Tag Archive | heart

Good writing

Dec2

Good writing takes you to another world
You no longer hear
What’s going on around you
Or who comes and goes

Good writing can hold your heart
In its hands
Your emotions are held hostage
For a while

Good writing is hard to put down
Just one more line
Just one more line
Your heart cries

Good writing leaves its mark on you
Your world is not the same anymore

Good writing comes from
A place of vulnerability
The writer bears her/his soul

Good writing captivates you
And doesn’t let you go
Perhaps it highjacks your soul

Good writing
I’m in its snare
And will be for evermore

December 1st, 2016

Spring cleaning

Mar8

imageThe season of Spring cleaning has arrived
But to be honest, I don’t do much extra cleaning
Around the house at this time

I was thinking about spring cleaning my heart though
Washing the dross off my soul
And adorning it with beautiful virtues:

Kindness, gentleness, patience
Exuberance, enthusiasm and joy!

Seeing the good in everyone
Having a sin-covering eye

Speaking with kindness and love
Avoiding  being critical

Holding the hand of one who hurts
Trying to cheer them up

This kind of Spring cleaning makes sense to me
I should actually do it all year around
March 8th, 2016

Hiding pain

Sep22

Why do we hide our pain?
Don’t we realize everyone
Experiences hardship and suffering?
Why do we only share our success
And not the challenges we had to overcome?

Why is it difficult to share these things
Things that make us feel vulnerable
Things that reveal who we are?

It takes strength to show vulnerability!
It’s easy to smile and pretend everything
Is fine and it always has been
It takes courage to admit to hardships that
We have experienced
Talking about challenges we’ve had is hard

It’s easy to share what’s on the surface
It’s not easy to reveal what is in the deep
Recesses of our heart
That’s why many of us hide our pain
Keep those emotions deep inside

September 22nd, 2015

The encounter

Aug9

I saw him once
Or did I?
He seemed very real at the time
More than real
He was splendidly alive!

He came to me
We started to talk
The connection was immediate
Between us

It doesn’t take long
To connect with someone’s heart

We dined together
He saw my paintings
He said the hyacinths I drew
Were wonderfully fragrant
I gave the painting to him…

He gave me his poems
I translated them
They stayed in storage
For a long time

And flood waters
May have destroyed them

Was he real?
Was it a dream?
Did we even ever meet?

We did!
He has my painting
I have his poetry
Some of which
I committed to heart

That short encounter
Will stay with me
I don’t know where he is…
But does it matter, really?

Lida Berghuis
August 9th, 2015

Your heart

Jul5

At the heart institute for treatment
But your heart is in perfect health
As loving as it can be
As patient as it can be
As joyful as it can be

No treatment needed for this compassionate heart
If anything we need to find how
Your heart became what it has become
Needless to say the trials of life have purified it
Needless to say prayer has burnished it

You may be in the heart institute for treatment
But your heart is in much better shape than ours…

Lida Berghuis
July 4th, 2015

One drop of kindness

Nov10

“One drop of kindness makes the ocean sweet”

Kindness is love
Kindness is being other-oriented
Kindness is gentleness
Kindness is the warmth of someone’s heart

Kindness requires effort
Requires that we pay attention to someone else
Kindness is the absence of ego, being self-centred

Kindness is encouraging words that bring others joy

Kindness says I see you
I care for you
Kindness says I’ll make time for you!

Kindness gives comfort
Kindness listens with care
Kindness is silent when someone makes a mistake
Kindness does not judge, does not compare

Kindness brings joy
Kindness makes one smile
Kindness is a balm for an injured heart!

Lida Berghuis
November 10th, 2014

*-Rumi

Intuition or intellect?

Sep10

Intuition and Intellect
Are they at odds?

Intuition
The promptings of the heart
The little voice that guides
The little voice that warns

Intellect
A tool for learning
A faculty of the mind
It can be right
It can be wrong

Intuition
What I gravitate to
What I’ve learned to trust

Intellect
Is obviously useful
Can also guide

Intuition
What I prefer as a guide

The mind can discern and calculate
The heart knows, needs no reason!

Lida Berghuis
Sept. 10th, 2014

Love is blind!

Dec23

Why is the path to true love
Fraught with dangers, thorny paths, and mountains high?

Why do we have to suffer so much
Even when we find the one we love?

Why is the world of emotion so complicated?
Why can’t we design a computer program for love?

Make a spread sheet of pros and cons
A logical way to judge what our heart desires

Why aren’’t computers smart enough
To help us with this complicated equation called love?

Why do pain and joy intertwine
In this crazy thing called love?

Why can’’t we just live as monks and nuns
That way we wouldn’t have to worry about love!

There is a yearning in our hearts
We need love
True love is like water
To the thirsty one

We are drawn to the lucid spring of love
Even as a thirsty one wondering in the desert of life
Once we see the face of the beloved
It’s imprinted in our hearts

All the reasoning in the world
Is unable to change our mind
Love does blind us
To the loved one’s faults
Others will tell us this or that
But we are not sure what planet they are from!

Our heart longs to be with our loved one
Our heart only sees the beautiful qualities
Of the one we love

We would swim an ocean or desert cross
Without a thought
Without a doubt!

The people who love us try to tell us
To be careful not to drown, not to fall!
Sometimes we listen, sometimes we don’’t
Love is blind, after all!

But true love stands the test of time
This love doesn’t die because of trials
One can lose battles, but one wins the war
To be united with the loved one

This thing called love
For which blood has been shed time after time
This magical force
Is one we can’’t live without

The path never easy
But worth the fight!
Without love
Life would not be worthwhile!

Lida Berghuis
February 2nd 2004

Angels on earth

Sep19

Some people radiate positive energy
I’m happy when they are around
The warmth of their spirit can be felt
They shine like a brilliant light

There is a twinkle in their eyes
A spring in their step
There is a warmth in their touch
Which makes my heart melt

There is a sweetness in their voice
That can’t really be described
There is a tenderness in their heart
That can make me cry

These are angles that walk on earth
These are the souls that touch my heart

Rendezvous!

Sep12

Another fall, another season, another day
Another rendezvous at my place of calm
A rendezvous with myself and my thoughts!

This is what brings balance into my life
This is what nourishes my soul
This is what cheers my heart!

My daily rendezvous
To contemplate
To go only where quiet can take me
Where silence is the guide
Where words appear
Seemingly out of nowhere
Where I feel refreshed
After saying my piece
To who I’m not sure of
But what I am sure of
Is that this rendezvous is now necessary
Not optional!
It centers me
It relaxes me
And I’m even content not to know why!

Lida Berghuis
September 12th, 2013