and may every prayer cry out for a world of peace (audio poetry 3:44)

April 9, 2013 by rachel

Last week, I was called to visit Santa Fe, New Mexico, one of my favorite places. I loaded up my trusty, old Jeep and headed down a highway amid gusty winds and blowing dust. Directions to an Open Mic Night lay on the seat beside me. I went and found myself in the company of “strangers” who instantly felt like Home. Courageous souls with open hearts, radiating their gifts of word, song, music and spirit. I read several pieces of […]

Categories: audio, body mind & spirit, inspiration, planetary shifts, poetry, spirituality • Tags: new paradigm, peace, prayer, unity consciousness

prayer for radical courage

February 16, 2013 by rachel

in all things, may i travel unarmored and unafraid, settled into a quiet cradle whose gentle sway bears the mark of the mother’s hand let my mind be emptied of false truths and accusations stripped free of nagging encumbrance my essence naked and alive in original, unswaddled glory if i am called to a gate that refuses to open, let me turn peaceably in another direction and be piloted by the stars that illumine my oft-weary soul if the storms […]

Categories: body mind & spirit, inspiration, personal growth, poetry, spirituality, transformation • Tags: consciousness, empowerment, prayer

prayer of the children by three dog night (video 3:22)

December 22, 2012 by rachel

Thank you, Julie, for pointing me toward this powerful tribute. The featured image on the homepage grid is a 17th-century sculpture on a tomb in the Notre Dame Cathedral in Amiens, France. The Weeping Angel (L’Ange de Pleureur), by Nicholas Blasset, was popularized on postcards during WWII and often carried by British soldiers.

Categories: inspiration, love, spirituality, video • Tags: life, prayer, sandy hook, three dog night

poetry and roses for the knights templar

September 30, 2012 by rachel

I can scarcely express what a thrill it is to receive and post updates from the stouthearted souls gently placing Words Divinely Wrought poetry in intriguing spots around the globe. It is not overstatement to say that these moments often comprise the best part of my day. They allow me to deeply center myself in the palpable connectedness we all share beyond so-called barriers of time and space. I breathe in every picture and every word and I am born […]

Categories: inspiration, planetary shifts, poetry, spirituality, Words Divinely Wrought, writing & creativity • Tags: prayer, sacred sites, unity consciousness

peel back a few layers and jump in!

August 12, 2012 by rachel

Without even commenting on the vibrancy of the colors, here’s what I love about this painting by San Diego artist Janet McCarty — who (btw) I am so happy and proud to call my friend: According to the artist, she applied layer upon layer of paint, and then scratched through them to reveal some of the “subterranean” layers lurking beneath the surface. Need I say more? If you’ve been around this blog for more than about 43 seconds, you know […]

Categories: inspiration, personal growth, planetary shifts, poetry, spirituality, transformation, Words Divinely Wrought • Tags: awakening, empowerment, faith, prayer

prayer for this time: i am the miracle (classic)

December 25, 2011 by rachel

I wrote this poem in 2002, and first posted it on this site in 2008. Seems as true as it ever was. May all of us be the truth of who we are. No more, no less. Once again, the Hubble Telescope provides a tailor-made image: “Brilliant white core encircled by thick dust lanes…” Sound like anyone you know? In this time of miracles I recommit to faith To the power of All There Is To seeing beyond the physical […]

Categories: body mind & spirit, inspiration, personal growth, poetry, spirituality, transformation • Tags: higher consciousness, prayer, wisdom

thanks for giving: in praise of significant gestures

November 23, 2011 by rachel

thanks for listening for in your silence the value of my words is affirmed the uprisings of my heart given flight thus i know that i am here and it is good thanks for whispering for cutting through the noise with soft-wrought utterance, damping down the clatter gently sanding the edges of the sharp and loud for it is good thanks for waiting for in your patience all are given room to grow and when you are impatient, thanks for […]

Categories: inspiration, poetry, spirituality, transformation • Tags: gratitude, prayer, thanksgiving, wisdom

prayer for radical patience

October 28, 2011 by rachel

For every moment I have waited, Let me wait ten thousand moments more! Let me delight in the glory of the waiting And the exquisite expectancy it tenders. For every instance I knew the now was near Yet for reasons untold it was not mine to receive, Let me know that divinity still presides over a vast and loving universe And that patience rides a chariot whose name is endless joy. May trust and courage override the niggling fears that […]

