At times I forgot
the pure connection with
my heart and the unshakeable
hope that remained always,
even in the darkest, most treacherous
parts of the journey.
It took only a moment —
a seemingly accidental whisper,
a quiet prayer of desperation crying out
to the light or a gentle note
from an old friend
triggering into clarity
the remembrance of all that is
most true and all of the beauty
and unconditional love
that couldn’t be broken
no matter what.
I let go,
trusting that wherever
the pieces fall will
be okay —
possibly even more
beautiful than if
I had tried to fit
them together
on my own.
— Laurie, What’s Right Here
I wish to reflect
all that is soft,
to offer my love
to all that is not —
to remind us
of the sacredness
of the journey
and the beauty
in the transformation.
— Laurie, What’s Right Here
There was something
tender about walking
through intense darkness
and intense light.
There was a
very real choice in
each moment to reach
more deeply into my Self
and to offer my love
more intensely to the world —
to align with all that was
beautiful about being alive
and to live as a prayer —
no matter what.
I found there is
a power in us
that rises up
in challenging times.
When there seems
to be little hope,
it shows itself.
And then it softens
all that it touches.
And it shows us
how to create
beauty out of pain
and tenderness
where there was
chaos.
I began to get
a sense of
what it meant
to be in the heart,
to notice the peace
I had longed for.
It was quieter
here.
And still I knew
to continue on.
After all,
there really was
no going back
and no clear destination —
only a mysterious
unfolding road
ahead of me
and the most beautiful
prayer I had ever heard —
without any words.
Within the great
unlayering
of my heart
and the holding of
each precious piece,
I found
the most beautiful
treasure —
the gentle,
natural setting down
of all that was
no longer needed —
knowing nothing real
could ever be lost.
One of the most
beautiful treasures
of the heart,
was the complete awe
in finding
the empty space
where energies I had
tried so hard
to struggle against
had simply fallen away.
And in that awe,
every connection,
every thought —
every moment
was enough
exactly as it was.
There was a quieting,
a gentle shift
from pure survival
to an aliveness
that flowed out of
the willingness to embrace
carefully hidden emotion
in a way that was
both safe
and strong enough
to hold
the most painful experiences —
transforming them,
through this holding,
into something beautiful.
Because I had tired
of old ways
or because I sensed
the time had come
to forge
a different path,
I settled in
just below the surface —
daring to stand still
in chaos,
becoming willing
to listen with my heart —
letting go of the need
to be neatly sorted —
rediscovering the subtle,
natural beauty
in the return to
a gentler way of being.
Laurie's Notes 