Fierce Grace

At service today our beloved Reverend, Patrick Cameron shared a story of his visit to his family, in Minneapolis.  It's been about 4 years since he was last there and he had the opportunity to visit his eldest sister.  Born into a family of 13 children Patrick was, in many ways, raised by his eldest sister.  And now he was returning to the place of his birth to visit with a sister who had suffered a series of strokes that had, in effect, broken her body.

However, as he looked into her eyes he could see a 35 year old woman trapped in the body of a 65 year old.  He held her hand.  Holding awareness and looking to the One Mind for guidance he realized that he simply needed to be present.  And in turn, he remembered that a book he had found the day before called, "Broken Open."  It had a passage in it where Ram Daas' journey and expression following a stroke was related. 

As I sat listening with tears running down my face I realized that I myself had just been reading a passage in 'The Principles of Healing", where the author pretty much says, when you enter the presence of one who's body is broken you must see the God within them and know the God within you.  And in hearing the passage in Broken Open the following poem's words mingled with the tears on the page of my journal.

Fierce Grace

I can always hold your hand.
I can be present, in Love with you.
I have no right to ask questions.
My soul now here to soothe.

We can discover this heavy grace.
Sit in silence, forgetting time,
and as fierce grace takes ego,
may you see my truth Divine.

Behind the best and worst of me,
is who I really am.
Stand strong in the fiercest grace.
Let it break me from my stand.

The opportunity, the privilege,
helpless to Divine touch.
Reality through my seriousness,
fall from pity into love.

Awaken and pick up your joy,
like a footstep in stride of grace.
Connect beyond the physical,
see me in the eyes of my face.

My tears fall not for sympathy.
They are joy for the soul you are.
The truth of enough is right now,
a conscious, inevitable heart.

(c) Copyright 2009, Carmien Owen