Saint Raymond was the patron saint of secrets and silence,
of unborn children
and women in labor
No surprise, as our Ray could keep confidences and share silence with unusual grace.
A grace he extended to laboring women, and every child––unborn, newborn, inner,
sensing the subtleties of our passages and beyond
Ray also means a beam of light, or
each of the lines in which light (and heat) may seem to stream
from the sun or any luminous body.
The warmth, the light, we basked in those.
In math, a ray is any set of straight lines passing through a central point,
(the central point being us, right here, in the convergence or emergence of our lives and destinations)
The ray is the part of a line that starts here and goes to infinity.
It means to spread, radiate,
symmetry around a central axis:
florets in the head of a flower,
the arms of a starfish,
(but it is also a broad, flat fish, with a flexible skeleton and sometimes electric organs).
I will take what little comfort these definitions bring me now.
And also from a ruptured chrysalis.
Sometimes what seems like devastation is instead
the miraculous emergence of a monarch,
starting from a central point
to fly a thousand miles, or even to infinity
on radiant wings.
— Maiz Connolly
Wow so beautiful. Thanks so much Maiz
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Maiz ….. your musings are such a gift this last day of the first month of the first year without our friend. Thank you. It moved me to explore an empty place this evening. Perhaps a new womb… or a chrysalis that has served its purpose. Joanna
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Thank you Maiz. Your sharing is a beautiful sharing that meets me in the place that misses Ray.
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Thank you, Maiz! You’ve given the gift of your words with such RAYdience to warm my heart, mind, and night.
We were all gifted to walk the path a while with Ray C. (Who could also be a racy dude when called for!)
Mostly, I appreciate what he taught so well… The grand
S L O W D O W N
Both ends of life require the gift of slowing down for the threshold dance, right?
Ray taught us how to do that!
Thanks, Ray!
~Melinda
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Uplifting words thank you…I love those images of Rays of light coming down from the clouds with such intention to illuminate pathways for us who still have so much more of our positive lives to unfold.
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Thank you. Ray was a Ray of Light for me way back in time when I was steered to the spiritual path of Sant Mat. It was at what most would consider a difficult time in his life when his wife left him to pursue her dreams leaving Ray to raise their son. He was all of a sudden a single father. We used to take walks. Once we saw a Kaiser cement truck pass with the big drum turning and on it we read, “Find A Need And Fill It.” We laughed and laughed and laughed at that. Our lives went in different directions after that. But every time we saw each other, the last time being when the current Master visited Petaluma a short time ago, we hugged each other so tight and full of warmth and love, and then looked at each other and laughed and said completely in unison, “Find A Need And Fill it.” He sure did!
Sent from my iPhone
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