Room for Grief

I’m forced to make

a special room inside

a new-made room for grief

and I must live there all my waking

wanting to dust, to polish

yet no chair or table present.

I stand cloth-poised

and try to conjure something

to occupy my hands

my time

my energy

that so want some activity

to pass the hours

’til clock time frames

the frequency of tears

and slows the sorrow sobbing

to a single stream.

Then soon the cobwebs come

and I must divide

the dreams of yesteryear

from those of future

foretold but not to be.

14 June 2022

Ann G. O’Dell

The Boy Child

Luke 1:31  “you will be with child and give birth to a son”

Of course the spiritual child born in you must be male.  It is the masculine part of us that needs to be transformed, made new.  The thinking, willful, decision-making part of us is the part that needs to be reborn.  And that is precisely the part of us that must give permission for something new to emerge in it.  It is the masculine free will that must will a new beginning.

The inner, creative, feminine knows all along what needs to happen and is more than willing to be the womb for this godchild.

Sinless

To be sin-free is to unblock all obstacles to lines of communication from God.

Our Holy Grail

“Each morning we must hold out the chalice of our being to receive, to carry, and to give back.”                        Peter Traben Haas

(please excuse this duplicate)

Medieval romances told of knights who went in search of the Holy Grail, the chalice used by Jesus to serve wine at his last supper (and some legends went on to say it also caught the blood from his side at his crucifixion).  Some of the more popular stories told that whoever found the Grail would receive from it whatever his heart desired.

The quote above suggests that we are that chalice, that we have within us that which can satisfy our heart’s desire.  Our task then is the same as that of the ancient knights.  But rather than search externally, we need to search elsewhere.

Tidings

Tidings of great joy

to you

in you

for you are being born into

a wonder

a grace

a being fresh and new

for you

of you

by you

with you

as you

scarce aware of space prepared

are knitting infant clothes

and humming lullabies

and all the while

know nothing

of the miracle

you are become

Ann Glover O’Dell

26 June 2009

Patience

To dote on the grandeur of the gift of each new day;
To embrace the mystery of myself and
all the unknown I will encounter and respond to;
To walk barefoot to my slippers upon arising
and wonder where my feet might take me;
To smile with joy at knowing special gifts
will be bestowed on me throughout these daylight hours;
To breathe deeply of the new fresh air that
waits for my engagement;
To welcome food and drink that will
provide feasts great and small;
To have learned gentleness to myself in the
time spaces present in each hour;
To know that centeredness and silence are the
pivotals that claim commitment;
For these and the patience needed to plumb the depths of everything,
I thank Thee, Lord.

18 August 2014

Fasting

Fasting puts us more in tune with the Spirit of God whose food is not the meat and drink our bodies require.

St. Augustine suggests the ancient directive to wash the face and anoint the head has to do with the inner man even more than the outer—the necessity of washing away whatever stands in the way of our experiencing God and being re-transformed into his image. The anointing reminds us that there is a divinity deep inside us which connects us irrefutably with God.

“Often, too reflection upon the things we need for carrying on this life injures the eye of our spirit and bedims it; and . . . divides our heart.”

Jesus said one lives by the words that come from the mouth of God. How do the words of God come to us? From his Spirit to our spirits. Through silence. Through intuition. Through insights. Far more than any printed page.

My Solitude

Delicious. Absolutely delicious. Better even than chocolate (although chocolate regularly contributes). That is the best I can do to describe my solitude. As much as I enjoy all sorts of social and cultural events and interacting with all sorts of people, coming home is always dessert.

I live surrounded by the things I have loved for so long. Things my mother and grandmother acquired and enjoyed. Things my great-grandmother produced as she pieced the beautiful quilts that eventually would find their way to me to be treasured in a way she hardly could have imagined.

My little house is filled with collections—pitchers, strawberries, hearts, eggs, angels, scrapbooks, my uncle’s watercolors, and folders upon folders filled and overflowing with ideas.

In the midst of all that is precious and could be distracting, my writing desk beckons me to let a special magic overcome me, as all I need do is simply sit and the ideas begin to flow. I never know what is going to materialize—whether poem, essay, meditation. But I know before anything comes into consciousness that it will delight and that the writing of it will energize me to the extent that afterwards I will honor it by tackling some procrastinated domestic chore.

My experience convinces me that life is intended to be joyful and that each of us can find our center, allow it to feed our spirits, and live out of that which is more comforting, more exciting, and more powerful even than our egos.

Ann Glover O’Dell

WEB PAGE CONTENTS

Thank you for visiting my web site. You may write to me at ago27@yahoo.com.

HUMPTY DUMPTY BLOG

This is the last post in the series of “Hatching Humpty Dumpty.” The posts need to be read chronologically, beginning with the first, dated March 2014. The posts follow the action and themes in my book, Humpty Dumpty Hatched: Transformation for Everyone. I hope they have sparked your interest in reading my book, which you will find here on my website and which may be downloaded free of charge.

BOOK

Humpty Dumpty Hatched: Transformation for Everyone is the story of a personal miracle that can be accessed by anyone. The book contains insights into personality and wholeness as well.

JOURNAL

The new series of postings featured here is named “Journal Notes: Inscaping.” It will contain essays on a variety of subjects. These journal notes will be added to each week. They will also be available in the page (left-hand side) entitled, “Journal.”

MEDITATIONS

These meditations address addiction: the helpless despair of those whose lives are out of control. The themes encourage the engagement of the Inner Wisdom residing within each of us and its ability to do for us what we cannot do for ourselves. (A meditation will be added weekly to this page.)

POETRY

“Midwifing the Soul” is a collection of poetry that has come to me as I sit in silence with my writer friends. I give full credit to the Spirit for inspiring me. All I have done is work somewhat with meter and rhythm and vocabulary. (I plan to add a poem each week to this page.)

 

Thank you to readers

I want to thank all you who have read and subscribed to my blog.  I will post again on April 27 and then again May 11 to continue weekly.