An Excerpt From the Upcoming Novel Shadow Dancing

Next to me, a boat appears, small but seaworthy.  Stepping into it, I feel my spirit torn asunder.  Like an infinite mirror, I become the deeds of every man, and feel all matter of the earth move through me.  I feel the pulse of my being, involution drawing in, evolution giving out, my worldly conditions alternating between the two activities.  My mind reaches out into form, my heart reaches in to love, and both have limits.  And within these endless limits shines the blaze of eternity that lays my soul to rest.  I reach my hand out and touch the guardian, and in the touch, I am immediately humbled.  All feeling is drained from me.  All thought is gone.  I become the divine vessel, empty and ready.

I close my eyes now, and by releasing the gaze of this guardian, feel it unite with the lesser guardian before it.  In the unity comes the knowing that I am connected to every one, the many are one in all that I am. Everyone is redeemed, and in the redemption is harmony.  My love involves all others, who receive my spirit of love and evolve toward the future.

My eyes open and I am dropped back in time.  Lifting my hand to rub my eyes, I look around my hotel room and wonder where I am.  I notice the clock by the bed reads 2:00 PM, and fall back to sleep after feeling my entire body moan.

Excerpted from Shadow Dancing, a novel by Molly Brogan
Copyright invoked, 2011
Artwork by Jules.  Many thanks. 

Color the World With Generosity of Spirit

UNCONDITIONALITY OF LOVE AND FORGIVENESS IS EXTENDED WITH GENEROSITY OF SPIRIT

Have you ever had a day when you felt completely in love with life, when you could see and feel spirit all around you, in everything and everyone?  When you feel like this, you are generous of spirit.

Generosity of spirit can also be accomplished with thought.  One of Neville Goddard's sayings is "Think of something wonderful for yourself and another."  If our thoughts create our reality, then being generous in our thoughts will bring a generosity of spirit into our life that translates into peace and joy.

Giving our loved ones the space and love they need to work out their difficulties without agency or intervention can be generosity of spirit.  Often, if we see someone struggling, we feel compelled to do something for them, fix things, or give our opinion or words of wisdom.  Almost just as often, this makes things worse. 

There are those times when we can be helpful.  Usually if someone needs our help they will ask for it.  It sometimes isn’t easy to stand by and watch someone struggle.  But sometimes – our generosity of spirit is all that is needed for others to feel loved and supported.  Knowing that someone is in our lives that we can ask for help when necessary, who loves us enough to allow us to try and fail and try again – empowers us to continue to try.

If you can look out at everyone, and see them as becoming, remembering their highest potential and, in spite of their apparent mistakes and foibles, as doing the best they can in grace with their state of mind and stage of life - then you truly do have generosity of spirit.

At times, the world can be a big, unfriendly, cold place to live, full of darkness and shadow.  Relating to others with respect and kindness is to be generous of spirit.  Encouraging others around us to shine is a gift that we all can offer each other.  In fact, when we extend this gift to others, we extend it to all of life. When we remember that it is more important to extend love than to be number one or front and center, we express our generosity of spirit.

All material copyrighted 2010: excerpt, All About Living, Molly Brogan

A Glimpse at My Upcoming "Early Poems"

If Love Is

If love is, then,

A meeting

And a meaning,

Just one meaning,

One shared meaning,

Then listen gently

To the sound

Of its tender sigh,

Its soothing,

Wind sung note.

Do not look for words,

But the low

Plaintful moan

Of lovers’

Sweet release.

Drink it as I do

With no thought

Before

Or after.

Nip the cool

Sensation

Of hushed

Wet gasps

That echo

When lips meet

And mean

The warmth,

The oneness,

The fusion.

Excerpt from unpublished Early Poems
Artwork by Moira Marshall.  Many thanks. 

Wedding Tribute

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All I know of angels

I can see in your eyes.

The deep blue of heaven

Moves me like the sea.

