What Lies Beyond, Part Twenty Nine

The Strong Heart Guides You

Joan Ann Lansberry

June 18, 1999


© JAL,1999

June 19, 1999

Tears for what has been lost because of FEAR . . .

~ ~~ ~~~ ~~ ~

What will purify?
Perfect love and perfect trust
of the divine,
the divine within . . .

June 20, 1999

Take Heed, the Strong Heart Guides You

There is no way a reluctant
priest can attain the heights.
Either the faithless will come to know
the bright, startling light
or will learn to live in darkness.

--++===0+0+0+0+0===++--

How can you not know
the way once you've been there?

But I've been there,
and it looks new each time.

--++===0+0+0+0+0===++--

For every faithless fear,
there is a faithless emptiness,
consuming until hollow
the very core of one's being,
should it gain the power.
Let me not be afraid!
Let me not be overcome!

--++===0+0+0+0+0===++--

There is a voice and there is a vision
and there is a volume.
If the truth is great enough,
it will be heard.
But loud risings from the soul
do not a wholeness make
unless each pulse is pure -
pure from the breath and
pure from the depth.
Even so,
angels have been known to fall.
Don't think it can't be you.
Take heed, the strong heart guides you.

(all © JAL, 6-20-99)

June 22, 1999

A Moment of Pause

Say what it is you really mean. Speak with the voice you'd have had if it all had been perfect. Know yourself to be in that safe space. You know this is possible.

Between the letting down of burdens and the steeling of strength to handle new, there is a moment of pause, "Can I really do this?" Short and sharp goes the breath and it seems one's physical and emotional muscles aren't up for the task. The moment stretches beyond its size in perception. And then you find yourself in action. "There is no try, only do"(Yoda)

And suddenly it all becomes clear, three dimensional, as all the monsters, whether paper or tiger, leap before you and you are swinging . . .

. . . I know it will be like that, each and every time. And yet it doesn't stop the moment of pause. In this moment of pause, I plead for deeper wisdom. I plead for the 'strong heart' from whence the deeper vision comes. There is nothing that can make me stronger except my own trust. Yes, that. "Do not be reluctant about it!"

I must aim as if the target were true and perfect, aim again and again for that sweet spot. From it, come all, knowing it is only the doing that increases skill.

July 6, 1999

I want this picture of a snake skelton here, for it speaks to me of spiny, yet flexible strength.

July 7, 1999

And I am a soft singing bird.
Louder then, should I be?
First steady the strength,
You know its source.

~ ~~ ~~~ ~~ ~

Where I Need To Be

Not the only road
so rocky,
Not the only road
so steep,
But this road is mine,
It'll get me there.

~ ~~ ~~~ ~~ ~

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