Labor Day Sun

Labor Day Sun bathing 55 year old skin
Forbidden,
Of course....at your age
But oh so glorious so
WHO CARES!
That’s me, the strong, the courageous, the powerful one....this woman,
FORBIDDEN
TO BE
Yes, I am a Be...ing, not just a woman,
Who deserves everything you do.
You know who I’m talking about
You, those who cannot see
who cannot hear....cannot allow
Be-ing to be whatever form we take...
Ever hungry....each. step. Hunting for the kill,
the pleasure of it, never the death.
That’s where we are chasms different.
You want the triumph, the rush....the addiction
where you will remain, all your life....
which is death!
Can’t you see the carnage?
And who will stop you
In your tracks?
You give us no room at the table
When it comes to the language of death,
the language of life....the rule of law..
That’s two periods you just saw, in a poem.
Why? Because it’s that serious.
Why do we have to wait?
What do we have to do?
To be released to BE...
AOC willingly takes the risk
Tarana carries the cloak,
the cloak of hidden cries.
A cloak of glorious sight and righteousness
So must you ....so you must!

~ Catherine Duclos

 

The Power of Now Victim Identity

Chapter 8 Enlightened Relationships, pp. 168-169

The first thing to remember is this:  As long as you make an identity for yourself out of the pain, you cannot become free of it.  As long as part of your sense of self is invested in your emotional pain, you will unconsciously resist or sabotage every attempt that you make to heal that pain.  Why?  Quite simply because you want to keep yourself intact, and the pain has become an essential part of you.  This is an unconscious process, and the only way to overcome it is to make it conscious.

 

To suddenly see that you are or have been attached to your pain can be quite a shocking realization.  The moment you realize this, you have broken the attachment.  The pain-body is an energy field, almost like an entity, that has become temporarily lodged in your inner space.  It is life energy that has become trapped, energy that is no longer flowing.  Of course, the pain-body is there because certain things have happened in the past.  It is the living past within you, and if you identify with it, you identify with the past.  A victim identity is the belief that the past is more powerful than the present, which is the opposite of the truth.  It is the belief that other people and what they did to you are responsible for who you are now, for your emotional pain or your inability to be your true self.  The truth is that the only power there is is contained within this moment:   It is the power of your presence.  Once you know that, you also realize that you are responsible for your inner space - nobody else is - and that the past cannot prevail against the power of the Now.

 

My Courageous Life by David Whyte

 

MY COURAGEOUS LIFE

 

has gone ahead

and is looking back,

calling me on.

 

My courageous life

has seen everything

I have been

and everything

I have not

and has

forgiven me,

day after day.

 

My courageous life

still wants

my company:

wants me to

understand

my life as witness

and thus

bequeath me

the way ahead.

 

My courageous life

has the patience

to keep teaching me,

how to invent

my own

disappearance,

and how

once gone,

to reappear again.

 

My courageous life

wants to stop

being ahead of me

so that it can lie

down and rest

deep inside the body

it has been

calling on.

 

My courageous life

wants to be

my foundation,

showing me

day after day

even against my will

 

how to undo myself,

how to surpass myself,

how to laugh as I go

in the face

of danger,

how to invite

the right kind

of perilous

love,

 

how to find

a way

to die

of generosity.

…

 

My Courageous Life

A new adaption of ‘Second Life’

in Pilgrim

Poems by David Whyte

© Many Rivers Press and David Whyte

 

Comfortable insistence...

 

comfortable insistence

rides the wild normal

waves of brilliant turbulence.

 

difference. likeness.

resistance.  surrender.

always more hunting.

 

eyes wide open

closed against rejection

seeking sheltering skies.

 

seamless public acceptance

transforms landscapes

of wounded minds

 

behind oppressive facades

recognition unfurls

lush beauty and

dissolves the binding darkness.

 

~ C. Duclos

The act of love is surrender...

 

The act of love is the surrender of self into life as it is. This is a love larger than our word “love” can contain or express. It embraces all of life and does not judge: tragedy and war, suffering and joy, creativity and destruction. Beauty. Death. The Other. Within this embrace of life as it is, lie acceptance, forgiveness, healing.

When we let go enough into the depths of our being, we are in communion with all of creation. We are center and circumference. One and many. Self and other. Without difference. We are receivers of one another. Then the mystery which surrounds and informs us is served. At depth, we discover that our aloneness and our bondedness are one. Ours is an identity with all beings. Herein lies our healing, the end of loneliness. . . .

To stay grounded I have had to find other ways to honor the paradox of our human identity. I have discovered that it is in the simplest, most minute experiences that I can begin to do that. Then, I am at home, my created self. I belong. Walking. Looking at a tree. Listening to a person, to the wind. Caressing a child. Scraping carrots in the sink. Weeping. Laughing.

Being tender. First, I learned to be tender with myself; to tend the needs of my soul. Then I began to tend the other which is also my self. If I am not tending, caring for some small portion of the living creation, how can I commune with that creation, be it the earth or a child, in any but the most sentimental way? A woman learns, in caring for an infant, that she becomes bonded. A person who tends the land or gives to another discovers the same bond. These are not moral niceties, they are part of the mystery. They are law.

