Change - Rumi

The Intrusion 10.26.11

THE INTRUSION

10.26.11

Trying to write

Gray, my cat shows up.

Up on my lap

wanting to get scratched

then up on the keyboard.

Scratching away

on a box of pens and pencils

till something hits the floor of course.

Startles him it does.

So he shifts course.

To the other side of the monitor

only to bring down the web cam

and send a CD to the floor.

For a little guy

he sure can interrupt my day!

Parks next to me to wash himself

then he’s off again.

The intrusion over

I finally get to write.

But it’s of him and his antics

so though he’s gone

he’s still with me.

May you have a visitor today

who brightens your day

in a crazy way.

And the memory stays

with you and makes you

smile away.

All My Love Always, Keith

The Most Beautiful Things In Life

By Being Yourself

Time 10.26.11

TIME

10.26.11

Where’s it all go?

It just seems to slip away!

Up at 4 something yesterday,

home at 8:30 last night.

Here it is nearly 7 am,

I’ve been up 3 hours already?

First time I sat down too!

Does it just move faster as we age?

Remember summer vacations?

As a kid I remember

they seemed to last forever.

Now the weeks fly by

turn around and another year

has already gone by.

Perceptions change I guess.

Full days they are

when you turn around

and it’s already bedtime again.

Looking forward to today,

class again tonight.

Enjoy that I do.

Makes me think

of what I can do.

May your day be bright

and when you lay

your head on your pillow tonight

may a smile wash across your face.

For even though

another day raced away

a good day it was today.

All My Love Always, Keith

How did it get so late so soon?

It's night before its afternoon.

December is here before its June.

My goodness how the time has flewn.

How did it get so late so soon?

Dr. Seuss

You Must Be Willing

Cloud Forest 06.24.15

Cloud Forest

06.24.15

We landed in Lima, Peru and deplaned into a new world.

It was only the second time I had travelled internationally

and that was so very long ago.

A trip in the 70’s to climb in the Alps.

Of the many mountains, we climbed there

Mount Blanc was the main objective.

Today we came intending to hike the Inca trail

which I had already envisioned
as being a world of new experiences.

I hadn’t expected the sensory overload

to begin as soon as we deplaned though.

So many people, most looking very different to me,

and the language so foreign to the ear.

Studied Spanish a bit with the Rosetta Stone program a year or so ago.

A help it was not, for this language

was spoken with the rapid fire staccato of a machine gun.

My poor ears strained to even differentiate single words.

So after a few days acclimating to the altitude we’d be off.

My five senses continued to be bombarded:

the culture, the cuisine, the terrain, the roads, the way they lived,

the styles they dressed in, the piecemeal way they built their homes.

As we started actually hiking on the Inca trail

I was again confounded by it all.

I had envisioned a lonely group of us trekking off into the wilderness.

The first day was anything but that.

When the national park was established in the late 70’s

the law was revised to allow any local residents to remain,

if they agreed to the restrictions of the National Park regulations.

So with all the tour groups starting the trail that day,

mixed in, there were locals:

living in homes within site of the trail,

herding animals, carrying supplies to their homes, riding motorbikes,

working their land or trying to sell snacks to the tourists.

We were told after the first day there were no more settlements.

Day two we would climb through Dead Woman’s Pass

the hardest day of the hike.

Along the way, we would see Incan sites

and climb into the cloud forest for the first time.

So off we went that next morning.

I really can’t explain the terrain it wasn’t forest early on

kind of open, trees and scrub brush here and there

ever trending higher in elevation.

We came into a clearing and saw

flocks of emerald green parakeets fly over us numerous times.

Our guide had stopped nearby for a rest break. 

As we neared him there was this incredible Incan site far below us,

stone ruins of homes on high and farming terraces stepping down

to a river that was wrapping along the edge of this ancient site.

Now these were the world of new experiences I had envisioned.

As we rested he explained the site

and closed by saying we’d be entering the cloud forest very soon.

We hiked onward and it was obvious

when we had actually entered the cloud forest.

All of a sudden we felt closed in and covered all around

by the canopy of the cloud forest.

  There was a raging glacier melt stream very near us

that we saw off and on

but the sound and mist in the air left it ever present in our senses.

The next thing I remember is rounding a curve in the trail

and entering a grove of very similar trees.

That’s when it moved beyond overwhelming my senses.
Into a Oneness.

Suddenly I had this “Knowing”

my whole body quivered with truth shivers, I started sobbing,

my eyes teared up and tears streamed down my cheeks.

The knowing came to me as these words:

“We’re with you every step of the way.”

My mind flashed with the recognition

that Jane the first wife I had lost so suddenly in 2010

and Philip our stillborn son in the 1980’s

were right there with me in spirit.

I furtively looked around to see if anyone noticed

that I had started sobbing and crying.

They had not, we had strung out
into a long line with some separation.

So much so I had to really hustle to catch up to Laura and tell her.

