Finding Home

  Bayabas There is enough for everyone The birds and me They peck at the topmost Where my hands can't reach They take only what they need I on the other hand or Perhaps most humans For that matter Take more than what is necessary I'm afraid there won't be Any left-- the sweetness The succulence, The joy of the experience So I want more to ensure I have a stockpile of pleasure Most humans too But the birds, they soar And I with most humans remain Standing on lowly ground.

In this heat Be here Breathe Exit doors may be open or there might not be any Still, Be here We might plead for rain to fall So we won't have to feel it all or at all But we are not in control Nothing is in our control  So all that is left to do is  be still, say yes surrender thinking feel everything Nowhere to go but here Maybe even no one to be with in this  So, Be here Do not forget,  we are built for this The door that is for us is right here where our life beats.  Enter here In this heat Be here Breathe. “So even if the hot loneliness is there, and for 1.6 seconds we sit with that restlessness when yesterday we couldn't sit for even one, that's the journey of the warrior.”                                                                                                                    ― Pema Chödrön Thank you for the practice, Melissa. 🙏

Come to the temple of your longing This place of honoring will embrace you Even as it will break your heart This place of grace and forgiving will give you back your anger That for so long you have denied This place of gentle confrontation will compel you to sit with your darkness, meet every ache with tenderness This place of delicate annihilation will unravel your layers revealing your truth no shame or apology, only what is This place of revelation will ground you This is who you are, Right here, right now This place of all there is Of palm trees and fallen leaves In the eternity of wind and waves Soar here, float here, land here Come into this place of need, Of seeking then finding Come into this now open body Into the now expansive mind, into the temple of your now resolute heart.     Raycien , much gratitude to you for bring this piece to life on the back of my heart . As my teacher, Leela Dasi says,  "It is dancing, it is alive." In Photo: A Black and White Lotus Tatt

Warriors they say are brave because they choose light even when darkness prevails What do they look like? Strong, fierce, love, tears Pain, joy, laughter, hope everyday in the battles fought big, small, long, hard everyday in the daily grind everyday in the mundane everyday in the spectacular everyday in the devastating everyday in the great everyday in the falling everyday in the rising everyday in the overcoming everyday in the transforming Everyday, everyday Strong, fierce, love, tears Pain, joy, laughter, hope All these, you are, All these, you are. Brave Warrior You. For my friend, Kary on her 40th birthday. 

The quiet The holding onto almost nothing And yet Everything Hung in the balance Of words and the loss thereof. April 12, 2017 Lake Janagdan Brgy Cabintan Ormoc, Leyte

Sa ka dugay dugay'ng panahon Nga hinuwat Niuwan ganinang buntag Nisuway ko'g balak Apan duha ra ka linya Ang namugna Gihipos ang bolpen ug papel Paglabay sa adlaw Nakalimtan ang mga pung Nga nasugdan ug suwat Nahanaw sama sa uwan Nipuli ang kainit Sa dihang naabot ang hapon Nahinumduman Nisuway na sad kog tiwas Ug suwat Taod taod Niuwan pag usab.

I used to have a personal spot where I write and read my favorite books over and over again. I would pile them on the table and admire their mere presence. Then Typhoon Haiyan came and drenched them and everything else to the core. So I had to throw them all away.  It would be accurate to say that my heart broke when I did what I had to do because it meant I was forced to cut off something that has been a precious part of who I was at the time. Yes, it was just material. Am I being shallow? Maybe. Am I being human? Absolutely. We all have things that are meaningful to us because in one way or another, they symbolize our identity. For some jewelry represents a luxury earned for many years of hard work. For others an array of clothes, shoes and bags represents a wholeness of what wasn't in one's past. And for the enlightened few, they've reached a point where they see all material things as mere mediums or vehicles, if you will, to take them to places of pur