In this kind of communion with life, new languages arise in our bodies: languages of awe and wonder, gratitude and a joy that is overflowing. They soften us. . . . The more gratitude or awe I feel, the more life shows forth its beauty and terror, the more my life is graced. These are the languages of being. Of being alive. This is a life lived with passion: com-passion. . . .

There we await the mystery.

 

Richard Rohr The Rhineland Mystics

 

August 2 - August 7, 2020/ Anne Hillman

My wounds are not your wounds...

 

My wounds are not your wounds

Yet we are both wounded

Seems like we should be together there

But we’re not.

I reach out

You run away

I am left alone in my despair

Again and again and again.

The wailing begins inside,

tears slide hotly down my face in silence

I’m lonely and afraid

And you are lonely and afraid

So, we remain alone, far apart by each other’s side

That’s the worst kind of aloneness

When the one you love is always there

Untouchable across a chasm of solitude

Sometimes an arm stretches out,

I’m hoping it’s an offering

NO…hand up….stop

Don’t come near

 

I've been thinking...about divine love...

 

Divine love, poured into space-time bursts forth in love's urge toward wholeness through reconciliation, mercy peace and forgiveness. Love incarnate is the wholemaker who shows the way of evolution toward unity in love. To see the universe through the eyes of love helps us make sense of evolution, not as a process of cold, blind chance or randomness, but one of passion, yearning, novelty, union, gift, suffering, death and new life.

Love is the faithful heart of the cosmos, the constancy of all life; yet love seeks to become more being-in-love and hence is the energy of change.  The name of the Infinite points to this mystery of love that is; love that overflows onto new life.

TAKE THIS INTO THESE NEW DAYS OF FREEDOM FROM THE VIRUS!!

WE ARE FREE!!! 

WE ARE FREE...NOW!

Don't waste your life, come on My Voyage...

 

MY VOYAGE

I thought that my voyage had come to its end

at the last limit of my power, that the path before

me was closed, that provisions were exhausted and

the time had come to take shelter in a silent

obscurity.

But I find that Your will knows no end in me,

and when old words die out on the tongue, new

melodies break forth from the heart; and where the

old tracks are lost, new country is revealed with its

wonders.

~ Rabindrinath Tagore

Why we need struggle

 

Jason Silva on why we need to struggle...

Most of us don't like resistance, don't like to struggle, but it's only through this struggle, especially what we're facing today during Covid, that we learn that struggling is actually transformative and freeing.  We find that we can move from a place of sorrow, loneliness, loss - all this struggle, and come out on the other side as different people, renewed, replenished and with wholly new perspectives on life.  Flwo through this process with me, with us all...

Love you all!

Catherine xoxo

I would break my heart for the one who would take my heart into their own...

 

Four Part Meditation (5 Minutes)

 

1. Take a moment of gratitude - intentionally think about what you are thankful for in your life, in all areas.
2. Life of loved ones - imagine a golden light surrounding them as they go about their day.
3. Think about what success would look like for you today?  What does it feel like?  Visualize that feeling, that experience.
4. Simply be present, be still - notice the rise and fall of the breath, sounds of the room or outdoors...just be present.

International Zoom dance party...join us!!

 

Here's the link to join today at 2pm EST:

Join Zoom Meeting https://us02web.zoom.us/j/2074507165 Meeting ID: 207 450 7165

Come one, Come all!!!!

The most difficult griefs....

 

THE SHELL

An open sandy shell

on the beach

empty but beautiful

like a memory

of a protected previous self.

The most difficult griefs,

ones in which

we slowly open

to a larger sea, a grander

sweep that washes

all our elements apart.

So strange the way

we are larger

in grief

than we imagined

we deserved or could claim

and when loss

floods into us

like the long darkness it is

and the old nurtured hope

is drowned again,

even stranger then

at the edge of the sea,

to feel the hand of the wind

laid on our shoulder,

reminding us

how death grants

a fierce and fallen freedom

away from the prison

of a constant

and continued presence,

how in the end

those who have left us

might no longer need us,

with all our tears

and our much needed

measures of loss

and that their own death

is as personal

and private

as that life of theirs

which you never really knew,

and another disturbing thing,

that exultation

is possible

without them.

And they for themselves

in fact

are glad to have let go

of all the stasis

and the enclosure

and the need for them to live

like some prisoner

that you only wanted

to remain incurious

and happy in your love,

never looking for the key,

never wanting to

turn the lock and walk

away

like the wind,

unneedful of you,

ungovernable,

unnamable,

free.

It's a Ray of Light today....

Watch this Ray of Light!

and let it make your day!!! 

All becoming has needed me....

 

Da neigt sich die Stunde und ruhrt mich an

The hour is striking so close above me,

so clear and sharp,

that all my senses ring with it.

I feel it now: there's a power in me

to grasp and give shape to my world.

I know that nothing has ever been real

without my beholding it.

All becoming has needed me.

My looking ripens things

and they come toward me, to meet and be met.

