Month: November 2015

First and Always is an excerpt from” Cutting the Clouds, a Bayou Mystic’s Poems, Musings, and Imaginings.” Remembering now how gratitude is the remedy for woe, then choosing to remember all that I am grateful for, is  life-long mind training. Be mindful of your blessings first and always.

First and Always

Thank you maternal grandmother for birthing the daughter who would become my precious mother, who at the time of her birth carried the egg that was the potential of me.

Thank you paternal grandmother for birthing the son who would donate his sperm to the cause making that potential a reality and for contributing to the loving father he became.

Thank you mother for my life, for nurturing me and challenging me to be more than I thought I could be. Thank you father for the lessons of humility and self worth. Thank you both for my sister and for her beauty and brilliance that helped me to shine in my own way and for my brother whose gentle wisdom taught me the importance of kindness. Thank you for the sister I never knew who taught me about the power to heal. By her life and by her death, I learned perseverance. Thank you sister for my beautiful niece, today a friend and scholar, who gifted us all with the next generation: that brilliantly clear, redheaded baby boy. Thank you family for all the times you challenged and encouraged me. Thank you ancestors, unknown and uncounted; the wisdom you came to in your lifetimes is surely part of my soul’s journey now.

Thank you, all you angels, both human and otherwise, who scolded me when I needed scolding, who taught me when I needed teaching, who lifted me up when I needed to be held, who nudged me along toward greater integrity.

Thank you my husband, heart of my heart, for your loving that surpasses understanding. Thank you my two sons for your continuing love and support and for crediting me on occasion for gifting you with life and lessons that you cherish. Thank you for the daughters I never had by choosing such exquisite wives.

Thank you Jade and James for generously sharing with me the newest addition to the community of heroines, awakening in me my Garden of Eden. While you are not children of my womb, you are without a doubt children of my heart.

Thank you friends who walk beside me helping me to contain so much love. I trust you know who you are.

Thanks to all of you who have allowed me to be a part of your healing and for those who sought me as their mentor. I have been honored and blessed by your trust in me.

Thank you Great and Wondrous Spirit for gifting me with so much love and support. Your gentleness is awe-inspiring and sometimes overwhelming.

© 2015 Bessie Adams Senette

Photo by T. Senette – Lake Martin Lotus

Holy Stick

Around the fire

Sacred mountain sage

Wafting up and into

The gathered pilgrims

Seeking a new

Connection to deeper truth –

How does one breathe it in

Without first letting go?

 

Coyote Skywater, the elder,

Grandmother,

As Pueblo tradition holds,

Hands me the Talking Stick.

No one but the holder

Is allowed to speak.

She cautions all to listen, and to me –

“Even your ancestors are listening, White Owl,

So speak to them first.

 

Overwhelmed by silence and this sacred listening,

Searching my mind for perfect words,

My heart takes over.

Unable to speak

This Holy Stick

Sticking my tongue to my pallet

Like to a frozen flagpole,

A moan issues without beckoning

As I grasp the stick and weep.

 

I wonder,

Is it true that I have never

Been given this honor –

To be truly heard?

Surely, having been heard like this

Has taught me to listen.

© 2015 Bessie Adams Senette

Inspired by Meinrad Craighead”s “The Litany of the Great River”

Original collage by Bessie Senette

Cause and Effect

What longing

Caused the falling from

Formlessness to form,

Casting itself adrift from source,

Wander lust,

Divine refinement,

Curiosity,

Karma?

And what longing calls the Soul

Back home,

Exhaustion,

Divine design,

Reunion with those we miss,

Curiosity,

Karma?

Whatever the cause

The effect is eventually forgotten.