Suggested Poems/Song Lyrics:
Imagine A Woman
By Patricia Lynn Reilly 1995
http://www.patricialynnreilly.
Imagine a woman who believes it is right and good she is a woman.
A woman who honors her experience and tells her stories.
Who refuses to carry the sins of others within her body and life.
Imagine a woman who trusts and respects herself.
A woman who listens to her needs and desires.
Who meets them with tenderness and grace.
Imagine a woman who acknowledges the past's influence on the present.
A woman who has walked through her past.
Who has healed into the present.
Imagine a woman who authors her own life.
A woman who exerts, initiates, and moves on her own behalf.
Who refuses to surrender except to her truest self and wisest voice.
Imagine a woman who names her own gods.
A woman who imagines the divine in her image and likeness.
Who designs a personal spirituality to inform her daily life.
Imagine a woman in love with her own body.
A woman who believes her body is enough, just as it is.
Who celebrates its rhythms and cycles as an exquisite resource.
Imagine a woman who honors the body of the Goddess in her changing body.
A woman who celebrates the accumulation of her years and her wisdom.
Who refuses to use her life-energy disguising the changes in her body and life.
Imagine a woman who values the women in her life.
A woman who sits in circles of women.
Who is reminded of the truth about herself when she forgets.
Imagine yourself as this woman.
BORN TO LIVE (song lyrics)
(Ann Mortifee & Michel Legrand)
Ann Mortifee
We were born to live, not just survive
Though the road be long and the river wide
Though the seasons change and the willows bend
Though some dreams break, some others mend
We were born to give and born to take
To win and lose and to celebrate
We were born to know and born to muse
To unfold our hearts, take a chance and choose
We were born to love though we feel the thorn
When a ship sets sail to return no more
Though a door be closed and we feel the pain
To chance it all and to love again
We were born to reach, to seek what's true
To surrender all to make each day new
We were born to laugh and born to cry
To rejoice and grieve, just be be alive
We were born to hope and to know despair
And to stand alone when there's no one there
We were born to trust and to understand
That in every heart there's an outstretched hand
We were born to live, to be right and wrong
To be false and true, to be weak and strong
We were born to live, to break down the walls
And to know that life is to taste it all
(Contributed by Andy & Mogg - October 2003)
The Guest House
— Jellaludin Rumi, translation by Coleman Barks
This being human is a guest house.
Every morning a new arrival.
A joy, a depression, a meanness,
some momentary awareness comes
as an unexpected visitor.
Welcome and entertain them all!
Even if they are a crowd of sorrows,
who violently sweep your house
empty of its furniture,
still, treat each guest honorably.
He may be clearing you out
for some new delight.
The dark thought, the shame, the malice.
meet them at the door laughing and invite them in.
Be grateful for whatever comes.
because each has been sent
as a guide from beyond.