Categories: body mind & spirit, inspiration, love, personal growth, poetry, spirituality, transformation • Tags: empowerment, higher consciousness, patience, prayer

prayer for radical forgiveness (a summer re-run for this time of endings and beginnings)

July 25, 2011 by rachel

If ever there was a time to clear your slate and actively begin to create a new and artful life, this is it. Forgiving yourself for all transgressions – real or imagined — is an essential first step. You are an evolving human living in an upheaved world; be merciful and cut yourself some slack, okay? Forgive me for not sharing fully in your pain for my own basket has been filled with seedpods of blossoming sadness and ripened fruit […]

Categories: body mind & spirit, inspiration, personal growth, planetary shifts, poetry, spirituality, transformation • Tags: awakening, forgiveness, opening heart, prayer, wisdom

triple play: poetry for the slightly dry and disheartened

July 18, 2011 by rachel

Many of us seem to be baking; considering whether we might fry an egg on the soles of our upturned feet. Here, a triad of poems, connected by their seeming ability to quench, to splash, to sprinkle a bit of moisture on whatever slightly disheartening notions might be visiting you in the heat of the day or the heat of the night. Pick one — or do as they do in America and gobble down everything in sight. now is […]

Categories: body mind & spirit, inspiration, personal growth, poetry, spirituality, transformation, writing & creativity • Tags: awakening, consciousness, prayer, wisdom

a prayer is just another way of saying yes (redux)

April 4, 2011 by rachel

a prayer is just another way of saying “yes” to beneficial outcomes to the mist of a dew-filled morning to the rise of the question and the answer deferred to so-called detours designed to keep you on your way. a prayer is a vision upheld – no more, no less a promise that spring will arrive on the heels of darkness deep aches will come to overflow with a most succulent satisfaction or perhaps the yearning never will pass, merely […]

Categories: body mind & spirit, inspiration, poetry, spirituality, transformation • Tags: awakening, higher consciousness, prayer, surrender

and may every prayer cry out for a world of peace

February 26, 2011 by rachel

may the good and just be exalted, and take their places at the table of peace may the oppressed find liberation, and walk into a radiant tomorrow along a pathway of peace may the hungry be offered sustenance the disregarded be given voice the suffering receive comfort, and their tattered hearts swim gently in an ocean of peace may true leaders step forward with courage, and be respected for their patience and wisdom on a collective journey of cascading peace […]

Categories: body mind & spirit, inspiration, personal growth, poetry, spirituality, transformation • Tags: blessing, peace, prayer

i am the miracle: prayer for this time (redux)

December 29, 2010 by rachel

I wrote this prayerpoem in early winter 2002, and first posted it here at Be Whole Now on April 7, 2008. It remains a potent affirmation to herald the new year. Prayer For This Time In this time of miracles I recommit to faith To the power of All There Is To seeing beyond the physical to the unalterable truth within To the infinite healing of pure Love To knowing what I know To angels among us. In this time […]

Categories: body mind & spirit, inspiration, planetary shifts, spirituality, transformation • Tags: ascension, awakening, higher consciousness, I AM Presence, prayer

2011 prayer for wholeness

December 26, 2010 by rachel

  My prayer for you Two Thousand Eleven Is that you mate your earth with heaven, That in the one you find the two And in the two, know all is you May deep within, you touch the glow And feel above as so below That you may walk on beauty’s way, Taste forever in every day In this one moment rests the All Above, below, the rise, the fall To know forgiveness, first forgive To die complete, you first […]

Categories: body mind & spirit, inspiration, personal growth, poetry, spirituality, transformation • Tags: 2011 new year, awakening, consciousness, empowerment, prayer, wisdom

if i am indeed a one-note author, hear me sing my song of gratitude

September 28, 2010 by rachel

This morning, I’ve been revisiting and releasing once and for all a brief interaction I had with a NYC literary agent back around 2002. It wasn’t a cold call; I had been referred by the third editor I had been shuffled to after my publisher went through one, two, oh, let’s say three mergers/buyouts that pushed me increasingly down and away from the individuals who had initially connected with my material. As she requested, I sent the agent a package […]

