Quiet Reflections and Prayers
Let me be a reprieve
from the endless loops
of thinking and doing.
the space behind,
the place that mind
would say must be
around another bend
of more thinking
and doing
and teaching
and learning,
the place we look
right past
because we think
it should be different
or more,
because it includes
all that we would
choose to exclude.
Let me be that place
in this moment.
Amen
I hold this silent prayer
for the times
when we feel small,
when we fail
to reach past
all that seems to stand
between us —
that we may remember
to reach again
and to trust
that our silent prayers
are always spoken
and heard —
even when we forget.
Amen
For a while
my words seemed
to not be heard.
They seemed
to lash out
against each other,
for a while,
as the anger tried to find
its place,
as all that wasn’t right
found its way
to the surface.
And so I began to honor
all these fractured pieces
and assure them
that they did indeed belong,
that they were heard
in me.
And I freed them.
I let them go,
set them free —
trusting them to come back
a little less fractured,
in way that could be heard,
in whatever form needed —
to keep speaking
what was true,
perhaps a little
more gently
or more directly
or with just enough
passion and restraint —
until they fell silent —
into the place
where there was
no more distance
between the speaking
and the listening.
There was a holding
and letting go motion
that happened
out of the need
for the purest kind
of love,
the kind that could honor
without understanding
and heal
without fixing —
seeing through
and even loving
all the murky places
where human minds
get stuck —
somehow leaping over
or sinking down past —
taking the slightest step
back into itself —
whatever was required.
When I have let go
of so much,
when my body is tired
and my spirit is too,
when I can’t see
a break in the story,
remind me of the calm
just beneath the surface,
the slightest change
of positioning,
and that little bit
of backing up
so that I may
retrace my steps
to even greater reprieve.
Amen
And so I vow
to live
in a new way,
fully present and grounded,
unafraid to be right here
among all that is
messy and unclear
and uncomfortable,
in surrender
to all that is most healed
in me,
holding space for more healing
and sacred hope
for the transformation
of all that seems unhealable
and unsolvable,
in reverence
of my own experience
and yours.
— from earlier notes
It’s the stillness
I return to,
where thought arises
in the moment,
taking on a
deeper meaning
beyond thinking —
where each part flowes
into the next,
and I am whole.
— Laurie, What’s Right Here
Let us hold
this space for healing
within our hearts.
Even as the outer world
goes through
its own transformations
and we are faced with
all that appears —
all in need
of honoring —
all that needs
to be released,
let us hold
this space
that needs nothing else.
Amen
There is peace
in all that is here —
refusing to be
packaged up neatly,
honored to be
as it is.
— Laurie, What’s Right Here
When I reach the the edge
of the known,
when I can’t see
past the very next move,
I will stand still
in my heart.
And I will continue on —
for I have held
the most
precious treasures
where the purity
of love needed
to stand in that place
is enough.
Laurie's Notes 