Journeying with Starshine

I do not believe in forcing the young to do things mechanically.

I want them to learn good judgment. Live their actions on their own merit and discover its outcomes on their own terms. More than anything else.

One must never cease to counsel them though. Whether they like it or not. Our job as I see it is to plant the trees that one day shall line the trail. Their job is to pave the road of their own lives.

One must always make sure though, there is always time for the young - for more time. That they should never run out of better choices to make.

Likewise, one must never allow the young to wander too far off their trails that they should accidentally have a mortal encounter with the hidden beasts of the wild. As I have. As many in my generation have.

Yet if they still do, we must fight it off alongside them. I know I will.

And if any of our young Starshine should come ask us, what may lie ahead - around a corner, in the dark, we might with them look ahead together, make decisions jointly, and walk the way together for a while...

Until they find their own feet again. Until they feel safe.

But the road they shall pave into the wilderness shall be their own. They shall walk all the way through the barren desert into the land of their own dreaming. And claim it.

And their victory shall truly be theirs.
---<--@

The Power of Belief

Whether we believe the Philippines can succeed or not.

We are right.
---<--@

Starshine dearest,

To the dreamer, the Dream -

and to the Nation, the dreaming.

To the beholder of dreams, the vision.

To the lovers of the Republic, the Republic
To the friends of tomorrow, tomorrow
To the stewards of Liberty, Liberty
To the keepers of hope, hope.

To the believer, everything.
---<--@

No Words Necessary

Zealous for Souls

God is.
And that is all.

God is - because life is.
Life is because - we are.

We are because - the soul is.
And the soul is because - God is.

And God is - unto all things living
for God is - the God of all the living!

- selah -

The soul is
possessed not -
of its own life.

It receives its being from
- the LORD Who is -
and life is its being.

From it,
arise every nature
of everything living.

And thus
by nature
is alive.

For all that is
in spirit - is alive.

It flows forth
from the soul
and is alive.

- selah -

What heart could truly love
without having beheld the beautiful?

The soul contains the living Breath
that breathes into everything that is - alive.

Separate it not from its Maker.

'Tis a manifestation of the Truth of its God.

Esteem it not by its smallness.

- selah -

What mind could truly think
without having thought about truth?

The soul is - the principle of life.
For God is - and gives shape to its being.

Mistake it not for its Master.

'Tis a reflection of the Life of its Creator.

Regard it not by its fragments.

- selah -

Why then, Starshine,
dost the eye of the heart
in regarding a soul without God
claimeth it has seen the soul
when it thinks of naught
but utter disrespect for life?

Who could trust the darkness
when it speaks of itself
about the light?

Thy own soul, precious Starshine,
may only be truly perceived
by other living souls.

That thou art by Beauty beheld!

Therefore -

Do not despair with those
who in death and in desolation
seeketh to perceive life in the living.

Neither weep with those
whose pre-occuppation with evil
have moved them to seek what is good.

There are some who seek,
who find they never find.

Yet, precious Starshine,
there are some who seek,
who are eventually found.

- selah -

Dear Starshine, the eye
that seeth far - into the soul
knoweth from where it proceeds.

It has come to know the majesty
of a myriad unfolding universes.

For it has come to behold the glory
of such dreams - in a grain of sand...

It beheld them in their moments,
as worlds upon worlds arising,
as truths that are everlasting,
and so - knoweth Spirit.

By the Love
through which one shines
far into the darkness - and into
the reality of other souls.

And in the Truth
through which one reaches
deep into the darkness - and into
the reality of other hearts.

- selah -

The soul is -
the principle of life.

And life is -
what gives shape to its being.

Being is
- what makes everything exist -
as they are.

And the soul is
- the being of its life -
being in every living being.

All have their being - because life is.

Thus,
all in Creation is -
because life is.

- selah -

In lower creation, being is
a soul - that is - in each - a soul.

'Tis in the trees and the plants of the earth.
'Tis in the animals of the land, sea, and air.

And gives them life.

- selah -

In higher creation, being is
a soul - that is - in each - a living soul.

'Tis in each Angel up in the heavens above.
'Tis in each Man here upon the earth below.