Categories: body mind & spirit, inspiration, personal growth, poetry, spirituality, transformation, writing & creativity • Tags: empowerment, gratitude, prayer

prayer for inclusion: planting the seeds for true unity consciousness

September 27, 2010 by rachel

I wrote “Prayer for Inclusion” on U.S. Inauguration Day, January 20, 2009, and was deeply heartened when it won the title, “Inaugural Poem We Should Have Had,” in a (small) competition at Australian-based absolutewrite.com. Unity consciousness begins with each of us. Today and every day, be whole now. Prayer for Inclusion Include me. Invite me into the circle and guide me to the spot that bears my name Escort me with a steadying touch, loose your hold and bear me […]

Categories: body mind & spirit, inspiration, personal growth, planetary shifts, poetry, spirituality, transformation • Tags: higher consciousness, inclusion, new paradigm, prayer, unity consciousness

what goes around, comes around: clarity, clearing, courage revisited

August 31, 2010 by rachel

We’re still in a Mercury retrograde period, which offers up opportunities to revisit, reflect, reconsider, and return to the as-yet incomplete.  As inspired, you may want to re-immerse yourself in the Be Whole Now archives. To simplify, here are several pieces that feel in tune with the energetic invitations of the day. Each carries a bit different frequency: trust that you will know which one (or ones) suit you in this Now — wherever you are. Here, replete with spiritual […]

Categories: astrology, body mind & spirit, inspiration, personal growth, planetary shifts, poetry, spirituality, transformation • Tags: empowerment, higher consciousness, letting go, prayer

a prayer is the beat of a heart that sings through the rain

August 29, 2010 by rachel

a prayer is just another way of saying yes to beneficial outcomes to the mist of a dew-filled morning to the rise of the question and the answer deferred to so-called detours designed to keep you on your way a prayer is a vision upheld – no more, no less a promise that spring will arrive on the heels of darkness deep aches will come to overflow with a most succulent satisfaction or perhaps the yearning never will pass merely […]

Categories: body mind & spirit, inspiration, poetry, spirituality • Tags: higher consciousness, prayer, surrender

feel good: a double dip of the refreshing & delicious south african singer lira (video)

August 12, 2010 by rachel

This woman’s radiance is nearly blinding, her beauty is stunning, and she got me up and dancing in no time! The video (3:38) is by newmusictv, and can be found over here if you have any difficulties viewing it below: Oh, wait! Here’s a second video (2:57) entitled Soul in Mind. You won’t see the lovely Lira, but you can read all the lyrics of this beautiful prayersong. This one is by sibe007 and can be seen on youtube.com right […]

Categories: body mind & spirit, inspiration, personal growth, spirituality, transformation, video • Tags: inspiring music, Lira, prayer, soul

really, can we ever have too much forgiveness?

July 6, 2010 by rachel

I just finished preparing a package of five poems that I’m sending off to a Poetry Competition, including Prayer for Radical Forgiveness, which first appeared here back in September 2008. Also, just between you and me and the lamppost (well, that phrase probably just carbon-dated me!), I am more than ready to share my life with my perfect complement, and this piece is powerful stuff for clearing up loose ends from the past. (BTW, don’t get too wound up trying […]

Categories: body mind & spirit, inspiration, love, personal growth, poetry, spirituality, transformation • Tags: forgiveness, higher consciousness, prayer

red wall prayer for the irrepressible

June 14, 2010 by rachel

i have just now painted a prayer into my kitchen wall rich and dark and red with the blood of life welcome, it says, knock at my door and it shall open enter and ye shall be renewed the heart of the wall beats wildly strong come and visit, it sings break bread at my humble table nourish your deep and aching soul perhaps an unknown thirst will arrive by your side and ask softly to be quenched sit and […]