Lifts me up with wings

Of unending possibility,

Into the depths of my soul.

Your love guides and protects me

Like a steadfast guardian,

Sentry at the threshold of my fear,

Banishing all potential harm

Allowing light and love to fill me,

Your golden glow surrounds me

Like a pocket of tender safety.

Your hands reach out to me

And reveal your sacred gift,

So simple and so elegant,

Merely all that I AM

And all that I can be,

Because you love me enough

To let your eyes lead the way.

And so my humble heart opens

And reaches for you in kind,

With an overwhelming desire

To move you completely,

To move you with me in tones,

In the rhythm that is ours

And ours alone.

Within that glorious rhythm

We connect to all creation,

Your angel wings enfold me,

Your gentle spirit infolds me,

And we become the divine creator

And all that is our good experience,

In truth, in love, in faith, through you.

--  Molly Brogan

The Exquisite Mystery of Lifelong Friendship

Halfway through my first day of high school, at the tender age of 14, frightened and overwhelmed by my own small feelings, I was ripped away from them when a slender hand slipped a note onto my desk during English class.  I looked up to see a beautiful stranger attached to the hand.  The note said, "I like your laugh."

From that day forward, the presence of Vivian George in my life continues to uplift and inspire me.  Even when she is away, in my heart, she is my confidante, and I speak to her often.  With the spirit of her presence in my life, when we are able to get together, as we have not lived in the same state for almost four decades, it is like we never left each others' side.  We immediately pick up where we left off and each leave the encounter re-energized and inspired. 

There is a mystery here about spiritual intimacy that cannot be denied.  We have allowed it since our paths combined.  Over the years, we cultivate it, appreciate it, marvel at it.  There are times we include it in our life’s work.  She makes an appearance in my first novel, Remember Me as the recipient of the main character's letters, acting as a mirror character.  Her wedding gift to me, a painting, is now included on her website:  viviangeorge.net

Someday, I hope to include myself in her Tuscany Workshop, but unfortunately, not this year.  Here are the details for anyone interested.  Believe me, you will be transformed:

The Inspiration of Art

A Painting Workshop In Tuscany with Vivian George MFA

Dates: May 21 - 31, 2011

Colorado artist Vivian George finds her inspiration in nature. "Nature has all the components that are in painting - rhythm, color and harmony. Individually and together plant forms show energy and light, texture and pattern, repetition and color; and when confined to the flat, square format, their geometry is revealed," she explains. In this workshop, Vivian works with each participant individually to find his or her vision. The colors of the late afternoon sun on the olive grove, the repeating patterns of a hillside vineyard or the symmetry of a narrow drive bordered by native cypress . . . each person's view is different and leads to a unique interpretation.

Artwork by Vivian George.   Many thanks.

The Soothing Power of the Spoken Word

I was honored to be told by my friend Dr. Brenda Carson, that she reads poetry to her mother, Mardine Carson, from my book A Blaze of Light.  Dr. Carson owns an Alternative Health and Wellness Clinic in Detroit, MI, and reads to her mother regularly to facilitate her speedy recovery.

Mardine Carson is 87 years old, and began writing poetry in her 60s.  She has always been a home-body, and very involved with family, friends and church.  Dr. Carson tells me that she knows her mother is enjoying the poetry as she reads it to her by the serene smile on her face.

As a writer, I think there is no greater honor than to hear a story like this.  Thank you both, Brenda and Mardine, for sharing it.  Good health and God bless you both.

Forgiving or Giving For Love

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EXERCISING FORGIVENESS UNCONDITIONALLY LEADS TO THE AWARENESS OF ONENESS

 There seem to be many faces to the process of “forgiveness” being worn these days. Many books, lectures and workshops are available to help us contemplate and adopt forgiving behaviors. We are all taught as children that forgiveness of friends and family is an important part of social life.

The poet William Blake tells us: "In heaven, the only art of living is forgetting and forgiving."  This leads us to the notion that forgiveness is key to finding heaven on earth.

