In the Temple of Her Kindness,
my sisters and my brothers
and I transform.
When I wake suddenly from deep sleep
gasping at the arrows piercing my heart,
quivers full of, How could you? Why didn’t you?
When will you? Why haven’t you?
She is near.
When the inner bleeding spreads inferno-like
She is near.
Even in the dank dungeon of my underbelly,
entertaining the most-hidden terrors and despairs,
her faint fragrance reminds me I am not alone.
She is near.
She calls me to remember we need never be alone.
She invites even my dungeon creatures
slimy with shame and
prickled with expectations to
open the door to let her in.
Unafraid of the wreckage of failure and
the stench of blame
she arrives.
She is the saint licking wounds of lepers,
the monkey adopting an abandoned puppy,
the rescue hound digging furiously through rubble,
she dances madly through hottest flames,
and serenely rides the tsunami’s crest.
She walks in,
bringing peace beyond understanding
illumination from ashes
and the balm of mercy,
deep,
deep
mercy
upon us all.
Never afraid of our doubt and our despair
she says,
Yes, dear ones. Yes, you are so courageous.
This turning toward your darkness with a full heart is a holy battle,
these dreadful looking creatures are your worthy adversaries.
You are here on this human journey not to stay within comfortable confines
but to allow yourself again and again to crack open to your earthly existence
to make room for your true radiance.
This then. This here. This now.
Becomes the Temple of Her Kindness.
Here we learn that pain rises not to destroy or to torment
but to liberate us,
Allow the pain, she reminds us,
To rise like a wave, to rise and rise,
stay patient and brave as it rises still more
rising until finally- in its time and not yours -
it crests and breaks and completes itself.
finally at ease because all the pain ever wanted
-and yet for years was denied-
all it ever wanted was simply to be
fully heard and seen and felt.
It comes to heal you, never to harm you.
Dear ones, she reminds us,
lay down the dull and jagged sword of judgment that has
turned against so many within and around you and
choose instead the shining ray of discernment.
Hers is a passionate and relentless kindness,
not for the faint of heart but for those of us who long
to align with the Great Heart.
Here in the Temple of Her Kindness
it is safe to feel the fullness of our grief, our fury,
our disappointment, our revulsion,
our shame and our confusion.
Here
we can finally drop away the shackles of
being good and
begin to grow into so much more.
Here
we break the spell of forgetfulness
as we awaken again and again, ever and ever more fully.
Here
decades, a lifetime, centuries of patterns, imprints,
conditioning may- perhaps- dissolve in minutes
Take refuge here
in the Temple of Her Kindness,
refuge from the noise and bitterness and
relentless conflict,
not to hide away
not to pretend all is fine
not to be numbed into silence.
Take refuge here to gather courage,
find your voice,
reclaim your power,
return to your senses,
so that you can bear witness to the glories and the
horrors of our world.
so that you can discover the action that is yours in these
divinely challenging times and
so that you can claim the boldness to step forward,
becoming yourself an
Ambassador of the Temple of Her Kindness.