Categories: body mind & spirit, inspiration, personal growth, planetary shifts, poetry, spirituality, transformation • Tags: prayer

prayer for radical gratitude

November 30, 2009 by rachel

thank you for every morsel bittersweet for every fleeting foray into unimaginable bliss every lifetime of incalculable pain for the searing darkness and the blinding light – thank you for your rabid inability to create your own boundaries giving me a reason to establish my ramparts soundly and master the raising and lowering of my own castle gates – thank you for triggering my insecurities with your comings and goings dragging your nails over toughened scar tissue busting open wounds that […]

Categories: body mind & spirit, health/healing, inspiration, love, personal growth, planetary shifts, poetry, spirituality, transformation • Tags: Arthur Roy Mitchell, awakening, consciousness, gratitude, prayer, thanks

clearing prayer for personal sovereignty

November 14, 2009 by rachel

I began this piece back in July and found myself stumbling upon it this morning and bringing it to completion. These words contain great power for anyone who speaks them aloud. If this energy resonates with where you are now, you might also want to visit (or revisit) “prayer for radical forgiveness,” which resides in the right-hand sidebar in the list of “pages.” As in much of my work, the “you” in this piece may indeed represent a part of yourself […]

Categories: body mind & spirit, health/healing, inspiration, love, personal growth, planetary shifts, poetry, spirituality, transformation • Tags: ascension, awakening, clearing, consciousness, empowerment, new paradigm, opening heart, prayer

you are the prayer

November 12, 2009 by rachel

You can pray or be the prayer Sing or be the song Ask the searching questions or live the unmistakable answers in every moment You were placed here for a purpose beyond all purpose a hope beyond all hope you are the very breath of creation and eternity’s unfolding Nothing is about you and everything is Nothing is certain save the unequivocal certainty of the here and now You own nothing because you are the all need nothing because within […]

Categories: body mind & spirit, inspiration, personal growth, planetary shifts, poetry, spirituality, transformation • Tags: ascension, awakening, co-creation, consciousness, empowerment, higher consciousness, life, new paradigm, prayer

well, dang if I didn’t grab first place in the “inaugural poem we should have had” contest!

March 2, 2009 by rachel

Looks like I nosed out second-place winner William Haskins and snagged First Place in a contest for “The Inaugural Poem We Should Have Had,” sponsored by absolutewrite.com (see details and links in post directly below). My entry was “Prayer for Inclusion,” which I posted on January 20, 2009 (Inauguration Day), and which can be found listed in the Pages section of the right-hand sidebar  — or click right here if you’re short on time or energy. As any writer, artist, […]

Categories: barack obama, inspiration, poetry, writing & creativity • Tags: absolutewrite.com, barack obama, inaugural poem, inaugural poem contest, inaugural poem contest first place, inspiration, poetry, prayer, Prayer for Inclusion, writing

prayer for inclusion

January 20, 2009 by rachel

Include me. Invite me into the circle and guide me to the spot that bears my name Escort me with a steadying touch, loose your hold and bear me aloft Include my joy and ebullience, my hope and promise, The tracks of endless tears and the wounds of struggle and pain that have marked the past. Include me raw and refined, defiant, quiescent Include me enriched and diminished, broken and healed Embrace me as the one anointed and demeaned, Privileged […]

Categories: body mind & spirit, inspiration, personal growth, poetry, spirituality, transformation • Tags: awakening, community, consciousness, inauguration day poem, inclusion, inspiration, life, poetry, prayer, spirituality, transformation, unity, unity consciousness

india arie, rumi, writing, automotivology, forgiveness, & remembering who you are: favorite posts of 2008

January 6, 2009 by rachel

Even though be whole now is not yet a year old (like me, my blog is a Piscean), the start of this sure-to-be-unforgettable new year is a good time to unearth and recycle some memorable posts from 2008. Here are a few of my favorites, based on a purely non-scientific selection process. 1. I never tire of watching diva India Arie sing the James Taylor classic, The Secret O’ Life. Every word speaks directly to my soul. Maybe yours, too? […]

