MARTIN CHALLIS
This morning
In the first light
On the road back to home
– the air backlit
We were invited to pause
To breathe deeply and take in
the thick aroma from the
camphor laurel stand
We took heed and breathed
For all our might
Our quiet walk alive
with significance.
Martin © 2020
That moment
When you are swamped by your own rage
You feel the desperate abandonment that comes
With the loss of what you once stood for
And the sheer absence of loving kindness that left you
When the centre did not hold
Ahead you see the long dark climb, back
To where you once held the light
With the knowledge that should you arrive as you have before
You will in certainty, as night ends day,
Be cast off again by your own fragility
To face the fated narratives you’ve been assigned or have subscribed to,
These that have set their course through your beginnings
To lead you to certain destinations of frailty and fear.
And then, that moment
When you see all this with sheer egoless clarity, and know
The all encompassing darkness to be but the temporary absence of any light
That moment
When you, cast off the last vestiges of your clinging
And say in full throated prayer to the unknowable greatness that is beyond you and within you
I surrender
I surrender
I do Surrender
Martinos © 2020
outside the window and at once together
a hawk and a butterfly
the hawk high with the wind
the butterfly low to the flower
to the dance a flutter
and the grace of wing
fields fell silent
grasses dipped
and a bottlebrush,
it’s vermillion tipped
Martinos © 2020
How to know when my ego is serving or hindering?
First Principle
It serves through conscious and constructive thoughts, words and actions. Detached observation, acceptance, forgiveness, empathy, kindness, compassion, humility, candour, curiosity, accountability and ownership are hallmarks and manifest in any weather.
It hinders through unconscious, defensive and unconstructive thoughts, words and actions. Blame, excuse, denial, unkindness, judgmentalism, aggression, projection, self interest, disownership and lack of accountability are hallmarks and can manifest in any weather.
Second Principle
Without governance, guidance, and good gardening, left to its own devices ego will serve itself at any cost and choose the latter.
Third Principle
Ego is masterful at hiding in plain sight: Self-righteousness, projection and judgment are primary indicators of blind spots.
Fourth Principle
My physical self, emotions, ways of thinking and relationships feel expansive and spacious when I show up to be in service to a constructive whole.
My physical self, emotions, ways of thinking and relationships feel contracted when we I serve only myself.
Fifth Principle
Ego with awareness will see itself as a connected part of the greater whole.
An ego without awareness will see itself as the centre of the whole.
Sixth Principle
It is possible to know the difference and choose to move from one state to another. But not without an intent to do so. And then only, with practice, patience, persistence and loving kindness.
Seventh Principle
In stillness and with attentive grace it is possible to contemplate beyond all separateness, to the unity and connectedness of all.
Martinos @ 2020
At the hospice
It’s a chilly clear crisp blue-sky morning
Through your rasping
We wait, attentive to each simple wish
We sit at the window, embracing each hour
Simply with you
Grateful
For warmth and light from the wondrous sun
Martinos @ 2019
Bulwark majesty,
silent the mountain stands steadfast
against the elements,
a buffer,
a shield.
The weather blows and breaks
but cannot penetrate
those protected on
the other side,
safe.
Lowanna Dunn
What search for meaning reveals:
The getting of meaning
Is intrinsically linked to the act
of giving meaningfully.
Giving meaningfully entails the giving of one’s truth:
with clear purpose,
with whole heart,
with whole mind,
from and through the centre of one’s whole being,
toward a universal whole.
Unconditional and uncompromising
the gesture of meaningful giving
ends the search.
A pathway unfolds: with each step
there is making,
there is meaning,
there is adversity,
there is rigour,
there is discovery,
and there is
becoming
Martinos LB @ 2019
Our selves are what we get about in
they are made of atoms, each one
billions of years old,
our selves are made from stars.
I have a self and you have a self;
how do you take care of your self?
what do you say to your self?
do you treat it well as it helps you get about
and interact with other selves?
Your self is an intriguing paradox
as it is both unique and similar to all other selves.
Interestingly, you didn’t make your self, one day it just arrived for you,
and one day you will have to leave it.
In the interim you can ask:
What is to be true to your self?
When are you truly with your self?
And what truth lives beyond your self?
Martinos LB @ 2019
at sunrise, a delicate film of low mist
feathers the grass plain
and camphor-laurel stand
an occasional treetop
appears as an island
amidst the gentle soft-air sea
the purple pink tinge of heaven
and deep-green night shadow
as must, retreat to make way
for this, a Sunday prayer on
peacefulness, and for what
is luminous in things
Martinos © 2019
heart to heart, is
the clearest strongest voice
as a river
of song and light
it will move the immovable
find the natural flow
and bring us to the source
from whence we came
more open
to what we can become
Martinos © 2019
dingly dingly
wickety wackety
overflow ongoing
crickety crackety
all of the dang-en,
the dingin the dongin and
onagain onagain
bingbangin and bongin
snippety snippety
spinagain spitagain
flatabout backwardsing
flatabout forwardsing
sobusy thisbusy
toobusy stressfactor
not slowing till rictus
or blowups and messfactor
notlearning notlistening
gofigures upratcheting
notseeing nothearing
ambivalence hatcheting
all in the dingly the
wickety wack
the edge up approaching
with no coming back
martinos © 2015
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