~ Rainer Maria Rilke

I'll dance with you.....

 

"And I'll dance with you in Vienna,

I'll be wearing a river's disguise.

The hyacinth wild on my shoulder

my mouth on the dew of your thighs.

And I'll bury my soul in a scrapbook,

with the photographs there and the moss.

And I'll yield to the flood of your beauty,

my cheap violin and my cross."

~ Leonard Cohen

We are held gently by the earth, yet crucified by our pain...

The blood line of God is connected to everything...

shells on the ocean shore, the mushrooms growing in the forest, 

the trees stretching to the clouds, the tiniest speck of snow in the winter, 

and our dust-to-dustness...

we are all created and tethered to this sacred gift of creation....

My Jesus

by Catherine Duclos

grecian white wall fall endlessly away

then return

spreading virginal folds of heat

undulating the length

of the freshly killed man

nailed to the wall

supple thighs lay limply together caressed

by razors of sun beating down 

upon the ebony carved body

glazed with ancient sweat

the lion maned head slips

softly to his chest

poised

in acquiescence

above the branches

of the tree

cut into arms

held firmly

by the crucifixion

of insistence

No more running...see yourself...you are safe....

 

INSISTENCE  DEMANDS  SURRENDER  

YOURSELF

DO THIS DO THAT 

DO EVERYTHING YOU ARE MEANT

TO DO TO BE

YOU ARE THE WORLD INSIDE OUTSIDE

BECOME FREE NOW

NO MORE HIDING RUNNING

SCARED ASHAMED

LABELS DROP DISAPPEAR

NOTHING STOPS YOU

NOTHING STOPSYOU

NOTHING STOPS YOU

You are loved and protected and safe now, even amidst what is going on right now!  You have yourself and as you surrender to that, you are free now...

I love you, as the world loves you...as you love yourself...

Always, love Catherine

Not all who wander are lost...

 

You are never lost, only searching... 

you are never lost, you are only wandering...

you are never lost, you are only finding yourself...

you are never lost, you are only finally finding your home...

Listen to this beautiful song by Lana Del Ray to start your day...

Holding you tenderly....

 

TENDERLY

 

I hold you tenderly

as the landscape inside

breaks open with whispers and screams.

Tell me the secrets you keep

hidden amongst the trees

guarding wounds kept silent

where nobody sees.

Surrender your islands of loneliness

surrounded by seas of tears

lapping gently under sheltering skies

where shadows of sun reveal the path

to weave along the way home.

Home, where I am

always

holding you in my dreams.

Love after love...Happy Valentine's day my loves...

 

Sometimes you need arms around you...to be wanted...

 

SECOND SIGHT

by David Whyte

Sometimes, you need the ocean light,

and colours you’ve never seen before

painted through an evening sky.

 

Sometimes you need your God

to be a simple invitation

not a telling word of wisdom.

 

Sometimes you need only the first shyness

that comes from being shown things

far beyond your understanding,

 

so that you can fly and become free

by being still and by being still here.

 

And then there are times you want to be

brought to ground by touch

and touch alone.

 

To know those arms around you

and to make your home in the world

just by being wanted.

 

To see eyes looking back at you,

as eyes should see you at last,

 

seeing you, as you always wanted to be seen,

seeing you, as you yourself

had always wanted to see the world.

You are NOT CRAZY! Listen to me....

 

Have you ever touched the sun?

by Catherine Duclos 

 

Have you ever touched the sun?

 

Had your darkness burned away

 

By its brilliance and Beauty?

 

I have, and it’s magnificent!

 

The rainbows fall out of the sky,

 

Almost so you can catch them.

 

How can everything be so beautiful

 

That you want to cry?

 

I cry and I laugh and I say thank you

 

To whomever it is that did all This.

 

I am alive, I remember now, I am alive.

 

In the darkness, I forgot.  I forgot all this beauty.

 

This is the way life is supposed to be, for everyone,

 

Freedom and light and love.

 

But people say I’m crazy when I talk like this,

 

That I’m bipolar and I’m just manic.

 

How can that be true when all I’m experiencing is life

 

As it should be, as it is.

 

I’m not crazy.  Don’t call me crazy.  Call me amazing

 

Call me alive!

Why are we so sad...from Jason Silva

 

Listen to him!

Depression does not have to overcome us!!

I am here to help you escape from your sadness and despair!

Book a free 30-minute consultation with me here:

Wild Serenity Life Coaching

Have a beautiful and radiant day today my dears...

love, Catherine

p.s. more of Jason Silva on my website!

You don't have to be afraid!

The reason why you are all so profoundly impacted by the isolation, the loneliness, the anxiety, depression and fear during this time of Covid-19 is because ultimately

YOU ARE AFRAID OF DEATH!!

I want you to watch this video!  It will help you to cope with your fears and find some peace in these times. You must understand that the reason we face death is so that we can find our meaning and purpose in life...we only have now, we only have today....don't fear anymore, just live my dearests...

REMEMBER, YOU ARE NOT ALONE!!

I love you,

Catherine