It can be difficult for us to understand that forgiveness cannot happen when we are focused on the tangibles, on what we feel we have lost, on our injuries.  No matter what has occurred in our experience, what happens is an invitation for greater self awareness.  It is an invitation to understand that by bringing our awareness of the spirit in our experience into focus, we can forgive and create harmony.

To complete the process of true forgiveness, whatever our actions, we must be willing to let go of the memories that create anger and resentment. And we must be willing to hold all others in our heart with love.  The paradox here is that as we learn to live with unconditional forgiveness for ourselves and all others, we no longer experience the conflict that requires forgiveness.

All material copyrighted 2010: excerpt, All About Living, Molly Brogan

Merry Christmas One and All

I wish everyone the best during this season of love and renewal.  For me, Christmas has always been a time to confirm life by expressing my love to those around me.  And although my surroundings change each Christmas, within me, there is an essential Christmas that I express with love, now, to you. 

Dylan Thomas said it best in the opening paragraphs of A Child's Christmas in Whales:  "One Christmas was so much like another, in those years around the sea-town corner now and out of all sound except the distant speaking of the voices I sometimes hear a moment before sleep, that I can never remember whether it snowed for six days and six nights when I was twelve or whether it snowed for twelve days and twelve nights when I was six.  All the Christmases roll down toward the two-tongued sea, like a cold and headlong moon bundling down the sky that was our street."

As I diligently work to get through the editing phase of my latest book, I take a deep breath and give a life affirming shout, "Thank you, my friends, and Merry Christmas!"
Artwork:   Alessandro Botticelli, Mystic Nativity

Writing Comes Back as Miracles

The online groups where I share my writing have enriched my life over the last couple of years in many ways. One of the most extraordinary ways is with an online friend named eric, who I met in the gaia group ZenChrist. We exchanged many thoughts and ideas and I always look forward to his comments because he has a very deep understanding of the Zen and Buddhist traditions, and a keen insight into the symbolic nature of Christian scripture.

One day I got a post from eric: "the Slips Naturally poem you posted awhile back in that part got me thinking differently about parenthood. I never had any desire to be a father, maybe because mine was not the best example growing up. In many ways I resisted it over the years. But when my wife and I were talking about it, this poem of yours came to mind. I have never really bought into societal norms and have been a bit of a lone wolf and this poem made me realize the duties I may have as a father do not preclude me from slipping naturally into spirit."

A few weeks later, this message: "Arete Metta was born 8-1-09 @ 7:16 a.m weighing 7lb 12oz after 55 hours of labor!! Mom, dad and baby are happy as clams (what does that mean btw)."

My heart goes out to eric and his beautiful family as they begin life as three. It feels good to be a writer today.

Tapestry of Characters in Each Story

e said: Molly is a writer, maybe she can tell us where her characters come from?

Thanks for this great question, e! My characters are drawn from aspects of myself. I spent a good deal of time in research to clarify for myself how to best develop characters with believable motivation and behavior. In other words, based on the belief system of a character, how would that character behave. Each character plays an aspect in the overall development of the main character.

Love as Becoming

Anonymous said...
A beautiful expression of love as emanation.

I would like to thank this anonymous viewer for this comment on my poem. It got me to thinking about emanation, or the unfolding principle, the outflowing from the source of creation. To me, this statement speaks to love as becoming in ways that completely connect us to all of creation. How wonderful.

The expression of primal urge into an emanation is also conveyed in one of my favorite James Russell Lowell poems, The Vision of Sir Launfall:

“And what is so rare as a day in June?

Then, if ever, come perfect days;

Then Heaven tries Earth if she be in tune,

And over her softly her warm ear lays:

Whether we look or whether we listen,

Every clod feels a stir of might,

An instinct within it that reaches and towers,

And groping blindly above it for light,

Climbs to a soul in grass and flowers.”