Categories: body mind & spirit, eclectica, inspiration, love, ordinary oracles, personal growth, poetry, spirituality, transformation, video, writing & creativity • Tags: awakening, body mind & spirit, consciousness, creativity, ecstatic union, forgiveness, India Arie, inspiration, James Taylor, life, love, new paradigm, ordinary oracles, personal growth, poetry, prayer, radical forgiveness, Rumi, The Secret of Life, transformation, video, wisdom, writer, writing, your inner writer

stretch break: sacred prayer video = reverence, bliss, & peace in under 9 minutes

October 11, 2008 by rachel

Need I tell anyone that there are powerful energies at work throughout the planet? Rather than try to wrap your brain around any of it, tune in to this divinely soul-nourishing video by rysa5, who has a youtube.com channel here, devoted to a world of videos on enlightenment, abundance, and a host of other high-vibration, multidimensional topics. The music is Devi Prayer, from the Divine Mother/Sacred Chants of Devi CD by Craig Pruess and Ananda; learn more here. Journey deep. […]

Categories: body mind & spirit, inspiration, spirituality, stretch break, video • Tags: Ananda, bliss, chant, chanting, Craig Pruess, Devi Prayer, inspirational, music, peace, prayer, rysa5, sacred, sacred music, soul, soul-nourishing, spiritual, video

prayer for radical forgiveness

September 21, 2008 by rachel

Forgive me for not sharing fully in your pain for my own basket has been filled with seedpods of blossoming sadness and ripened fruit dripping with disappointment Forgive me if I do not remember your name or the light aching for release from your crown for I have been searching too long simply to remember my own name and the codex that bears the story that is mine If I have seemed aloof, apart, forgive me, for my sense of […]

Categories: body mind & spirit, health/healing, inspiration, personal growth, poetry, spirituality, transformation, uncategorized • Tags: body mind & spirit, forgive, forgive me, forgiveness, inspiration, life, personal growth, poem, poetry, prayer, spirituality, Thierry Ona

what will you create from today?

June 21, 2008 by rachel

Today, create the opening Heart Unshroud your inmost Desires and lay them down gently in a field of dew-kissed wildflower Let flow a river of Forgiveness For yourself, for others And revel in the soft waftings of a breeze as it carries away the unlatched chains of soul’s oppression Create the keys that unlock your ancient Rememberings Take them down from the nail on the wall Feel them slip with ease into their appointed hallways And know that you have […]

Categories: body mind & spirit, health/healing, inspiration, love, personal growth, poetry, spirituality, transformation, uncategorized • Tags: body mind & spirit, consciousness, creation, inspiration, life, love, peace, poetry, prayer, soul, spirituality, transformation

let this be the day

May 17, 2008 by rachel

Let this be the day The day of silent wisdom flowing through cupped hands Spilling over the battlements in enquenchment Trickling into your parched and blistered heart And bringing forth the tender blossomings hid thereunder Let this be the day you softly douse the final ember Cool the incessant fire that once threatened to leap over hedged edges Sought to swallow every morsel in its hot and baited breath Lick delicately crafted intention into submission And singe spirit’s embryonic beginnings […]

Categories: inspiration, personal growth, poetry, spirituality, transformation • Tags: allow, inspiration, life, personal growth, poetry, prayer, spirituality, surrender, transformation

the movable prayer

April 24, 2008 by rachel

Doing a bit of spring blogcleaning! prayer for this time: i am the miracle has now taken up permanent residence in the Pages section in the right-hand sidebar. If you didn’t see it the first time around – or would like to revisit the poem – Scotty will beam you up & over if you click here.

Categories: blogkeeping, inspiration, poetry, spirituality • Tags: consciousness, divine love, I Am, inspiration, miracle, poetry, prayer, spirituality, truth, wisdom

prayer for this time: i am the miracle

April 7, 2008 by rachel

Prayer For This Time In this time of miracles I recommit to faith To the power of All There Is To seeing beyond the physical to the unalterable truth within To the infinite healing of pure Love To knowing what I know To angels among us. In this time of uncertain outcome I remember that which never changes The brilliant light that lives in every heart The unending cycles of winter, spring, summer, fall The eternal and astonishing efficiency of […]

Categories: inspiration, poetry, spirituality, transformation • Tags: angels, faith, I Am, inspiration, life, love, miracle, national poetry month, now, poetry, prayer, rebirth, soul, spirituality, transformation