A Community of Souls...exploring the mystery of being human
When I was a home care nurse, I had a patient named Epifania who was more than a hundred years old. Her daughter, Leonardita, who was in her early 70s, took magnificent, never-stinting care of her mother. And when pneumonia finally bore the old lady away, Leonardita wept and cried, “Now I am an orphan. When your mamma dies, you are truly alone.”
Donna Piper Leichtling
On This Day…
St. Bernard (1090-1153), founder of Cistercian Order and Doctor of The Church
The place called the “cloud of unknowing” is just a variation of the altar of Yin. It describes the place of a generative Yin—a place not unlike the womb or the tomb with its dark, formative walls. This place of unknowing is a generative place of Yin where one remains in the darkness as long as must be. For if we are ever to feel the Ineffable or to see the Ineffable, it will necessarily be within this cloud and within this darkness and, I add, upon this Yin. To know the Ineffable, we must first be unknown. This unknowing is to be a recurring visit to the altar, be that altar what we call death or birth or the cloud of unknowing, our longing should bring us to the place where we are unknown and where our essence is given new substance by the flames.
Benjamin Martin
I have been through the cycle eternal
of what was before birth,
increasing from two cells
to a universe,
small and swimming,
so tightly held,
the only exit became my first threshold.
I have been through the cycle eternal
of the child.
Growing a body
with potentia for creation and death,
a mind with thoughts
increasing from words to worlds.
I have been through the cycle eternal
of the possible bride
to its reality as wife,
stretching to encompass
two within a single skin.
I have been through the cycle eternal
of the mother,
stretching again that skin of two in one
to shelter six,
growing a roof, a kitchen, a lap,
two hands to rock and haul and hug,
to hold close while turning each child
out toward the world.
I have been through the cycle eternal of the family in reverse,
watching each child walk, run or dance away
to his own life.
I have been through the cycle eternal of daughter
from my own birth to the death of my parents.
I am in the cycle eternal of the grandmother,
the bubbe,
re-growing a roof, a kitchen, a lap,
this time knowing that
I shelter and nourish
not just the body and mind
but the soul of each dear small one.
I am in the cycle eternal
of matron
of medicine woman
of wise crone.
Soup from my ladle
contains sustenance eternal,
seasoned with wisdom and great love.
Donna Piper Leichtling
On This Day…
Ogden Nash born in Rye, N.Y. (how appropriate!), died 1971: poet of light verse
Works: The Tale of Custard the Dragon, Ogden Nash’s Zoo
Quotes: “To keep your marriage brimming, with love in the loving cup, whenever you’re wrong, admit it – whenever you’re right, shut up.” “A door is what a dog is perpetually on the wrong side of.” “Candy is dandy, but liquor is quicker.”
Final contemplation on the Mahavidyas…
The Concord and Harmony of Kamalatmika. Kamalatmika is the consort of Vishna, the all- pervasive principle of conservation. She is the beauty of consciousness in all its glory and charm. Kamala sets things in motion and manifests. Kamala is the goddess of exquisite Beauty blossoming in everything. She denotes one who wears the waters as a robe. Without Kamala, even the most alluring object become a thing of disgust. A lover of Nature expresses Kamala when he or she takes joy in all the things of Nature universally without admitting repulsion or fear or mere liking and disliking—when capable of perceiving beauty in that which seems to others mean and insignificant, bare and savage, terrible and repellent.
Brahma, from whom all these worlds are born, is born from the lotus and Kamalatmika is known as the Lady of the Lotus. Kamalatmika is the play of consciousness, the sport of the Supreme Lord. She is born of the water and akin to Venus shown rising from the milky ocean – the delight of existence, the basic bliss in everything. With her two hands holding aloft two lotus flowers, her other two hands ward off fear and grant the boon. She is robed in waters of sagacity, wisdom, mental movement and activity, constantly bathed by four huge elephants, white as snow with pots full of the waters of luminous immortality. Kamalamitka is the charming movement of graceful change. Recognizing the beauty of creative activity, she is the soul force immanent in all creative activity and is associated with art, architecture sculpture, poetry, even philosophy.
Teri Martin
On This Day…
V.S. Naipaul born in Trinidad, 1932: writer
Works: A bend in the River, An Area of Darkness, Miguel Street
Quotes: “The world is what it is; men who are nothing, who allow themselves to become nothing, have no place in it.” “The world is always in movement.” “An autobiography can distort, facts can be realigned, but fiction never lies. It reveals the writer totally.”
Continued contemplations on the Mahavidyas…
The Expressive Play of Matangi or “As a man thinketh in his heart.” Matangi brings the unspoken word into the fluency and felicity of thought in speech. She confers charm and finish on one’s expression. She is the mother of music; she is portrayed with a harp-like instrument in her hands playing a melody that enthralls all of her listeners. Her aspirants see themselves as joyous instruments in the hands of the Divine Player.
In one hand, she holds a parrot that makes only parrot sounds, and no speech. Only the human speaks; parrots imitate. Matangi is a playful goddess; writers, orators, poets, musicians often appeal to her because they are the myriad rays of Matangi. Calling on her helps give voice to the divine effulgence of Matangi within them.
O thunder-speaking Matangi
May the center of my heart
Voices of an unplumbed significance
Be a home for your light and in this center
Mutterings that brood in the core
Secure a place—a hearth—
Of matter’s sleep
Where experience becomes wisdom. Amen. Teri H Martin