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Strength

6/7/2013

 
                                                                                                                                                                    gratitude to Ellie Stone for this photo of rock formation in Nevada
Picture


When the heart is pierced by loss,
don’t be so quick
to look for your strength
in a shield.

Allow the grief to have you.
Go deeper than need.
Meet the yearning.

Down here,
in a land of no half measures
you may feel you’re entirely
broken,
without any power
except to simply be present
and breathe.

Sometimes the heart
opens so far
that when it falls
there’s nothing to save it
from the dark embrace.

Surrender here
is no longer a maneuver,
something to achieve or avoid,
but an inescapable reality.

You don’t get to set the pace.
It takes just as long as it takes. 

Some imagine
this overwhelm
of all the heart’s defenses,
a failure,
to be avoided at all costs.
But have you tried it,
really?

When nothing in you
wants to avoid this,
run from this,
there’s peace to be found
that doesn’t depend
on absence of turmoil,
freedom that doesn’t depend
on flight.

So bow to the door that
shuts in your face,
the hand that pries away
your grasp.

Some of us need to be refused
our total desire
before we’ll drop
all the way through the bottom
to the groundless
source of our love.

Here we learn the song
that can never be understood
by a heart that shies away
from pain
or seeks control.

Entitled to nothing,
graced by everything. 
Living into this,
we live into this.
Entitled to nothing,
graced by everything.
Living into this,
we live into this.



~~Luke Anderson

    Contents

    All
    Allowing
    Belonging
    Confidence In No Control
    Die Before You Die
    Doubt Your Doubt
    Earth Day
    Faith
    Fertility
    Forgiveness
    Gratitude
    Healing The Love Reflection
    Home
    In Praise Of The Dark
    Joy
    Liberation
    Mother Of Us All
    Passion
    Possibility
    Power
    Resolve
    Sovereignty
    Strength
    The Great Choice
    Trust The Passage
    Union
    Victory
    Vision

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