And gives us life.
And the knowledge of life.

- selah -

The soul of every Man
is heart and mind.

'Tis heart and mind
united as one!

For the heart proceeds.
And the mind knoweth.

 - selah -

And so the heart is in darkness.
And love awakens in darkness.

For the heart in every Man
knoweth not - 'tis a heart.

- selah -

And so the mind is in darkness.
And thought arises in darkness.

For the mind in every Man
knoweth not - 'tis a mind.

- selah -

The Beloved
beholds the heart
and the heart knows -
'tis a heart!

And the heart
in beholding the Beloved
beholds the Beautiful.

- selah -

The heart
in knowing itself
knoweth - thought.

And love
in knowing thought
knoweth - mind.

- selah -

The Beautiful
beholds the mind
and the mind knows -
'tis a mind!

And the mind
in beholding the Beautiful
beholds the Beloved.

- selah -

The mind
in knowing itself
knoweth - truth.

And love
in knowing truth
knoweth - self.

- selah -

The soul of every Man
is heart and mind.

'Tis heart and mind
united as one!

And spirit is - its brightness!

In the heart,
where the seat of the soul is,
'tis a brightness of love.

In the mind,
where the seat of the intellect is,
'tis a brightness of truth.

- selah -

For the heart proceeds.

As love must
from the seat of the soul
proceed -

And the mind knoweth.

As truth must
through the love in the heart
succeed -

And spirit is - its brightness!

- selah -

For the heart proceeds.

As the stars must
from the power of their being
shine forth -

And the mind knoweth.

As the stars must
through the reality of their truth
shine forth -

And spirit is - its brightness!

- selah -

Spirit is brightness.

For love
is the life of the heart
and beholds - the Beloved.

Love is -
not because of the heart:

For love
is the way of
every human heart.

- selah -

Truth is fullness.

For - the truth
is the light of the mind
and beholds -  the Beautiful.

Truth is -
not because of the mind.

For truth
is the way of
every human mind.

- selah -

We live
through the Life of a Being
that is eternal.

We love
through the Love of a Truth
that is absolute.

We think
through the Light of a Reality
that is infinite.

We are found
not because we seek to find what we seek
but because we have come seek of these things
in and of themselves - in God alone.

- selah -

Thus,
our beloved Starshine,

In spirit and for truth dost
each thy light ever proceed
from the seat of thy every soul
to alloweth thine own time to flow
through the abundance of every heart
into those many rivers and into their seas
that join into the one Ocean of the Infinite.

And in this -
Infinite Ocean
all in Humankind is  -
a species of living soul:
That make us all common
in each our being - just human.

For the human spirit is
everywhere the Beloved is
because everywhere the Beloved is,
there is Beauty - and verily,

Beauty is everywhere.
---<--@

What will happen when the wood is dry?

Our world is as dry
as a tinderbox, Starshine -

For
- everywhere -
there is a thirst for water,
water this world can not provide.

And
everywhere
- across our earth -
our Nations are drying up
turning to ashes from the inside out.

Starshine,
can you now see - that -

peace anywhere
is peace everywhere?

In our hearts first, Beloved -
...and then, in our Nations,
...and then, in our needful world.

Truly, truly,
it shall only take a spark,
but one spark to set things afire!

But what kind of spark,
our precious Starshine,
what kind of fire?

God's grace alone 
is sufficient, alleluia!
---<--@

The Book of the Unfolding

Within
each human heart,
our precious Starshine,
God had placed a little book.

This is the book
written within each thy own heart,
Beloved of the LORD.

The book that contain
the words to each
thy own story!

Words each thy living soul
deeply longs to drink - to the fullest
that thou may know the secrets
that make thee who thou art
forever before thy God.

The Mystery of which
thy spirit aches to unfold
- in its entirety -
unto a world entirely asleep
to each thy own precious wonder.

You know this book,
and yearn to read it out loud...

Because
dearest Starshine -
you must speak it boldly forth
that the truth that lives within
- each thy lives -
out of the darkness unfold,
through the Light of the LORD,
arising brightly forth - as living stars
upon the face of the deep.

- selah -

How then,
may you reveal these words
to the world, Starshine - this little book?

