by ingrid on April 1, 2011
For children everything is new.
Children come fresh from the source.
Time spent with a child
is an opportunity to rediscover
the Divine, wonder, gratitude,
dances of joy and delight,
spontaneous songs,
innocence, essential goodness,
laughter and good mischief.
Children give their hearts easily.
They fall in love freely.
Learn from them.
Fall in love…
with your child, with yourself,
with your partner,
with your work.
Reconnect with those good feelings.
You still know them.
They are there inside you.
from the book, Good Mother, Welcome Inspiration for New Mothers
by ingrid on March 17, 2011
from the book What Holds Us, New and Selected Poems
I wrote this poem shortly after 9-11, when I was feeling stunned and unsure of what we are meant to do in our ordinary and yet sacred lives- with such turmoil in the world.
Sometimes the first line is missed in the playing of the slideshow (shoot!) It is: “I hung hope out with the laundry…clothes-pinned tenderly beside a pillow case and two sheets. I could tell she needed air, a sweet puff of wind…”
by ingrid on March 17, 2011
Take a moment
to follow your breath.
Breathe in Peace,
Breathe out Love.
Breathe in Peace,
Breathe out Love.
Breathe in Love,
Breathe out Peace.
Breathe in Love,
Breathe out Peace.
Allow yourself to be nourished
and awakened by this simple
practice often.
from the book, Good Mother, Welcome
by ingrid on March 16, 2011
When mist settles thick on the water
as far as the eye can see,
may you hold yourself in generosity, asking
what to you endlessly dream?
When the first star breaks its light
through the darkest evening sky,
what is the wish that flutters
in the temple of your heart?
When rain dances with joy
on the roof above your head,
what do you feel most grateful for,
and for what do you give thanks?
[click to continue…]
by ingrid on March 3, 2011
by ingrid on January 18, 2011
That Wanted Belonging
I’m peeling potatoes for dinner,
listening to “A Celtic Sojourn” on the radio,
and finding I am homesick for a world
I’ve never visited, much less known.
Does this ever happen to you?
Yet I sense I am close to that
wanted belonging right here~
cooking supper in my kitchen, by the radio,
on a windy winter’s night.
[click to continue…]
by ingrid on January 12, 2011
Everything Says “Return”
When you follow the moonlit trail,
everything says return.
[click to continue…]
by ingrid on October 29, 2010
The Tug of Autumn
At noon I stood in stillness
amidst a cathedral of browning oaks~
chin up, mouth agape, watching
leaves languish from the trees.
It was raining and the tug of autumn
was surely here.
I would like to be wiser, calmer,
more at home in the world.
I’d like to give my days
the delighted artfulness
of courtship, merging, lingering,
bearing witness, offering praise.
I want to hold what holds us.
~Ingrid Goff-Maidoff
by ingrid on September 21, 2010
Today I awoke
into a poem.
Everywhere I look,
another verse emerging.
Glint of sun, shimmering leaf,
dusty road along the woodlands.
If I feel a moment of sadness,
I will allow myself to feel sadness.
If I feel a moment of merriment,
I’ll give thanks for this as well.
It seems that I
can do nothing
to stop this poem
from unfolding.
~~~~~~~
I wrote the above poem as I was beginning to feel a new energy flow into my life. Rose has been away at college for a few weeks, and I must admit I built much of my world around her (and Jonah and Bella.) As with a break-up or separation, it’s quite an unravelling- quite an adjustment in the Mothering journey to have a child venture from the nest. She seems to be doing very well. And I am doing much better. In the first week I was surprised by how I would be overcome with emotion at any moment. There was no sense in repressing this- it felt very necessary and life affirming to let it move through my body. With the poem below, I invite you- I offer tender permission- to let some of your own sorrows out.
Sometimes We Must Let the Weeping Come,
to bring its soft relief
like a dry summer’s rain;
a small brook flowing
amid the reaching ferns.
Sometimes to confess
the sadness we’ve been holding
makes way for a lightness again,
or at least the hint of an opening.
If the heart, like a cup, is too full,
we must spill some sorrows out ~
to make room for the possible gift
of something new, or fresh, or healing.
WOMEN’S RETREAT ON MARTHA’S VINEYARD ~ November 12-14th 2010
If you are longing for a weekend of renewal, refreshment, inquiry, sisterhood, and a lot of wonderfulness in between, check out this women’s retreat that I will be co-facilitating with Anne Colangeli and MJ Bindu Delekta. We will gather at MJ’s Sacred Circle of Yoga, and allow the weekend to unfold as it will, depending on what our hearts yearn for.
Connect to your deepest self through yoga, poetry, laughter, play and relaxation…
by ingrid on July 14, 2010
I have a friend who came to see me,
who danced naked under the stars.
She brought a friend who is now my friend,
and who laughed with ease and joy.
Sweet unity.
This is what we had.
Today my heart is full
of moonlight and sunlight and dancing.
Today my life is brimming
with laughter and ease, and stars.
~Ingrid
