Journey of the Heart

  This poem is about the eternal search for our Divine Beloved... For me it's also about finding my voice and lighting my inner flame. When I realize that the more I fall into love, I instantly connect with my unique expression... then nothing can discourage me from being myself. If I go into a striving mood I feel lost and blocked in my expression. This poem sprouted during the past months through some realization that the more I cultivate love, the more everything falls into place...    Flower Mandala by author Our Divine Beloved by Subhadra Bäppler Oh love!  How much I long to express your enchanting names    to feel the scent of your presence  and the gaze of your soft eyes watching me from your abode kissed by the sweetness  of your eternal presence closer to me than the breath itself  This inner search  to hear your whisper in my heart like following a trail of rose petals leading m...

How often we lay awake in the depth of night with a longing we cannot place... In those moments when the veil between worlds thins, we reach for our Beloved.  The divine spirit that lives in those we love and within ourselves.  In the stillness, we may ache for a far away friend or mourn the loss of one we have loved.  Or maybe we reach, yet again, for the small being that depends on us for every comfort.  And always, we pray for the strength to keep loving.  Blue Prayer In the deep contracted night Again, I reach for you Arms outstretched Fingers taut This meager embrace Worn and weary I reach between worlds With my only heart Its four-quartered arrow Pierces the sleepless air Tender and fierce Like courage Like hope Like love ~ Collage by Salyna Gracie Photo by Yuko Ishii Salyna Gracie is the director of Red Lotus Dance Company. She performs and teaches Middle Eastern Dance and facilitates th...

“Last night I dreamt that I walked among the wild tigers of Bengal… At first I walked alone through thick jungle foliage. When I heard sounds behind me, I noticed tiger cubs walking toward me. Then I worried, briefly, that if the mother appeared she might attack me, for I knew how protective mothers can be of their cubs. But when the tigress did appear, along with other tigresses, instead of being aggressive, they were all surprisingly friendly: stalking me with a motive other than to devour me. For the remainder of the dream I walked in harmony with the tigers, as if one of them, delighting in the playfulness of their babies. When I awoke I contemplated the imagery in my dream: Jagadambe Devi by Krishna Kanta Dasi Durga Devi came to my mind: that ancient Vedic goddess of feminine empowerment whose companion is a tigress. I considered that perhaps the tigresses planed to make prey of those parts of me that resist love, and grant courage to the other ...