- selah -

Listen to the Word of Scripture.
Drink deeply of the Truth.

Hear the preaching of the Kingdom  -
the Kingdom within.

Find thyself in the wilderness -
in the wilderness of this world without.

Become totally lost to this world - listen,
listen and in seeking what you hear, repent.

Repent, that you may have hope. 
Pray, that you may have strength.
Believe, that you may have faith.

And have faith,
that you may understand...

You must complete this book.

Remember
you are loved,
each of you - as you are,
loved more than you will know.

So as you are loved,
love you must also.

By then - in time,
O Love of Emmanuel,
you shall know how.

---<--@

True Light bestows True Sight

I see you

I see you, Starshine.
Brilliant, wondrous, Starshine.
Precious, shining, and beautiful.
I see in you - a person - a living soul!
Unique and believing and true.
I see you, Starshine, and I know -
No one else can be you.
---<--@

Say Peace to the River...

Imagine, if you will, a river that flows through your own heart - is it a nurturing river with waters refreshing to your soul? or is it a polluted river with waters stinking up your spirit?

Imagine all our rivers this way, flowing out in time from our hearts of life and living community - are we at peace with these waters that flow or not?

Any river that flows through the life of any of our community, if it doesn't flow through our hearts does not (and will not) answer to our voice.

How then do we say peace to our rivers, to our skies, and to our seas?

Darling Starshine -

A river flows out into the sea, into heaven, and around again - through you and through me.

How do you say peace to a river without setting it free?

And how do you set a river free without letting its waters come full circle...

from the mountains, through the earth, and to the salty sea - where every river ascends again - invisibly - into the heavens - through the clouds...

...and back again from above - from love to love - through you and through me?

How can you say peace to a river if you do not let it run through thy heart...

Can anything be set free without love?

Can any river long endure being chained? It will either go home to heaven, or exact a terrible revenge upon the human communities of our earth.

How do you say peace to a river?
---<--@

Hope Taking Wing

Personal reflection: The pollutants in our rivers are mostly sewage and non-industrial waste. This means, our rivers are mostly in good shape. We do not have to deal with toxic and radioactive pollutants and their expensive clean up costs. All it shall take is OWNERSHIP of our natural bodies of water and waterways.

If we take care of our rivers in this present time and learn to say peace to them - when we become a more mechanized and industrialized Republic, we will grow in a way that is friendly to the vital living ecology that surrounds and sustains our natural human habitat. We will become a more happier people.

Mabuhay, Miss Malala Yousafszai!

This girl is a tigress; a passionate fighter for the cause she dearly loves: Academic Freedom, freedom for both the brave educators and the disenfranchised girls in her native Pakistan and all around our needful world to respond to each other's mutual call to human betterment and human rights through education.

What truly distinguishes her is that she is a witness to her own advocacy. The strength of her own cause is not something she acquires from others, but something she constantly lives in her life.

Look up to her, dear Starshine, for she is born of the same sky... as thee.

Mabuhay, Miss Malala Yousafszai!

At a time of falling leaves...

I asked the leaf
whether it was scared
because it was autumn
and the other leaves were falling.

The leaf told me,
"No. During the whole spring and summer 
I was very alive. I worked hard 
and helped nourish the tree, 
and much of me 
is in the tree.

(Thich Nhat Hanh)

I then asked the tree,
at a time of falling leaves, 
whether it was scared
to be as bereft of its lush greenery
and it said to me,

"No, seeker, 
for I am a tree".
---<--@

Share thy Sunshine, Sunshine

Whenever
the sun shines
high above heaven,
- it may said that -
it smiles upon our earth.

Starshine,
when you too shall smile
- and let thy own heart shine -
do so like it were the sun.

So that,
my darling dear,
ever as thy smile is real,
not only is it warm -
it is golden...

to bless
all the living,
wherever it may touch.
---<--@

Learning is forever

Does not a tree
love above all things,
the light of the Daystar?



Starshine,
in much the same way,
those who love God love instruction.
---<--@

The Brightest of Stars

Do you know the absolute magnitude of Polaris, the (present) north star, is -3.64?

Many a time, the brightest of stars isn't exactly the most useful. 

