We

Freedom will bring truth;

Truth will set you free

Through the act of meditation

We effortlessly seek truth

We effortlessly find wisdom

Though wisdom

We realize

We are already free

A Poetic Contribution to "V Day: One Billion Rising"

Woman-Child of Mother-Earth

The sense of something
Echoing inside of me,
Wanting, longing to be free
To express
What is me,
And let all see
The Womanliness
That I possess.

The Heart is all
The power that be.
Let me love
Passionately;
And soft, tenderly—
   The mother towards the child;
And sweetly, innocence—
   I, myself, the child.

May my heart of Love
And my passion of fire
Unite—
The warm furnace hearth
Burning in me,
Protecting me
From the harm
The spirit can receive
If it steps out
Into our man-world
Too meekly.

The fire and the passion
Heat my heart.
My heart burns
With the fire-love
Of a mother
Fighting for the life
Of her child.

I am fighting for the life
Of the Child
Of the Mother
Of the Earth.

This Earth-Child,
In my, our, custody,
And all of us, her daughters,
Armored messengers be.
Our heart-power
Is not available for the fight—
Our armor is too tight.
We cannot leap flames
From our Hearts,
Until we start to unpeel
His armory from us, from me.

My weapon is
My burning, flaming heart.
My protection is
The Earth’s flow within me,
And the Universal Light around me.

My soul is with the All.
My human heart,
God/dess’ messenger,
The flame
That I must allow free
So we all can join
Life’s family,
And Earth can simply be.

The Amazon Warrior
Armed with Love,
Nothing more,
Begins her conquering.

Please, come join me/us.
Time is running short.
Our Gaia is crying.
Our Love can set her free,
And in so doing,
You and me.

                                 (Diane Shavelson 1991)

For Information: V Day: One Billion Rising

Usefulness in nothing

Thirty spokes converge on a single hub,
  but it is in the space where there is nothing
    that the usefulness of the cart lies.
Clay is molded to make a pot,
  but it is in the space where there is nothing
    that the usefulness of the clay pot lies.
Cut out doors and windows to make a room,
  but it is in the spaces where there is nothing
    that the usefulness of the room lies.
Therefore,
  Benefit may be derived from something,
    but it is in nothing that we find usefulness.
~Lao Tzu Tao Te Ching

In Light I'm Meant

Traditionally, it was said that rolling boulders up hills or carry pales of water helped one achieve a state of enlightenment. These things are props for the mind to play with while it settles; like putting a baby to sleep with a rattle. Yet, these props soon start to feel empty and all that's left in the end is you. You might feel naked without them but take solace; you are meant to be naked in this light. Enlightenment is as simple as a baby's rattle. Can you hear it?

Star Light

Sometimes, the most important lessons are understood by the silence within.

"When I heard the learn’d astronomer;
When the proofs, the figures, were ranged in columns before me;
When I was shown the charts and the diagrams, to add, divide, and measure them;
When I, sitting, heard the astronomer, where he lectured with much applause in the lecture-room,
How soon, unaccountable, I became tired and sick;
Till rising and gliding out, I wander’d off by myself,
In the mystical moist night-air, and from time to time,
Look’d up in perfect silence at the stars."

-Walt Whitman in 1865