Poem: Walking to See

If you want to seek God,
then seek Him only.

You will never

see if you

close your eyes. Open

your heart's eyes and

become

blind of the world,

and a seer

of your soul

and in that moment when

there is peace

and overflowing

joy

it is then

that there can be no one

else left but Him,

Knock.
the Door opens.

Seek.

He will show you

His face:

Beaming with

all the love in the universe.
And you will

Ask.

and you will receive-

grace, pure and holy grace.

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"for we walk by faith, not by sight".

2 Corinthians 5:7

Song: Your Song

My gift is my song
And this one's for you
And you can tell everybody
That this is your song
It maybe quite simple
But now that it's done
Hope you don't mind
I hope you don't mind
That I put down in words
How wonderful life is now you're in the world

Sat on the roof
And I kicked off the moss
Well some of the verses well
They got me quite cross
But the sun's been kind
While I wrote this song
It's for people like you that
Keep it turned on

So excuse me for forgetting
But these things I do
You see I've forgotten
If they're green or they're blue
Anyway the thing is well I really mean
Yours are the sweetest eyes I've ever seen

[Allesandro- opera]

And you can tell everybody
This is your song
It may be quite simple
But now that it's done
I hope you don't mind
I hope you don't mind that I put down in words

How wonderful life is now you're in the world
I hope you don't mind
I hope you don't mind that I put down in words
How wonderful life is now you're in the world

My Heart's Regret

The Yogi:

The past is no longer, the future is not yet, and the present is as the blink of an eye.

The Lover:

The past is manifested in the present in the living reality of memory; The future is in the palpable presence of yearning; and the present is in the invitation of the moment.
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My Heart's regret
is because it was
not there.
When we met,
I was heartless.
Now my heart screams
to meet you.
Yearns
to know you.

To know your
kindness,
the heat of your kisses,
and the intensity of
the moment when
we are together.
I hope
beyond hope that
you may see my heart
beating again.
This time, for
no one but you.
Now, as we have never
been---
This tardy heart
that I have
seeks for a chance
to go back;
hug you tight, and
never let you go.
But since what was
can never be what is:
I will be waiting for a
tomorrow, where past
and present meet,
where God has
prepared for us.
Until that day comes
to pass,
I will purge my heart
and keep it pure, so
that I will not
take you for granted.
To not make you
suffer my rantings
and insecurities; so
that we may live!
Alive,
aroused,
and ablaze.
your fire has set
my soul on a passionate
longing for you;
for the time
we'll get to meet
again- now
with our hearts
in place,
I'll tell you
I love you.

For now, in
hopeful contrition
I lay still.
Dreaming of us
renewed, reunited, and
reignited.
Let it be so.
In Christ I entrust
my plea.
Let angels come
down and guard
our hearts. And for
my hopeful tomorrow,
Let truth begin this
newfound chance.
Let there be
a celebration in our hearts
until that day.

Let the storms in our
lives take us home. Amen.

Story: The Baobab Tree

The day is hot, the air was thick, the ground is hard and the mouth was dry. The hare is making his way home when he comes across the baobab tree.

"Baobab tree," he calls out, "You are old and wise and generous. Please let me rest in your shade."

The tree answered, "Hare, your call is true, come sit in my shade."

The hare sits and thanks the Baobab tree. But the air is still thick and the ground is still hard and the mouth still dry. The hare calls once again,

"Baobab tree you are old and wise and generous, allow me to drink from your sap."

And the Baobab says, "Hare, your call is true, please drink from my sap." The hare drinks from the sap, is refreshed, and thanks the Baobab tree.

Some time goes by and the hare calls once more,

"Baobab tree, you are old and wise and generous, won't you allow me to enter your heart?"

And the tree answers, "Hare your call is true, come enter my heart."

The tree opens her heart and the hare enters.

Inside he sees unimaginable beauty, lights of all colors, sparkling dew drops, and precious stones everywhere onyx and emerald, diamond and sapphires all glittering and glowing. The hare calls to the Baobab,

"You are old and wise and generous, wont you allow me to take one of your stones to my wife as a present?"

The tree answers, "Your call is true, won't you take one of my stones?" The hare thankfully takes a single crystal, steps out and the heart closes behind him.

Now the hare takes the stone to his wife, who places it on a chain around her neck and walks around town, showing it to all. But she shows it especially to the wife of the hyena, for she knows that the hyena and his wife will be the most jealous.

That night, the wife of the hyena says to her husband, "Go, get me a stone from the heart of the baobab tree."

The next morning, the air is thick, the sun is hot and the ground is hard. The hyena comes to the Baobab tree and says, "You are old and rich and very beautiful let me enter your heart."

The Baobab tree opens her heart. The hyena enters and sees lights of many colors, sparkling dew, and precious stones. And the hyena starts to grab a diamond, a sapphire, a ruby. He grabs more and more, frantic with greed. He is out of control, taking from every corner of the Baobab's heart.

The tree trembling and terrified calls out to him, but the hyena can not hear her. So with great shudder the Baobab closes her heart, trapping the hyena inside. The hyena dies.

From that day on, the Baobab tree has not been willing to open her heart to anyone, even to those whose call is true.

