destructive nightmares.

Let’s seek wisdom from within ourselves,
and use it to live with our not knowing.
Hear the clarion call for self-peace,
putting an end to our self-inflicted suffering.
Whatever the day brings, let us be grateful.

Today is a New Day

Today is a new day–
a chance to heal and start over.
It’s a day for removing our cancer,
and our fear, anger, and resentment.

Today is a new day–
a opportunity to see ourselves
and the world
in a fresh healing light.

Today is a new day–
a powerful new starting point
for living fully,
and embracing our wholeness.

Today is a new day–
let’s not waste it
on pain and suffering.
Let’s live it with gratitude.

Healing is Everyone’s Job

The world is broken,
troubled with deep anger and fear,
causing people and the earth to suffer.

We contribute to the world’s suffering
when we act strictly in our own self-interests,
and fail to see how we impact others.

Some people seem to think
it’s somebody else’s job
to help the world heal.

Why do they think that way?
Maybe suffering is all they know,
and they don’t know how to heal themselves.

If we’re not healing ourselves
and helping the world to heal,
what are we doing?

Confronting Our Secrets

Everything in life
contains a secret hiding place–
a mysterious storage locker,
where we keep our deepest pain,
darkest fears,
broken promises,
shattered dreams,
false accusations,
shameful thoughts and deeds,
and other desperate acts of survival.

Let’s confront our secrets.
Acknowledge their presence,
and remember why we locked them away.
Let’s use our secrets
to find our own god of self-understanding,
and help others confront their secrets.
Let’s live courageously without secrets.
Let’s open the door of our psychic storage lockers,
let the sunlight in,
and chase the mysterious shadows away.

Ruminations on Suffering

I keep thinking–
someday we won’t suffer so much.
I keep thinking–
someday we’ll stop pretending
our suffering can save us.
I keep thinking–
there is life after death,
and life after our suffering.
In each case, we start over,
like the sun rises each morning,
and tears and the rain are reminders
to let go and allow ourselves to flow.

The Power of Change to Heal

We never know
anything for certain.
But that’s not so bad
because nothing is forever.
And in that light
we see reality,
which escapes us
when we want something different
than what is.
Let’s live in the moment,
and never doubt
the power of change to heal us.

Watching a Hummingbird Snare a Spider

The hummingbird snared and ate the spider–
straight out of the spider’s dangling web.
Not something you’d expect
on this early July evening.
But then again,
how much do we really know
about the workings of nature,
let alone the appetite of the hummingbird,
who graces our presence
with his beating wings
and unmistakeable humming song?

Returning to Our Virgin State of Wholeness

Sometimes we do things
just to survive–
to avoid our deepest pain,
which may or may not be
of our own making.
And sometimes we do things
just because we don’t know
what else to do.

I think back on my life,
and I would encourage you
to think back on yours.
And as we move forward,
let’s do things that really matter–
things with the power to transform us,
returning us to
our virgin state of wholeness.

Working Together for a Cure

Let’s close our eyes for just a moment,
and contemplate the miracle of human life.
Forty trillion cells in the body.
Each knows its job,
and each does its job
in perfect union with all others.
Maybe all of us can work together
to prevent and cure cancer.

Another Way to See Our Lives

It’s easy for all of us
to look at our lives with remorse,
and say I would’ve, could’ve, or should’ve.
We did what we did,
and we didn’t do what we didn’t do.

Alternatively,
let’s gaze upon our lives
with gratitude and forgiveness,
grow our own self-understanding,
and deepen our compassion for others’ suffering.

Cosmic Wisdom for Those with Cancer

We are not separate
from the whole of life,
despite how we may feel at times.

Like the stars making up the Milky Way,
we give life back to the universe
that gave birth to us.

Because we have life, we have purpose.
We must trust our cosmic instincts
that echo wisdom throughout our beings.

We must trust our Divine purpose.
That is our North Star.
Where there is purpose, there is life.

When we pray or meditate,
we should allow our North Star
to fill our eyes with stardust.

When we speak,
we should allow our hearts to move our lips.
Then our words are real.

When we listen,
we should receive the universe’s quantum vibrations.
Then we hear the truth.

And when we lie down to sleep,
let us dream of cosmic wholeness.
For then, we can heal.

Placing Blame Won’t Help

We blame our cancer on our family histories,
emotional traumas scarring our bodies and souls,
how we’ve lived our daily lives,
unwarranted exposure to dangerous chemicals and pollution,
harmful preservatives in the food we love to eat,
all the undue stress and suffering in our lives,
and even a roll of the dice by God.

Like you, I’ve thought about all these possible causes,
and like you, I’ll never know exactly why I have cancer,
and for all of us, placing blame won’t make our cancer go away.
And like you, me, and everyone else,
we are impermanent beings that eventually fade away,
so let’s love life, be thankful,
and just do the best we can for as long as we can.

Going Beyond the Limits of Cancer

Nothing like a clear star-filled night sky
to make you dream,
wander beyond your normal boundaries,
and see previously unnoticed parts of yourself.

Don’t let your cancer prevent you
from seeing the magic of a summer night sky,
live your dreams,
or discover new parts of yourself.

Fireworks

Fireworks!
What lights up the sky on the Fourth of July.
What lights up our bodies during radiation therapy.

No matter how sick we are,
we must continue seeing the beauty of life,
and celebrate it with color and music.

Not every day is a picnic,
but each day is precious
because we know what it is to be alive.

Let’s remind ourselves that
we are more–much more–than our cancer.
Each of us is a uniquely beautiful fireworks display!

Reiki on the Cancer Battlefield

Peaceful place on the battlefield,
where cancer cells and chemotherapy go to war.
A restful and rejuvenating oasis,
where a wearied soul refills with life force energy.
A quantum shift in the human biofield,
where waves of possibility bring healing,
and not more cellular destruction.
Comforting a cancer patient with Reiki
in a chemotherapy infusion room.

Breaths at Sunset

Like each breath we take,
no two sunsets are identical.
Like the daily breaths we take,
often we take sunsets for granted.

Like each in-breath we take,
each sunset nourishes our spirits.
Like each out-breath we take,
each sunset helps us to let go.

Tonight’s sunset over the lake
reminds me to inhale the beauty of life
with each breath I take,
and never again take a sunset for granted.