“They’re here Jane and Philip are here!

They are going the whole way with us!”

I blabbered through a convulsion of tears and sobs.

Laura knew exactly what I was talking about

and embraced me with her eyes.
My new wife is so very open and understanding.

I had told her many times of my spiritual experiences

with tears in my eyes, a wavering voice,

as the hair on my arms stood up,

and God bumps flashed all over my skin.

I hadn’t thought of my first wife for many days,

I had packed her old camera though.

I had wanted to bring something of hers along

and changed it to the camera at the last minute.

I hadn’t thought or talked of Philip in months and months.

As I write this I flash back to the early days of my grief.

When many spiritual events so rocked my life.

I had had ongoing discussions with my Hospice counselor

wondering if I was going crazy,

my logical mind, doubting so very much,

what I was experiencing as reality, could it be!?

So now I leave you, fully knowing some of you

may be wondering about me and this tale of that I am sure.

I now believe life is eternal.

We are spiritual beings having a human experience.

Keep an open mind, watch for signs,

and realize there are no coincidences.

If by chance you experience the Oneness,
that we all are, you will “Know”

you have experienced something well beyond your five senses.

You will know that there is so very much more to life than

what our five senses lead us to believe.

You will know that as you grow in spirit

you will experience that feeling more and more often.

My hope is that I have opened someone to a new view,

a new way of looking at things.

I believe that’s why we are all here.

To help each other grow in love and

raise our spiritual awareness.

It’s a journey to awaken to what we really are.

God blesses you and yours this day and every day, Keith 

“Lord, make me an instrument of thy peace.

Where there is hatred, let me sow love,

Where there is injury, pardon;

Where there is doubt, faith;

Where there is despair, hope;

Where there is darkness, light;

And where there is sadness, joy.

O Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek

to be consoled as to console,

to be understood as to understand,

to be loved, as to love.

For it is in giving that we receive,

It is in pardoning that we are pardoned,

and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.” 

― Francis of Assisi

Carl Jung - Awakening

Spiritually Connecting

Unexpected

UNEXPECTED     10.25.11

Woke up yesterday

in a funk, kind of down,

go downstairs six E-mails

all with a positive spin.

Liked my posts they said

in various ways.

That brightens my day,

so an iffy day

takes a turn.

Mid-day I get a call:

“You gonna be there for a while?”

“Mind if I stop by
for a just a little while?”

“Need to tell you something.”

So the unexpected call

turns into an unexpected visit.

All of 5 or 10 minutes or so

but it changes my whole day.

From good to great it went

and on it lasted

until the end of the day.

May you find the time today

to make an unexpected call

or an unexpected visit

that just brightens someone’s day.

For you never know

when you may need

one yourself.

For what goes around

comes around

or so they say.

All My Love Always, Keith

From Deepak Chopra’s The Seven Spiritual Laws of Success

“The universe operates through dynamic exchange

. . . giving and receiving are different aspects of the flow of energy in the universe.

And in our willingness to give that which we seek,

we keep the abundance of the universe circulating in our lives.”

Cold & Clear

COLD & CLEAR

10/22/11

Thirty-seven clear and cold,

so very clear

not a cloud anywhere.

The cold creeps into my jacket,

then into my hands.

No gloves in these pockets.

The stars shine so brightly

on this crisp and cold late night.

The moon is a big crescent.

It casts not the shadow of a few days ago

for it’s much less than full.

But still the shadows do appear.

The dogs curiously chasing scents

here and there

of what I have no clue.

That’s what I takeaway

"of what I have no clue,"

the vastness of it all.

Why do we humans feel

we can know it all!

For I think there is joy

in marvelling at the mystery of it all.

Yes clear & cold

and just marvelling

at the Divine mystery

of it all!


All My Love Always, Keith

Science cannot solve the ultimate mystery of nature.

And that is because, in the last analysis,

we ourselves are a part of the mystery that we are trying to solve.

Max Planck

The Wall

THE WALL

10/21/11

Where this goes is anyone’s guess.

Wore out my body is.

Seems like I've been going flat out

for weeks now.

I have been fighting a backache for a few days,

the old routine, break out the heating pad.

Then the sleep thing forces me to catch up,

slept in until 6:30 today.

A few months back that was normal.

Now it seems like I slept in real late.

Someone told me I'd better watch it

or my body would just make me slow down.

Guess that time has arrived.

Need a break from the short nights.

Midnight to four is not enough.

Recharge and Rejuvenate I must.

We used to call it hitting the wall

in my marathon running days.

If you went out too hard

you'd hit the wall at 20 miles or so.

I remember in the Buffalo marathon

I hooked up with a talker

and the pace was too brisk

for what I trained.

He moved on as I slowed.

The die had been cast though

by the fast early pace.

Then I went from running to barely moving.

Even sat for a spell

Hit the Wall very hard that day.

I passed up the chance

to ride in when it was offered.

Glad I did because I finished that race.