Starshine, be yourself... that is all.

:::Think and Unlock:::

Salutation #1

Can we navigate the earth from heaven at night with just one star alone?

No, we will most certainly need more than one!

Truth is, the more stars we come to know (who comes to know us), the more complete our map of the sky, the more precise our direction...

Starshine, we are the stars.
---<--@

(Salute to the Stars)

To all my friends -

who are my companions

near or far, alone or with others,

known or known to God alone

who are - from always to always -

one kindred grace, joined in truth:

I salute you with much love
being fond of my desire to serve you

through what gift I have to give
that we may fulfill each our parts
as common vanguards of autumnal Eden
entrusted with the peace of our nations
being bound to the one promise of old
to become as numberless as the stars
and sanctify the hopes of our humanity
by bidding them, turn away from War.

Let War's ambitions remain in itself

having no particular truth of it's own;

comprehending not itself from itself
knowing nothing apart from nothing;

perceiving creation as darkness entire

and not the great wonder of living light
that amidst the vast emptiness of space
fill the silence of the void with glad tidings
that bear aloft our hope for human life
and the pursuit of life's great promise.

We shall stand for something!
---<--@

(produced 20080902)

Endless Blue Sky Sunshine

"Change your thoughts and you change your world."

- Norman Vincent Peale

Live your truth responsibly!

Speak it like you mean it.

Share it like you love it.

Keep it like you really care,

gripping it not with your hands,
but embracing it with your heart.

Nurture it as if it were yours
knowing always to be thankful
to the one God of Whose Reality
is the one Truelight you reflect;
the one LORD by Whose desire
you are called to become you.

So strive with courage and heart
despairing not, dear Starshine,
but being always of good cheer -
you are beautiful without effort!

So be like all hope is become;
walk like you're never forgot;
dance like you are truly alive;
sing like the world cares not;
smile like worries have an end;
laugh like each moment is free;
breathe like your prayer begun;
shine like you belonged forever!

By sweet surrender to the Light
be the gold of sunbeams sharp
against the darkness of the Night
flying upon the wings of eagles
into the blue of an endless sky.
---<--@

The one Code

REMAIN TRUE -
to our peerless LORD
to the one God
of our Father Abraham,
the one common Creator
of all common creation,
seen and unseen.

To your own sacred remembrances
and the memory of your peace
with God and with each other.

To the overcoming of your War
and the advent of your hope
at the dawn of our new dreaming
as nations together.

To thy own universe within
and to the riches therewith
those treasures that
neither thief nor tyrant
can deprive.

To thy own calling
to serve in the way
of virtue and of peace
and to thy own ascent
upon the one mountain path
whereupon all good things
find their meaning and merit
in the prayer of the heart.

To thy own labors
upon this necessary life
and to the hardships also
that this inhabited earth brings -
May you be satisfied
knowing in your heart
what you truly strive for.

To thy own endeavor of Country
and to the trust of thy own nation
may you embrace with your embracing
these wholes upon wholes
as far and as wide as you could
and with courage
and steadfast persistence
bring all your love
as near as it takes you
to the one Love
that unifies us all
with the one LORD of All.

To our Lord's poor
and to each other
as keeper and as friend -

May we all remain faithful
from always to always
until the final gathering
at the end of days
and the beginning
of all things new.
---<--@

On Being Strong

Love the LORD, thy God, in everything and with everything. This is the truth.

---<--@

Our precious Starshine -

STRIVE.

Strength is primarily expressed in the masculine.

Strength is fidelity to the truth; a measure of its brightness.

It is the noble glow of its own conviction;

the ascendant magnitude of our every embrace

- of all those living and everliving things -

that belong to the timelessness in our souls.

Strength is secure in its patience

being sure of the reality of itself;

born of the light that understands

the exactness of its own truth.

It is not harsh and uncertain of its own reality;

born not of the lie that in the darkness understands not itself.

Strength is certain in its meekness.

It is a temper of the will that neither rises nor falls

but is even and steadfast against the assault of false things.

It is not a hardness that hides its unfamiliarity to its own virtue;

being established not by ignorance of the value of the beautiful things

it exists to serve and to keep.

