Never write poetry on a lazy summer morning. I was sitting in bed reading a good book, sipping tea, and enjoying some quiet relaxation. But eventually I couldn’t put it off any longer, and I knew that it was time to face the tasks at hand. As I was about to swing my feet over the bed to the floor, I glanced at my toes.
In a whimsical mood, I began to think how many places and miles these toes had been with me; how I had stubbed them countless times on furniture, or put them into poor-fitting shoes; how they had been there when I ran that marathon; and how they had quietly accompanied me on all of my life’s adventures. Then the poem came:
Always There
They come with me
Wherever I goes—
My toes.
It stays with me
Wherever I goes—
My nose.
But what if they chose—
My toes and my nose—
To make other plans for the day.
Without these faithful companions of mine,
I think I should lose my way.
Silly, right? Yet the more I thought about it, the more I saw that each and every part of the human body is a marvelous gift. Our versatile hands—that can cook meals, create paintings, plant flowers, fix broken doors, or soothe a sick child—reflect the divine intelligence of the Creator. Behind the eyes that see, the lungs that breathe, or the heart that pumps lies the sustaining presence of God.
Feel the One Divine Life that flows through us all.
How blind and foolish we are to think that it is we who perform all of these activities. Since I had entered into the realm of “poetry,” I looked for a poem by Master to instruct me:
Thou in Me
When I smile
Thou dost smile through me;
When I cry
In me Thou dost weep.
When I wake
Thou greetest me;
When I walk
Thou art with me.
Thou dost smile and weep, Thou dost wake and walk
Like me: my Likeness Thou.
But when I dream,
Thou art awake;
When I stumble,
Thou art sure;
When I die,
Thou art my life.
So today, try to feel that just beneath your sight and breath, it is God who is seeing and breathing. Just beneath the bird’s song or the trees swaying in the breeze, feel that it’s the One Divine Life that flows through us all.
With love and joy,
Nayaswami Devi
P.S. You may enjoy this print-ready version of Master’s poem, Thou in Me.
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26 Comments
Dear Deviji,
Thank you for drawing me in through the smiles and planting a deep and wonderful lesson in my heart!
I love both poems.
P.S. I hope “Always there” is added in as a nursery rhyme for all children to sing!
So utterly cute your poem Devi Ji. Love it and the moral behind it too. “reflect the divine intelligence of the Creator”…. beautiful and grateful to our Heavenly Father (esp these days I thank Him for the muscles too .. what an amazing creation). Prasanna is right.. you should put a tune to it and make it a lovely children’s song.
Dear Nayaswami Devi Ji,
Your poem is very sweet :-) Thank you for sharing it.
The last paragraph of the blog is very helpful advice.
In Master’s Love
Prem
La la la… Ooh la la
La la la… Ooh la la
Ananda time is Bliss
Make sure you don’t miss
With meditation to bless
And Without too much fuss
Take your eyes and noses
Your feet and your toes
A Creators gift so goes
Indeed to receive my amigos
:) my book on poetry, if you so choose to read is available on Amazon.com titled – A Sojourn with Poetry. And hope you’ll enjoy! ?
Thank you❤??
Lovely poems and beautiful article. Seems to me, the more we can appreciate ourselves and the wonder of how we are made, the more we would appreciate the Creator and vice versa.
Dear Deviji,
Thank you for this wonderful, lovely blog. How often I forget to care and tender my legs, feet, hands.. Expressing gratitude and the beautiful poems are so good.
Thank you ?
Love,
ilango
Love it, Deviji, thanks!
So beautiful and lighthearted dear Devi? I could see your smiling face writing the little poem??????♀️We are all Master’s and Swami’s devotee poets ?and our life is their wonderful melody ?
My heart is smiling. What a perfect way to start the day, with so much gratitude. ??
Thank you! A lovely sweet start to the day!
Wow, thank you, Devi! Great way to start my Friday!
beautiful !
Just what I needed to hear today. Thank you for your humor as well as the deep thoughts just behind
that humor. I will go through this day more conscious of God in everything. Bless you and Thanks!
Thank you Deviji. Two wonderful poems! “Always There” should be considered for entry into Whispers from Eternity as a special addition, I says :)
Thank you for sharing these words. This blog is a new addition to my life and these words reinforce the path I’m meandering down. Bless you and yours!
Blessings and gratitude dear soul. This blog is just what I need for my seclusion, starting today. Namaste
Beautiful poem. Every moment teaches the Grace of God when one sits and thinks. Everything is HIS blessings. Jai Guru
Must be some Jeeves and Wooster in there somewhere…
Thank you Devi!
Sweet and true! Thank you, blessings.
OMG!
How absolutely adorable you are!
Divine Mother in AWE,
Her spirit, as a child
gleefully giving
expressing as wild
flowers or butterflies
rainbows or rain
all Her gifts are around us
forget them not in vain
Thank you Deviji for this splendid moment of poetry and silliness!
Jai Guru!
Thank you SO much Davi, for this.
We take so much for granted, expecting things to go along smoothly, without giving thanks for the very vehicle that rides us across the road of life, called this body, and all its moving parts. Our society just wants to reach for a pill to cure all its ills. The magic pill is what happens to us in deep meditation. When that moment comes where we FEEL God’s presence, and the chill strikes the inner spine, and tears fill our eyes.
In our Divine Romance with God, we need to bring flowers and lay them at his feet to show our heartfelt appreciation. Then, the helping hand and gentle grace of Divine Mother will help us cross the waiting rivers that lay ahead.
In Masters Light! God bless.
Such simple truth put in such a jovial but meaningful manner …. thank you … regards and Good Day to you …Jai Gurudeva !
Dear Devi,
thank you so much for your “silly poem”. There is so much seriousness these days that silly poems show that things an be made lighter by such sweet lines.
Love to both of you ,dear old friends.
We are enjoying our life’s in His Joy.
Helmut and Mayadevi
This was very enjoyable! Not only is it light and delightful, but it shares the experience of a single flower of inspiration blossoming into a garden of gratitude. After thinking about it, I felt thankful for those parts of us said to be in the astral body — the *power* of sight, the *power* of locomotion, etc. — and others besides: the capacity of understanding, the sense of self that allows us to experience God’s play and make spiritual effort… there seems to be no limit to what we can be grateful for when our minds are turned in the right direction. Wow! Thank you for sharing this.
Thank you for the delightful poem, dear Devi! So fun and creative; I love it! It also reminds me of a poem I wrote in 7th grade which starts out, “What a privilege it is to be able to see…” and exuberantly expressed my adolescent appreciation for the wonderful gift of sight. I hope I can still find it somewhere. ?
Oops! This is Bhagavati. ?