Love | Robbins Hopkins

Jul 27 2020

GOD of All, Hear Us In Our Hour of Need

We lay our profound suffering before You
Calling for an end to vast sadness and grief
Commanding the inclusion of all peoples in Grace
Hear us now, as endless darkness deepens

We are lost in fear and doubt,
Angst and sorrow so profound,
Getting out of bed is humbling
Getting to sleep, impossible

My heart shrinks and shrivels up with
Thousands feeling loss, destitution, and brokenness
Pervading fear grips the strongest among us
Endless trials repeat, each darker than before

Thousands crossing the Brooklyn Bridge
Hundreds gassed at peaceful protests
Nameless, faceless paramilitary units
Threatening, confronting, with anger, then arrest

God of All, the old hatreds must go and soon
We cannot sustain this level of bedeviling disarray
We can’t return to the horrors of the past
The horrors of the present must end, and swiftly

Thousands unable to pay the rent, find a job, bury their dead
Thousands of businesses gasping for one more breath
Daily number explosions of more sick, dying and dead
Dreams, hopes, nest eggs, disappearing, perhaps forever

Guide us to peace, safety, and forgiveness
Bring us to the expanding path of Wholeness
Help us ensure that together, we all rise on the tide
Ever staring down darkness, by choosing Love

I choose to be kinder and clear out my anger and fear
I call in more compassion, banish all remnants of ego
Guide me to walk humbly with my God on the toughest days
Cleanse me of doubt and bring me home when my work here is finished

Jun 10 2020

The Heart of the Nation

The heart of the nation is raw
With fear and violence
Burning anger and rage
Beatings, smashing, and killings

And still we do not see
That we are part of the cause
We are the blinded ones
We are hiding from the darkness

We live in safe communities
And hope the discomfort
Quickly passes us by
With little disruption to our lives

Let others do the marching
Let others deal with the fall out
Surely this will “return to normal”
Sooner than later, as swiftly as possible

But the images are so bloody
What if we were one of those
Being singled out for our skin color
Being chased and killed through hatred

We want protections from this happening
We want everyone to make this go away
We want the cops to stop being racist
We want those killings to cease and desist

But it is not only the killings
It is living in abject fear of being singled out
Living with constant need to keep one’s head down
Every single day in public and never feeling safe

This causes entrenched resentment
Deep anger, righteous indignation
Mistrust and more segregated communities
Mistreatment for all while everyone lives in fear

When one among us is at risk
We are all at risk because we tolerate
Those among us who are at risk
And go about our lives as if we are separate

Nothing works when this is the response
No one learns to change, when isolated
No one practices compassion unless
Closeness is personal and meaningful

Beware, our feeling bad does not change a thing
The compassion felt from TV news touches no one
The shaking of one’s head and returning to normal
Leaves those at risk, still at risk

All have to stand for justice
For freedom, for goodness for all
For opportunities for all
For good systems available to all

This has to be the way forward
To stem the flood of sorrow and grief
Beyond simply patching up the brokenhearted
All have to banish racism in all forms

Then all become truly safe and whole
No other way works for all people
And so it is, for now and for always
With determined hearts, so it can be.

Apr 23 2020

Balance and Grace

There is a patter in my heart that I know as living
It is a steady beat that offers a familiar, safe background
To all that is going on that is not steady and acceptable
To all the fear, loss, pain and suffering of invading dangers

This same reliability resides in the cheery morning song birds
In the ocean’s continuous ebbs and flows, dependable to the minute
The grains of wet packed sand feel solid even while ever shifting
I need to be reminded of the reliable grace of nature

In these times of required isolation, nature holds the promise of life
Returning to normal, as the flowering of nature spectacularly arrives
Even though the flowers are temporarily present by design
They form an orchestrated coming alive as if being conducted

Every awakening shrub, flower and tree is here to support me
In my sustained hibernation and isolation from others
The magnificence of every living thing is bursting around me
Holding the space for freedom of movement to manifest again

I would love to have enough profound love be able to envelop us
In ways that would fully protect us from viruses running rampant
From bodies succumbing to the ravages of fever and infection
From our own deep darknesses feeding the exploding virus

Alas, the work is within, within our fear, our discomfort, our doubt
It is within the depression that comes from worry, black thoughts
The work is seeking inner peace, joy, kindness, and above all balance
Requiring infinitesimal adjustments minute by minute

Then I remember to get outside to the living, vibrating nature
To breath deeply this day, to honor this day and this body
To hold the space for all that is swirling with danger to settle
For the Oneness to help, as we millions call back balance and grace

Mar 06 2020

Journeying to Now

Impatience is the bane of my existence
I am a rusher, hurrier, want to get it done
Kind of person, on the go
Doing one thing, thinking of the next thing

I get tons done most days
But my breath and body pay
As I function at high gear
Packing in and pushing most of the time

It is the impatience with others
I struggle with especially when
Their moving and decision making
Is happening in the slow lane

I know what I want to do
I make decisions quickly
I move decisively
I am all in with anything I do

This was the way I lived for years
I evaluated my day by how much I accomplished
I was rather callous with those “in my way”
I felt a total sense of shortness of time

Then, yoga found me on a crisp afternoon
I had been a dancer as a child
I had loved body movement
But yoga brought my breath back to me

Next, meditation entered stage left
Sneaking into my days
Calling me to times of quiet
Beckoning me to be still

I was not a natural meditator
I was squirmy and impatient
My progress was not easily visible
I had to surrender, again and again

I had to slow down and breath
I learned to be fully in the moment
And to clear my crummy feelings
And to stop pushing and evaluating me

I became a bit nicer to me and to others
I became more grounded and happy
I often wonder where I would be
If impatience still ruled the roost

Recently, my blood pressure returned to
The days of my 30’s and smiled upon me
Nodding to the years of changes in my life
And beckoning me to continue to flow

Something about my relation to time changed
Something about my impatience changed
Then something about being at peace showed up
Then my body healed and joy arrived to stay

Feb 27 2020

Death Calls Us Home

Death of another is a loss of what is
It is the loss of what has been
And the finality of what could have been
The loss of more time together

Death pricks the fear that you will not
Make it through the sorrow
You will not find your way out
You will always be in grief

Loss of another is a call to go within
To consciously touch to that which is solid
That which never changes and is constant
The connection with the Greater Whole

You are still safe and loved
Even when death is present
You still have the knowing of the Love
That has been and always will be

Why does the dread about death persist?
The seeming finality is scary
Your loved one is not in the flesh
Your loved one moves to a place within

Perhaps you have not explored within
Perhaps you do not feel at ease there
Perhaps the deep grief feels paralyzing
Perhaps moving ahead seems overwhelming

However within is a place of Love
Within awaits your presence
Healing and Love both reside within
Restoration and Grace reside within

Going within provides all the time
You desire to say the things you did not say
To set things right from your side
To determine that which needs saying

Death is often a doorway to inner peace
It beckons us to quiet reflection
It strengthens us for reentering life
Without our loved one in the flesh

Every action and feeling you have
Is known by the Everlasting Love
You cannot be forgotten ever
You will find your way home

Receive the blessings of the Eternal Energy
Beckoning you to your own true self
Reminding you are whole and will feel whole again
Restating that all is well and that you are truly loved

If you are beset with sorrow, this can leave you. Open a Sacred Healing Space with Divine Source energy you want in that space. Call for help (I call forth help) from Divine Source for any depression, sorrow, loss or grief energy you are carrying to be transformed. Call for your lightness of heart and mind to be restored. Call in the healing energy and balance that you desire. Call for the help you need to take up your life again. You can do this for yourself and for others. You are always heard.