__________________________
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Is there a hyena in your heart?? I have realized that sometimes we fail to realize that we haven't really learned to let go of the past, yet we act as if we do, even though deep inside we are still history's prisoners. I was like this, but today I finally have been set free. It is truly wonderful how God directs our life and points us toward the people who really matters who really means most to us. This is an answered prayer. I asked God for clarity and now, be it by destiny or pure cosmic coincidence, the clarity I have is a miraculous thing to behold. Now, the only thing that's left is walking in faith that God works with the purest of intentions filled with His love, and that what He has started, He will see through til the end. Amen.

Happy day! Faith is truly looking back at the Cross of Jesus. :D

Adam and Eve

I have started my 1 year through the Bible challenge to myself. Reading 3 Chapters everyday and 5 chapters of the Bible on Sundays, one can finish reading through God's Word in 365 days. Curiously enough, I can't get over the first 3 Chapters of Genesis that jumpstarted this undertaking. The story of Creation and Adam and Eve.

So it starts in the very beginning where there is nothingness, a void. Then God said let there be light, there was night and day, a firmament to separate the waters above and below, there was the sky; to separate the waters below and the dry earth, there was land and sea; plants; water animals; land animals; stars, sun and moon. Eventually, He created Adam- His prized creation. He said:

Then God said, "Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them
rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock,
over
all the earth,
and over all the creatures that move along the
ground."
27 So God
created man in his own image, in the image
of God
he created him; male and female he
created them.
28 God blessed them and
said to them, "Be fruitful and
increase in number; fill the earth and subdue
it. Rule over the fish of the sea
and the birds of the air and over every
living creature that moves on the
ground."

Then He thought that man is lonely. So He made a suitable helper for Him, a woman (of man) named Eve. And the rest is history.

22 Then the LORD God made a woman from the rib he had taken out of the
man, and he brought her to the man.
23 The man said,

"This is now bone of my bones

and flesh of my flesh;

she shall be called 'woman, '

for she was taken out of man."
24 For this reason a man will
leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and they will become one
flesh. (Chapter 2)

After reading all this, I realized that indeed Man's weakness is a woman. It is with this union of Adam and Eve that the erotic has manifested. And it is with this union that humanity fell

Everyday of our lives we are seeking to recapture the lost Eden. It is here where there is sublime innocence and full trust between God and Man, man and woman, and woman and God is made clear. It is here where the communion with the Divine Creator, our Holy, Holy, Holy God is felt fully everyday. But this was lost because of sin. The woman gave in to the temptation to "Be like God" and the man lacked the balls to be firm in his faith and obey what God has instructed. 4 "You will not surely die," the serpent said to the woman. 5 "For God knows
that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God,
knowing good and evil." (Chapter 3)

God cursed man to toil for food and survival of the family, He cursed the woman with excruciating childbirth, and they both were banished from Eden forever.

But in this tragedy I can see a miracle about to start. Because you see, with these curses the roles of man and woman are defined, and the beginnings of romantic sexuality began. It is with this banishment that worship has taken root and value to everything He has created is established. Indeed, God's will is good. We yearn for the lost communion with God, the merging of eros and agape. And God has manifested Himself in us through love. To quote the renaissance mystic Recanati:

"All Love is the love of God."

I will share a very powerful Kabbalistic story I have encountered a year ago:
The Malach was in search of a wife. They called him the Malach, the Angel, for his appearance was so stunning, his wisdom so immeasurable, he seemed a divine presence among common men. Word spread throughout the shtetls and cities, a search began. They came to the town of Shalom Shachnah – a great Master in his own right, who was famous for his intense study. He would sit before stacks of books, consumed in the words, sweating with concentration, moving for nary a bowl of soup or a stoke of the fire. Shalom had a daughter, who rumor had it had inherited more than a little of her father’s intensity.

The Angel had found his match – the shidduch (match) was made. A buzz went out far and wide – the angel was marrying the daughter of Shalom Shachnah. Crowds gathered for the celebration. Everyone was there. A great host of people. But the host of the party? The father of the bride – where was he? He simply did not show up. Indeed, back at home, he had not stirred from his study, engrossed as he was in his great stack of books.The wedding went on without him – and how it went on! It was ecstatic, enlightening, with dance and drink, canopied as if by a bow of divine light, as befit the joining of the Angel and his bride.
After the wedding, the mother of the bride went home to her book-bound husband and screamed, “Where were you?! Do you know what you just missed? A wedding like you wouldn’t believe! Your own daughter’s wedding…and she was wedded to an absolute angel, a celestial soul! And you, you honored your books over your own blood! I refuse to speak to you until you go to their house in Mezritch for a proper Sabbath to give them the respect they deserve.”
And what is a man to do when his wife protests so? He set out the next week for the three days’ travel to Mezritch. He arrives for the Sabbath. The Sabbath prayers commence.
The Angel starts to sing. His voice rises and rivets the room, a voice unparalleled in earthly and heavenly spheres. A light fills the prayer hall, a light so enormous and magnetic that Shalom is overcome by its brilliance and faints. The song finishes and Shalom awakes.

The Angel approaches him and asks, “Tell us Shalom, what did you see?” Shalom answers with a whisper of awe,

“I saw your angels. I saw all of your surrounding angels dancing about your
shoulders! They were exquisite, amazing sites to behold. It was too much to
bear. I passed out.”

The Angel shaking his head, replies,

“Dear Father-in-law, it is a good thing that you passed out when you did. For
if you would have beheld your daughter you would have perceived an even mightier
and more majestic host of angels surrounding her. Their brilliance would have so
overwhelmed you that you might not have woken up at all.”

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Yearning. Pining. Longing. Unity.
Love.