Yoga Closing 9/21/20
“There is a seen order unfolding in front of us every day on our streets and in the news. In this visible order, violence reigns and children are shot in their schools and warmongers prosper and 1% of the world hoards half of all we have. We call this order of things reality. This is “the way things are.” It’s all we can see because it’s all we’ve ever seen. Yet something inside us rejects it. We know instinctively: This is not the intended order of things. This is not how things are meant to be. . We know that there is a better, truer, wilder way.That better way is the unseen order inside us. It is the vision we carry in our imagination about a truer, more beautiful world — one in which all children have enough to eat and we no longer kill each other and mothers do not have to cross deserts with their babies on their backs. This better idea is what Jews call Shalom, Buddhists call nirvana, Christians call heaven, Muslims call salaam, and many agnostics call peace. It is not a place out there — not yet; it’s the hopeful swelling in here, pressing through our skin, insisting that it is all meant to be more beautiful than this. And it can be, if we refuse to wait to die and “go to heaven” and instead find heaven inside us and give birth to it here and now. If we work to make the vision of the unseen order swelling inside us visible in our lives, homes and nations, we will make reality more beautiful. On Earth as it is in heaven. In our material world as it is in our imagination.”
Yoga Closing 7/17/20 Shakti Gawain
artwork source: Sherry Mayle
“As channels for the Universe, we must have available, a full range of expression and emotion. If the higher power tells us to leap, we must be able to leap without stopping to ask questions. If it tells us to wait, we must be able to relax and enjoy the space of non-activity until the next message comes. We will always be pushed to explore aspects of ourselves that are less developed to express and experience ourselves in new ways. If we ignore these inner impulses we will be forced by external life circumstances to explore our inner being anyway. One way or another our higher self makes sure that we get the message of what we have to do. We may have to go from one extreme to the other until we come into balance.
You can expect that your intuition will lead you in directions that are new and different for you. If you are comfortable in one type of personality or pattern, you will probably be asked to start expressing the opposite. It’s good to know this, especially when you’re in the process of learning to hear your inner voice. A good rule might be to, expect the unexpected.”
Yoga Closing 7/13/20
Light
There is a perfectly still moment right
before dawn, when the sun gathers itself
& then steps into the dark world & everything
is so filled with light that any doubts
from that long night are barely a memory.
It is the way of all things that
the night ends and the light returns.
The light always returns.
Brian Andreas, from Something Like Magic
What Compassion Said
“Hold me in the warmth of your heart
And don’t wait another moment
To trust
That you are worthy of your own love.”
Tricia Schwaba, June 2020
Justice For all?
Lift us into clear skies
As we struggle to catch a breath.
Though the smog of hatred suffocates
And the spikes of elitism deflate
Our push for justice for all,
We will prevail.
Because we must.
Tricia Schwaba June 2020
Quick Class, Self Love
Glennon Doyle Quote
Vitality
keep yourself connected to earth
while at once lifting to the heavens
sink into humanity
rise to the expansive mind
nurture the pathway they traverse
love travels this route
make it your your own
it is vitality
Tricia Schwaba, May 9 2020
Quick Class, Chaos Into Calm
Channeling The High Priestess*
Art Source: ShaktiArt.com
A Challenge For This Time
I challenge you to sit quietly in the eye of the storm,
To not let chaos steal the moment.
I challenge you to breathe deeply
Even when fear dives to your depths.
I challenge you to smile at the temptation of panic,
Allowing it to float by, a cloud in the bright blue
A cosmic clue to the puzzle of your struggle.
I challenge you to declare your self-love out loud
A peaceful, powerful proclamation that you are indeed, worthy.
*The High Priestess is an entity that uses Tricia as a conduit for divine guidance. She’s lovely.
Tricia Schwaba 2020
Contemplating My Worthiness
I knock on the door of prosperity. She is there, a gracious divine being, opening the double doors wide, welcoming me to her beautiful home. I lean in and catch a glimpse. It is not large and ostentatious, but understated, warm and colorful. I am stiff with hesitation, pausing on the threshold, contemplating my worthiness. She silently validates and her easiness draws me in, as I attempt to shake off the last of my resistance.
Tricia Schwaba 2020
Ida Rolf
“The Einstein of modern bodywork, Ida Rolf, spoke of bodies being randomly organized… she underscored the almost totally unmet need for movement education in our society.”
Ben Benjamin MD
As I Age
I am not impressed by the common celebrity. I am not interested in she whose predestined circumstances, granted by virtue of financial fortune, influence of the powerful or superficial attributes have carried her into the spotlight. It is not she, who has had privilege round every corner of her life whom I hold in high esteem, but she who has had nothing much at all, and still prevails. She who impresses me, is the person who despite the weight of her load moves forward with grace and kindness, exhibiting unimaginable stamina. She who has but just enough to live, sometimes less, yet goes on living with joy and appreciation. She has no time or tolerance for an unabashed ego, no need for a massive house to display things she doesn’t touch or rooms that go unused. She is the wise one, the teacher, It is she who understands the true burden of human-ness. It is she I want to talk to. It is she that is the goddess. It is she that I wish we will all, one day, celebrate.
Tricia Schwaba, 2020
SPEAK
speak
free the fifth flow from the fiend that is fear
your voice is needed
Tricia Schwaba, 2019
And She Soars
See the beauty as you move ahead
This journey of life will keep you fed
The relationship with you, yourself
The years gone by, the things you’ve felt.
Those unsteady steps from where you began
Now grounded, balanced, firm where you stand
You uncover the grace that resides within
Understanding that we all, continually begin
Again and again you’ll soar and you’ll glide
Enjoying this crazy mysterious ride.
Tricia Schwaba 2019
Ruby Bridges Quote
Ruby was the first child to de-segregate schools in 1960’s New Orleans.
“Ultimately we want to be a part of a movement that’s about measuring impact that the world will really change. My dream is we’ll have a world one day where we don’t just honor those who take money and make more money from it but we find those individuals who take our resources and convert it into changing the world in the positive ways and it’s only when we honor them and celebrate them and give them status that the world will really change.”
Ruby Bridges standing in front of a Norman Rockwell painting about the day she de-segregated New Orleans schools.
Cliffs of Moher
the winds they tore * the heavens did pour * but I had to explore *
shake up my core * knock on divinity’s door.
Holy Ground
See the beauty through the wrath
Feel the grace of the forgiving path
View the splendor as you walk
Each foot down no need to talk
Life, the gift, is felt within
Your inner sanctum a place to begin
To witness blessings all around
A divine uncovering of holy ground
Tricia Schwaba, 12/20/19
First Divine Spark
This piece came up so fast I wrote it on the paper and with the pen,
nearest me at the moment.
Sometimes poems are like that. I love the imperfect quality of the torn paper and
the urgency I felt to release these words right then & there, or they were gone.
Tricia Schwaba 3/17/2019