People do not see you as you are
They project onto you visions of themselves
And then they either accept or reject you based on
Their ability to accept or reject those aspects of themselves

Be careful of your judgments, they are sign posts that always point back to you. If you are wise you will learn to read them clearly, and you will know what adjustments your soul is asking you to make. Your strength lies in your perception, which is under the control of your choices, which are made based on your thoughts, which flow right out of your beliefs. If you can get to the heart of your beliefs and challenge them, you will learn the magic of changing your world.

I woke up this morning with a large case of dread
And I jumped with start and flew right out of bed
While standing there dumbly with crust in my eye
I cracked open the curtain and looked up at the sky
Above my stained window a loud vulture flew
As it circled a carcass that lay dusted with dew
And nary a thought did enter my head
‘for that big bird dived down laying into the dead
And I screeched when I saw that fur plucked away
An eyeball tossed high in the tall grass it lay
When a second fowl creature made its descent
More pieces and bits of scattered cat went
And I dropped like a fly descending on shit
Banging my head on the wall as I hit
That high carpet shag did not grace my fall
Still I rose to my knees and was able to crawl
Down the hall I did go rising up to my feet
First a walk then a run barely skipping a beat
And there on the sofa my old black cat lay
Upon seeing me yawned as if mocking the fray
And he jumped from his spot in that old dusty chair
Rubbing up on my leg looking up with a stare
And I swear if ever a thing I did know
That fucking damn cat was amused by the show!

Shari Lynn
3/22/19

That damn rooster
he crows for me
every time I betray myself

I will learn to listen
those undeniable calls
from my slumber arouse

Jesus is a metaphor
for the mystical indwelling
of spirit that Lives within

And yet the gods
are chewed to pulp
and fed back to me as though holy

To pass this way
again is a true travesty
no manmade heaven will hold me

Do not comfort me with your beliefs
Your self made prisons will never hold me
My wings were never made to be tied
If I can unbind you with my Love
I will surely try, and perhaps
We will fly free together – otherwise
I have gotten very good at goodbyes

I can feel the way to go
As though a force or flow
Nudging me with bits of inspiration
These quickening flashes of imagination
They have sometimes stopped me in a mire
When at a loss I was with no direction or desire
Long and fast I stood stone still
Unmoved and dead inside until
With a direct and pressing motivation
I leapt back to life with new found determination
I do not know what causes these inner commotions
That push and pull and stop and still my devotions
It would be as though I had no will or power of my own
But instead some other pulse through me be shown
Though sometimes I sit callously in haze and do ponder
What deep well of possibilities in life might we squander
For I can see the ways all in a flurry that cause men’s woes
And all the maddening directions unknowingly he goes
If only he could sense that silent space within
That magical place of knowing lies therein
Where all illusions be shown to those who’ll see
Then perhaps they’d be awakened and aware like Me.

I was jabbed as though by a hot poker
It sent my spirit flying so high up and
Left as though a corpse my body below
In a haze and daze I could not come down
All the while the world went on around my flesh
One percent of me present mostly unaware
I was led about by those around me
As though a dog muzzled and leashed
But up above in the cloud where I was
An unchanging was being done
That coffin a cocoon – death and rebirth
All worldly notions I had collected were as a mush in my mind
Like a hot soup they churned and spun and meshed
Each bit being unrecognizable from the next
Until it was all poured out – returning to its source
The earth below – into the heads of anyone who’d given it to me
And I watched intently at this happening – how happy they were to receive
The re-manifestations of what they had believed
Enlightened confirmation – it was as though
They be charmed by their very own manacles
Then I slowly descended on forgotten wings
Back upon a weakened pallored frame
Unclipped my leash – though grateful I be for the lead
And stepped back into my life as though reborn
Now the only question remained
“What do you want, Childe?”
Without the illusions of others muddying my vision
I can see again into that vast no-thing – My Being
Knowing now what I want – what I always wanted
To Love, To Flow, To Give, To Be
And I keep a white hot poker in my pocket – just in case.

He was like a fish gasping for air
and the fear on his face was imprinted
in my skull with all the other loathings
that he created in me – his broken
skin pocked and red – he picked
incessantly, those clotted napkins dotted
the floor like wayward children set astray.
And oh wasn’t that what we became?
Did he not bring out in each of us some hidden
doom we did not want to face? And all these
years later, here we were, thrust against the grain
once again – but lo we did not run.
Eye to eye we faced the misery,
that brown eyed fish and me,
as he groaned to rise, and fall, and rise
I caught him and allowed him to lean on me
as he dragged himself across the room, pants
falling and trapping him there on the stair,
and me calling to angels lest he fall backward
upon me, pinning me beneath is frail, sickly
shit stained self. And this is how it was, the
beauty and frailty of the dance we shared.
This was not the father, daughter dance I’d envisioned.
He was my greatest lesson on compassion, and
perhaps that was the most powerful gift he could bestow.

What do all the great magicians do?
They create seamless illusion,
rolling from moment to moment
without anyone seeing just how the magic is made.

You don’t see me working behind the scenes of my life
as the story I write unfolds – it is merely a refection
that ripples across the screen of this world.
I Am the great magician and my life is my magic!

***
I sat in quiet solitude for as long as it took to dissolve
all of my miscreations.

I took everything I deemed as good and held it in
my contemplative mind.

I then gave the illusion of my life the time it needed to reflect
my life anew.

And you can do this too.

It came swiftly in the night, and it harbored no resentments. Even the battlement to all I had known could not prevent its taking. But it never came to take – it came to give.  It didn’t seem as such at the time. It felt like a ripping and a tearing, and my ego was thrashed and thralled within its casement. I wanted to hold onto my belief – my man made notions. It desired that I give them up – that I let go. It was a grand fight to be sure. Me, holding firm – refusing the giving. I wanted to be right. But I had asked for something much more marvelous than I had imagined. I had asked that I Be Love – one hundred percent pure positive energy. And so judgment had to go. You see, it is the precursor to hate. It makes us hard and unloving. It makes us callous and cruel. Yes, perhaps it allows us to hold onto being right – but it makes us ugly in return. And so at last I set it down – I relented.

And this is what I saw.

In the face of every person, I began to see myself. I saw the same struggles, the same loneliness, the same rejections, the same sorrows, but mostly – the same potential for greatness. For Beauty. For Wholeness. For Love. And my heart softened. I looked into the hearts of others and I saw – Myself.

We are the Same.

We are the Same.