It is not coldness. It is not distance. It is not decrease.

It is warmth. It is presence. It is increase.
---<--@

On Being Beautiful

Carnality when it imposes itself upon the soul of Man usurps the image of the one Beautiful in every living being - when Man allows this to freely happen to his heart, the heart no longer beholds the beautiful but beholds something else entirely.

We become accustomed to ascribing beauty to the most hideous of things...

---<--@

Our precious Starshine -



DO NOT DESPAIR.

Beauty is primarily expressed in the feminine.

It is a state. You were born in it.

For you are thus,

and so with all beautiful things - must strive -

to return to our LORD with it - being as you are -

in the way that you are constantly remembered

by our God in eternity.

Beauty is joyful.

Eternally youthful.

It is not a feeling.

It is never passing.

Beauty is chaste.

It can be claimed only by Love.

It is not carnal.

Invincible against lust.

Beauty is free -

You do not have to strive to be beautiful, O precious Starshine,

for Beauty is somewhere you may always return to,

- here, in your heart of hearts -

a sufficiency that you share with the one Beautiful.

Nor must must others approve of your being yourself -

for as flowers must bloom each in their own time, so will you.

Therefore, Beloved of God,

establish your roots in the timeless image and likeness within thyself

and strive everyday to reach out into the outside world

that needs so much of what you have to offer.
---<--@

An Accounting of Time

Our dearest Starshine -

Let me teach you
the way in which thy heart
does perceive the idea of numbers
and the concept of its operation
in those realms where
the mathematics of physicality
and the limits of its reality
in terms temporal
and in measures finite
does never and shall never agree
with the reality of things within.

Because the substance of thy soul

is the abode of the timeless
that in terms eternal
and in measures infinite
are an accounting of thy heart
that amidst thy comings and goings
perceive things as they are
like a vision of love forever
in moments standing still
and not as they seem to be
amidst the darkness of things
that appear and disappear
with the rise and fall
of the tides of exile time.

One is not the beginning

for one is time neither begun
nor is one perceived to have an end
because one is an infinity
and two is not two things together
but two things that become one
for three are not three things apart
but two things made one whole one
by the Love that visits
each our longing for itself.

And so when you shall perceive

each of thy friendships, dear Starshine,

(e.g. family and friends, above all conjugal love,

as well as all natures of relationships.)

among all truly human relationships
you shall think only of one.

And when you shall seek to perceive
each our own expressions of hope
in the sharing and the bearing of Sacred Life
(e.g. complementarity of the sexes, the freedom of thy gifts, etc.)

you shall think only of two.

And when you shall seek to perceive
those things born to thy own heart's longing
and felt through the beauty of remembrances

(e.g. the creative ideal - cooperation with the Creator,

Peace and the labors of peace, etc.)
awakening to thy slow awakening dream
you shall think only of three.

And ever be aware that the medium

of thy constant reality from within
is an emerging continuum of gratitude
spread as luminous stars upon thy spirit
bursting with the joy of living life
born from things that cleave as truth
unto that vast universe in thy soul
that make you think of the many
but return you always to one -

the One, O my Starshine,

the LORD!

The one Giver above His gifts.

---<--@

On Loyalty

Starshine,

the things of Loyalty
are the relationships
that shall remain
forever with thee;
so defend your friendships
with courage and tenacity.

For we are not Loyal
if we do not remain
true to each other,
moment to moment,
from always to always
appreciating those things
that we share in our humanity
and respecting the things
that make us unique as persons,
seen as well as unseen,
in ourselves and in our nations
in the vision of our timeless belonging
with one another in God and Country
as each our own true self -
as each our own true names
written in heaven.

From the descendant gravity
of the spirit of war and division;
against things born of the darkness
defeated and empty of promise
stand fast in thy friendships!

Guard thy peace with each other
and in thy togetherness hope.

Never be Loyal
to inanimate and empty things;
those fickle and ephemeral
things of vanity!

But only to each other
and in the ascendant motions
of Sacred Life.

For the realization of all our hope

rests in the glory of our LORD
in all creation.

And all these created things
are made by our one common Creator
to be Loyal to all of these.
---<--@