Switzerland 2022

July 7th

May I have this dance?

Presenting itself,
well past the mid-night hour,
a ballroom became visible.

I held my position,
and observed hundreds, thousands,
no, millions of descendants.
Stars glistened in the Universe
joining hands from their
illuminated orbit.

The deep ensuing silence was the music
to which they danced.
More and more spectrums of light
joined in the cosmic dance.

Beginning to sway,
I reached.
My soles hovered momentarily
until I thought to myself,
‘this cannot be happening.’

Again, there I go…thinking again.
Silly human, am I.

A mystical light fanned the stage
allowing a quick glance
of the steepled mountains.

I did not wish to close my eyes,
but at some point,
the stardust spilled from the ballroom floor
painting my eyes closed.

Was this a dream?

A songbird begins
a morning serenade.

Opening my eyes,
My feet touch the ground.
I look.
A solitary star lingers in this
new morning
asking, ‘may I have this dance?’

Amen

Switzerland 2022

July 6th
Who moved the mountains?

What pulled the peaks into the
swirl of clouds expanding, hovering,
disguising the rugged silhouettes
until they reappeared and are made new
over and over again?

When, how did the colors spread themselves?
Vibrant green paths, soaring pines,
yellow, purple and orange wildflowers
growing from rocks…Edelweiss
patches of white snowflakes, one atop
another…the depths~~~immeasurable.

Where did the black shadows learn
to spread themselves wider and
wider until the light found gaps,
and the darkness whispered,
‘Welcome, friend.’

Oh, mystical mountains, I see ‘forms’ on
display.
I gaze upon contours, your unique
limbs, outstretched arms, soft
breasts, broad shoulders.

Mid-wife, is that you here laughing
at my wild imagination?
Yes, I see you in the formation
of an expectant girl—
A growing awareness
ALL around the birth of a new
Dawn!

I began with a question,
Who moved the mountains?

The answer is not necessary.
There is a realization that they are moving
around me, through me and
within me.

We have the ability to move mountains,
Don’t we?

Switzerland 2022

July 5th

What lies in this unexpected place?
So fitting has been the night
wrapped in a blanket of dreams.
The images, already fading like
the stars, tuck themselves into
dawn’s vast array of colorful petals.

Awaiting your greeting,
I pause here.

Time after endless time,
it is you awaiting my greeting.
Your patience,
Your infinite ability to hold ‘space’
and, it is not a space that is
owned by anyone
—it is a shared,
an always changing spectacle.

Unfolding like flowers, wildflowers
strewn on a mountain’s pathway.
Spectrums of color face a sky
touching what only appears
at a distance.

There is no space keeping anything
apart.

Unexpected…
The miles that bring me to these
lingering thoughts.

No matter where I am
—life blossoming
—the unknown calling out
to ‘space,’

Here I am,

       Here I am,

                   Here I am,

as I always have been.

Switzerland 2022

July 4th

Prayer

Rain falling upward
as clouds loom beneath me.
Mountains moved the sky
as the sun began its search
for a doorway.
Silence played itself so longingly,
I covered my ears.
Is this real?  Is this a fantasy?
Is this___________???
This is prayer…yes, it is what
words no longer invite in the moment.

 

 

The cascading waterfalls,
every pool of water~~~prayer,
living itself out loud.
No antiphon,
No refrain, no passages
—a rhapsody
—a musical unwritten
Note after note after note.

I ‘almost’ begin to cry.
To you, mid-wife, I give,
I offer
the essence of my ‘soles’ every step.

So often, stopping—I look, what’s to say?

All my words
throughout my lifetime,
have they meant anything?

If I cast them ‘into’ the subtle breeze
hovering on a hawk’s outstretched
wing…
Oh, if the majestic bird carried them all
Away…
Would I then grasp the meaning,
the fullness, the simplicity of
Prayer?

Drums begin to beat
—the vibration washes upon me like a
wave carried upon the sea.
Light imbues the space.  Now,
thunder beats upon drums
not only one, or two, or three, or

I cannot see the player.
I tap my foot…is this prayer?

Yes, yes, yes,
All these words.

I’m back above the clouds.
What I no longer see below,
gives prayer permission
to come to life.

A new Gospel,
Each of us a living testament.

I now close this prayer
In silence…

Good night

Switzerland 2022

July 2nd & 3rd

The Doorway of Yesterday

—opens like a film.
A sequence of slides creates
windows
held in one elaborate pane
—no specific storyline being written.

Within the womb of the plane,
the descent began
—a shade lifts…a first glance.
I see a blanket of white linens.
Underneath appear points of various
sizes…there is NO order.
Shadows linger expanding the horizon’s
line while a blue sea…is it
the sky?  A seamless wave rolls over
the ice crystals
—jagged peaks held in the sea of
glass offering this first revelation.