Not with a fast time

but with the realization

I could push myself through pain

to accomplish something.

My mind told me I couldn’t,

my mind told me I wouldn’t,

but somewhere deep inside

lies a power far greater

than my humble mind

I awakened it that day

in my physical life.

It’s only taken me another

thirty-one years

to awaken it in my spiritual life.

For now I believe it’s not about me

it’s not about what I can do.

For there’s a power

a far, far greater power than that.

One that if you let it

show in your life

it will change it forever.

You already enjoy this for it 
has been ever present.

May you realize this,

and may you develop this

to be the driving force

in your life.

All My Love Always, Keith

That is the real spiritual awakening

when something emerges from within you that is deeper than who you thought you were.

So, the person is still there,

but one could almost say

that something more powerful shines through the person.

Eckhart Tolle

The Wind

THE WIND

10/20/11

There's a stiff wind today,

as if winters on the way

The mid-forties

when it was eighty just the other day.

The season's change

the inevitability of it all.

The never ending cycle,

matters not what we want,

the seasons change.

The wind rushes through the trees

rustling all the leaves.

The moon in the sky looks to be

racing through the clouds.

Carrying an amber ring

around it this day.

But oh how it races

ever onward today.

Anchors memories,

of the joy of the warm days

of summer and fall.

May you feel that today,

something that strikes

you so

and anchors a fond memory

of warmth in your soul.

Spiritual Indigestion

Spiritual Indigestion

06.11.15

Laura and I were talking this morning.

She went to bed with something tugging at her heart strings.

Woke up thinking about it in the middle of the night

and thought she had released it.

We sat there doing our morning spiritual reading.

The first one she reads brings it all back.

So we sit there discussing it.

Why is it when you know spiritual principles and try to live them

that they don’t seem to work sometimes?

We kicked it around all through breakfast.

It was easy for me to come up with similar issues that nagged at me.

We went off onto another topic,

before long, realizing it was tying into the theme of the day.

So we agreed we needed to respond in Love.

We were at a lower vibration feeding the issue

with a lower energy

rather than accepting it as it was.

In the end we invoked the ancient Hawaiian Ho’ oponopono prayer:

Thank you, I’m sorry, Please forgive me, I love you.

Fully realizing issues or events we have a hard time digesting

will more than likely come back into your awareness again and again.

My takeaway from this morning’s Spiritual Indigestion was this.

It’s not enough to mentally or intellectually forgive someone

or release the perception of your problem.

The ego loves the juice of controversy, drama

and the feeling of “I’ve been wronged!”

It has to come from the heart,

from a place of love.

Love is the highest vibration there is.

If we can respond with love, compassion, and forgiveness

there is no juice left for the ego to feed off of.

I know, for me, that this is an ongoing process

since the ego is well schooled in looking for future

opportunities to present you with “I’ve been wronged!”

So it is all a matter of perspective.

Will you choose to feel you’ve been wronged

or will you choose to put a smile on your face
and respond with love anyway?

Vanishing Rain

VANISHING RAIN

10/19/11

It’s 51 and raining,

we head to the gate

and off we go

as if the rain’s not there.

There’s a broad smile on my face,

I’ve just read an e-mail from a friend.

Off to San Fran at 30,000 ft 

early in the a.m. she states.

Picture me reading your books she says.

That I do, for I’ve come to know

she’s ready for them. 

More than I was 

when I first picked them up.

One’s a heavy read

on consciousness and philosophy.

The others a quick read, single page quips

but on the same topics.

For that’s the path I’m on

and enjoy sharing it I do.

Especially with such a beautiful mind 

brimming with spirituality she is.

Vanishing rain it is.

For we wander along

as if it’s not there.

This broad smile still gracing my face.

I remember playing golf yesterday,

such a beautiful fall day.

A warm breeze blowing, 

the sun just glowing.

Is it any wonder 

that I notice not the cool rain?

For lost in thought 

I am this day.

May you find an

Inner Peace and Joy

in a situation

that outwardly appears

just the opposite

this day.

The Mist

THE MIST

10/18/11

The mist hovers over the ground today

as if tears of sorrow fill the air,

for two of my friends

lost their mates last week

Grief for them, I feel today

for I know the path they walk 

all too well.  It’s only been

thirteen months since my journey 

through grief began.

Visit I did 

and spent 2 1/2 hours or so

with one of them last night. 

Just to let her know

I cared.

Shared some of the things

I learned on my journey.

For grief is like a personality

each of us has their own.

There are some similarities.

As I walk my shadow I do notice

and think of my grief now

is but a shadow

of what it once was.

It’s not easy you see

when you feel like

you’ve lost half of who you are!

My hope is I conveyed

that message to her. 

That move on you can

but I know

not easy will it be.

So the hope

of better days

was all I could leave 

with her this day.

May you touch someone

in need today

and fill them

with the hope they

so desperately need.

Quieter - Ram Dass