Author Archive

I wrote this poem about the love I feel from and with my boyfriend.  From all I have seen and heard of Heather and Darryl and the love they share, it seemed appropriate for them too.  I hope all of you enjoy this, especially you Heather and Darryl.

Cyn

What is that beautiful sound?
It is like a soft, low, gentle humming
That envelops me in its strong, soothing embrace
It enters my mind
And permeates every part of me
I feel awash in warmth and security
comfort and pleasure
It is the sound of love
It is the sound of you
Filling my heart and soul with your presence
with your goodness
with your tenderness

The Invitation

It doesn’t interest me what you do for a living.
I want to know what you ache for
and if you dare to dream of meeting your heart’s longing.It doesn’t interest me how old you are.
I want to know if you will risk looking like a fool
for love
for your dream
for the adventure of being alive.

It doesn’t interest me what planets are squaring your moon…
I want to know if you have touched the centre of your own sorrow
if you have been opened by life’s betrayals
or have become shrivelled and closed
from fear of further pain.I want to know if you can sit with pain
mine or your own
without moving to hide it
or fade it
or fix it.

I want to know if you can be with joy
mine or your own
if you can dance with wildness
and let the ecstasy fill you to the tips of your fingers and toes
without cautioning us
to be careful
to be realistic
to remember the limitations of being human.

It doesn’t interest me if the story you are telling me
is true.
I want to know if you can
disappoint another
to be true to yourself.
If you can bear the accusation of betrayal
and not betray your own soul.
If you can be faithless
and therefore trustworthy.

I want to know if you can see Beauty
even when it is not pretty
every day.
And if you can source your own life
from its presence.

I want to know if you can live with failure
yours and mine
and still stand at the edge of the lake
and shout to the silver of the full moon,
“Yes.”

It doesn’t interest me
to know where you live or how much money you have.
I want to know if you can get up
after the night of grief and despair
weary and bruised to the bone
and do what needs to be done
to feed the children.

It doesn’t interest me who you know
or how you came to be here.
I want to know if you will stand
in the centre of the fire
with me
and not shrink back.

It doesn’t interest me where or what or with whom
you have studied.
I want to know what sustains you
from the inside
when all else falls away.

I want to know if you can be alone
with yourself
and if you truly like the company you keep
in the empty moments.

Mountaindreaming by Oriah, from the book The Invitation, published by Harper, San Francisco, 1999. All rights reserved. Presented with permission of the author.

http://www.oriahmountaindreamer.com/

as presented by Cyn Gaegan who invited Oriah to join us in the tavern.

I have asked Oriah Mountain Dreamer to join us at the table. She is such an inspirational poet and I find myself often turning to her work when I need an uplifting moment in a difficult time. I have been rereading The Invitation over and over again in the past few weeks and I draw strength from it every time. She speaks of the important things in life as far as I am concerned – of loving yourself and others, of valuing the little things in life, cherishing each and every day, growing from hurt and pain, and of seeking meaning and purpose to our lives in an increasingly more complicated world.

Her writings are spiritual but not of a particular religion – more of the idea of seeking out spirituality in the world, all around you. Reflecting on her writing makes me slow down, take a good long look at what I am doing with my time, and reminds me to be good to myself and those around me. Her three books of prose and poetry, The Invitation (her most famous which is an international bestseller and has been translated into more than 15 languages), The Dance, and The Call: Discovering Why You are Here and the latest book (2005), a practical guide What We Ache For: Creativity and the Unfolding of Your Soul all provide a look at people and the world and all they are and could be. The Invitation was first published in 1994 and has finally been released along with the other prose books in paperback form in the spring of 2006 (now being released simply under the name Oriah). I heartily recommend these books to anyone who wants to read something uplifting, inspirational, and more than that, something that really matters.

Oriah is currently on sabbatical from public speaking, spending her time in deep silence and solitude to replenish and envision what is next in her life. Perhaps she will take some time from her sabbatical to join us at the table for some lively conversation. I am sure an evening at the table talking with Oriah will provide anyone with an evening filled with pleasant memories and much to reflect on.

Cydlee61

Cyn’s performance is of an expressive free form dance.

Rosamunde Pilcher is well known for her beautifully descriptive books about the countryside of England and Scotland. For the record, I am one who at times skips some intensely descriptive sections of novels because I begin to feel like I am drowning in them. The continuous onslaught of detail after detail can make my eyes glaze over and my mind lose track of the point of the paragraph because I get so caught up in the minutia. I realized after many years that it wasn’t just that I skipped over description in general; I soon figured out that it was “bad” description that lost my interest. It seems some authors believe that if they just load the reader up with more and more details they are performing the task I always assigned my students to do as readers – paint the picture so that the reader can envision it in their heads as they read. The problem is that some authors seemed to believe that quantity of details could make up for quality.

Rosamunde Pilcher is the author who proved to me that it truly was quality that mattered. Her descriptions truly do paint the picture for the reader and what a gorgeous picture it created. In fact, I fell so in love with the places she told me about that I was ready to pack my bags and move to Scotland. It’s not just lovely environments that Pilcher creates however; she also develops some of the most interesting characters I have ever known. Again, I wished I could pack a bag and head out to meet these people in person. They seemed like the kind of people I would want to interview, to write about myself, to befriend, and to learn from.

Pilcher’s book are generally “family sagas” often spanning several generations and giving the reader a picture of how the family and its members developed over time. The characters all show a love and respect of each other and their environments. Pilcher began by writing short stories for women’s magazines and a few lesser known novels in 1949. Finally her novel “The Shell Seekers” was published in 1987 and made its way to the bestseller list and received a strong fan following. It was eventually made into a movie as well. Her novels “September” (a sequel to “The Shell Seekers”) and “Winter Solstice” (a love story between two “senior” adults) follow very much in the footsteps of “The Shell Seekers”.

Through each one I feel as though there are lessons I have learned about people, places, and life. From each one I come out with those lessons and carry them with me through the rest of my days. In “The Shell Seekers”, the main characters tell each other to “Cherish yourself,” and this tiny statement carried much power with it to me. Not long after I was in a serious car accident with my Mother and my daughter and that statement took on such special meaning for me. I repeated it to the two of them whenever the long recovery and rehabilitation process seemed to be getting us down and I repeated it to myself when I needed reminding that it was a good thing to take time for myself. I remember a book by Mother Teresa where she talks a lot about filling the well. She reminds readers that if you continually empty your well to others, some day the well will be dry and you will have nothing left to give. Taking time for yourself, then, is not a selfish thing to do; rather it is one of the most selfless things you can do for yourself and for those who depend on you. You have to replenish the well if you wish to nourish yourself and in turn, if you wish to be able to help nourish others as well. Those two little words, “cherish yourself”, and the context in which they were spoken in the book never fail to remind me of that important life lesson.

Pilcher has since gone into retirement and her son Robin Pilcher has taken up the torch, writing novels much in her style. The legacy of Rosamunde Pilcher lives on in her words, her creations, her lessons for all of us contained within her books. From time to time I reread her stories, soaking in those lessons once again; they themselves serving to “replenish the well” and nourish my soul.

Come join us along with Rosamunde at Table 42 as she shares with us more of her lessons in life and love. Refill your well and nourish your soul.

Cyn