The mid-wife caresses her delicate fingers
over the soft crust of sleep’s crumbs
falling from my battered lashes.

Headfirst…the mid-wife laughs
aloud to herself.
She seems to say, ‘I knew you’d
never allow your feet to touch the
ground before you—LOOK!’

Now, I have been re-united—
joined, as if a twin-soul enters from
another womb.  A companion walks
beside me, with me, as so often in
the past, our steps discover NEW meaning.
Here we are.  The shattering of
time distancing us because a pandemic
now seems to gather all these cosmic
pieces together.
Everything fits. 
The doorway opens.  I see a window
of imperfections manifest into
a tale so beyond perfect
that the story birthing itself
starts with, ‘Once upon a time…’

I’m seated—
an altar before me.

Two angels appear…
they place bread, sparkling water,
wine,
smoked meat, laced cheese, tomatoes,
avocado, fresh mozzarella drizzled
oil and balsamic dressing before us.

The soft scent of basil lays
on the blessed dishes.
Sweet communion…savoring the
delicacies set before us…
A sharing of Gospels, each life,
speaking aloud a testament
never read before.
It becomes a part of the glass
tapestry casting this window.

We rise…the mid-wife takes
my hand.  Four of us,
like legs of One table, set out
into the streets, the highways & byways
of Old Town Zurich.  Thousands of
voices speaking aloud, cars & buses
—horns blaring.
There seems to be a ‘pitch’
measured and played.
Stepping to a rhythm writing
itself, we come to the river.

An array of sails holds the day’s
pleasant breeze.
There they are…the mountainous
terrain awaiting the ‘soles’
two of the four disciples gathered
in this moment.

We walked into a church—
Marc Chagall’s Windows, ALIVE.
As the sun shone, highlighting
colors entombed in glass and
Resurrecting the Cathedral of Creation,
A stained-glass window
Its only ‘break’
Which has yet to be revealed.

THIS day I begin the sharing of my Journal as I traversed the landscape of Switzerland’s Alps in 2022.
Enjoy the walk in the upcoming Thursdays of 2023…pray you’ll ‘fall’ in love with the scenery that has
planted its ‘wild’ flowers in my being.

Switzerland 2022

July 1- July 22^nd, 2022

   The Via Alpina
Praying

 It doesn’t have to be
the blue iris, it could be
weeds in a vacant lot, or a few small stones; just
pay attention, then patch

 a few words together and don’t try
to make them elaborate, this isn’t
a contest but the doorway

 into thanks, and a silence in which
another voice may speak. 

                                 ~~~Mary Oliver
                                                                                                  July 1/Day 1 

A silence hovers
so still, calm and fluid is its movement.

A new dawn rose this morning—
a solitary feathered being settled itself
in the long, thin arms of the tree’s
naked branches…

The song being played through a parted
beak~~~timeless…the refrain, lifting
the dewy grasses rising to the pastel
sky, awaits the flame of life to
usher in DAY.

The tiny bird cares not who hears
—creating what is ‘inside’ itself
cannot/will not wait.  No audience
needed.

The One hovering in the Silence
pauses, breathes and sends a ripple
through my hair~~~ no other breeze
in the air.

A great heron holds a perch…
beckoning, breaching, until the pond
opens the doorway to a doe and two
soft white speckled fawns prance
at her side.

The Heron ushers in its becoming One
with the presiding unknown
presence.

Who, who is it joining me here
now~~~
It has been years since I’ve boarded
the silver falcon with a million
frosted feathers.
Across the ‘pond,’ I will be carried.
Beside me, a host of others
find their way to who knows
where.

I’m in a womb.
The silent presence has become
a mid-wife.  She’s been beside me
before I was conceived.
She does not pull me or push me.
Never has she prodded or tugged.
She hears me when I do not hear
or understand myself
and, she says, ‘This is Good.’

You, she speaks to my Soul, “You
have come upon a new doorway.
I’m going to show you things you have
never seen and, yes, reveal things you
have bore witness to.  Yet, your gaze
Shall be made new.”

“It is only hours away…
You will be birthed in the mountains. 
The Swiss Alps…
Hidden and revealed, you must wait.”
The latch on the door lifted.

Streams of water will be heard…do I hear them now?
Winds and thunder, creatures will speak.
Winged angels shall appear,
and ancestors past and present
shall speak…LISTEN.

My heart is beating like a harp
whose strings ring out, ‘play me,
play me, play me.’
Don’t worry about the sound.
Like this morning’s songbird
the dew’s grasses rise,
like the flame illuminating this day.
‘We’ are not burned by such wondrous
Light.  Like the Heroin perched on its
pulpit letting the congregation know
new life has joined the community
—small fawns, like children leap
and experience everything a first time.

She hovers…
She whispers.  This is a first time
and, your ending will bring you back to
face the NEWNESS for the child in you
to be reborn and begin again.