I am ready for a life of love and joy flowing
I am puing down he angst and walking away .
Ready
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Category Archives: Joy
https://www.blurb.com/b/11671336
Healing Our Hunger
Imagery and Poetry for Ending Food Insecurity
By Barbara L. Chapman
Freedom to Be with Gentle Breezes and Birdsongs
The air is refreshingly cool this morning even though the sun is bright . I savor and relish in this mornings when I don’t have to go rushing off .
The morning quietness is a freedom all its own . Freedom from the harsh sounds of this world’s man made demands . Freedom society’s pushes and pulls . Freedom from the dictates of ego and one’s not your own .
Awakening gently into a new day of birdsongs dancing through the air and with light , cool breezes ever so subtly caressing the awakening joy of the freedom to just be .
The toils and turbulence of yesterday’s work day are nearly gone and in its place a quiet, deep peace .
What is freedom if it is not to awaken every day knowing that you can be who your are .
Gentle breezes and birdsongs and loving contemplation is my freedom today .
Circumstances
A dance with changing circumstances ,
a drain or a lift ? A reestablishment of sense of self and finding one’s footing once
again.
Not for the faint of heart yet as we move through that which we fear in time it
is transformed into the familiar .
A dance with identity perceived by the inner self and interpretations of how we think
the world views us .
It’s the perceptions that we hold onto with fierceness can cause the most discomfort .
Is it habit or real ? If it is habit that doesn’t make it any less real .
Dancing through circumstances may feel more like trudging through mud in moments
of fear …all it takes is one moment and then you feel like your home and the comfort is
real .
Does a Soul Choose …
A new life arrives . She is given away . Is the first experience of this life one of trauma ? Aside from the one of leaving a safe womb does the separation from her beginnings of life impact her sense of comfort and trust ?
She is born with a trusting heart no matter the circumstances . She loves deeply , so deeply that it surprises even her .
Welcomed into a home , into a family , that wants to be what it is not . There is love . There is love that battles within itself and with it’s own brokenness . Her love , in innocence , rises to the surface in moments of celebration . Like when she awakens first thing every morning , before opening her eyes , then is a joyous smile across her face. Did her soul choose to know the indescribable ache while also choosing to carry a joy filled heart and an ever replenishing trust ? The brokenness of the family integrated more trauma into her original wound and in quietness she finds a healer , herself . Did her soul choose ?
And in her quietness she sometimes dreams of knowing wholeness . Enchanted by the sight of the moon and the stars she finds a sense of rootedness in them . And when she is near water and it’s powerful timelessness then she feels held by the breath of all life past , present and future .
Space for New Dreams
The light is delicate tonight and the breezes cool. Someone not too far away is
listening to a soprano singing opera . The sounds drift faintly in the air as I watch the
evening light dance with with shadows before calling it a night .
It’s the sort of peaceful , summer night that soothes the soul and invites a restorative
rest .
New dreams are given space to arrive in the subtle , warm glow of the setting sun .
Aloneness During Covid 19
Living alone while covid 19 changes the world forces emotions to the surface and
brings a new focus to the smallest delights . The aloneness is magnified from what is was
before . Suddenly those solitary evenings that seemed to go on for too long and could be
soothed into comfort with the knowing that in the morning it would be whisked away with
commotion was gone . The commotion of being busy and surrounded and connected to other
people gone . Now walking along a trail in a park , mask covered mouth and nose while
passing from a distance a mother and child and suddenly a small child’s smile takes on a
whole new meaning . Noticing the little things like we did when we were children but now
there’s no rush to be at work or to get home to bed for a speedy night’s sleep . The aloneness
before had it’s challenges too though back then there was hope of a plan or a visit or busy work
day to carry through to relief or comfort .
The phone calls and text messages become a lifeline . Each one opening the way to
connecting to our shared plight and to our humanity and our hope .
The tension builds beneath the surface silently . Moment by moment without
entirely knowing that it’s there the layers of uncertainty and loneliness are building shelves
inside of you. And the beautiful , unexpected miracles of noticing an innocent smile or the
kindness of a stranger or the vibrant colors of the sky and my heart swells with a love from
before my existence . A love that has carried us through all of time . Tears well up in my eyes .
Is it the striking aloneness that I feel or the love that is so deep for all of life that makes it so the
tears must flow . When sleep finally comes it’s comfort is a delight and in the morning the hope
and the search for the little things will begin again .
Mon Coeur
Comfort in the Quiet
The spring has come and knowing little of our human fright it sings . It beckons . It dances with delight . It must sense it’s new found freedom . I wonder . Does nature now feel it’s man made noose loosened ? The song birds sing more sweetly and the trees less tense . The quietness so soothing for life to be able to breathe again that is for all one but one .
The sadness presses against the quiet . Love and the fragility of human life are in each moment now . The breathtaking moments of courage and compassion rise and in-between is cherished laughter to lighten our hearts and carry us on .
The songs of Mother nature are freely sung now and her wild animals live with less fear . The people that were trampling upon the sacredness of life are the ones seeking to return to what is gone . To fight the flow of change is to create your own despair . And that heaviness hangs in the air .
The rustlings of the trees and the currents of the oceans shake me free from the weightiness of false designs . Turn into the heart and release her songs into all of life and the freedom of knowingness will carry you onward . 
In this Moment Here with Me
We despair over the unknown and yet it is there that we are free . It could cage you
if thats what you choose or set you free to be
in this moment here with me .
We surrender to fear and like an expert jewel thief it robs us of life . It’s not the fear that guides and protects , but the one that steals your heart away .
We live so as to love and to love means to risk it all . Mind , heart and soul .
We despair over the losses of our loves . The family , friends and the ones unknown to us that are suddenly gone from life .
Left to our worries and left with our kind thoughts of hugs and laughter and of days shared in sunshine and in rain .
We touch each other’s existence and must remember that it is so much more . It is not in judgement that lifts a life but in kindness that an eternal thread lives on .
In this moment here with me your life will live on .
Comfort in Isolation
As much as comfort can be found and nurtured in the reserves of inner strength carried in your mind , heart and spirit alone , on your own , the connection to each other is the infinite thread of love and compassion . That thread carries us through time . It carries us into difficulty and through it to the other side into the joy that is always there . The celebration that lives and is a single breath is our shared joy in life . We are staying apart in order to love life and to love each others life . In loving life we are asked to face to fears and challenges of what it means to be alone with our selves . In the quiet there is an opportunity to hear and to heal the parts that are slow to open up to joy , the lightness of laughter and compassion . In a place of fear we can heal fear . Inside of unconditional compassion is freedom . Expansive , weightless freedom . It is love . 
blchapman 