Hi there. My name is Kathy A. J.
Hardy
and I come from Mission, British Columbia, Canada.
This is a series
called Soul Care Conversations.
This podcast began with host Roy Salmon
with 4 episodes, and I'm continuing on
with conversations
with people that work with me with Soul
Care, people that have participated
in the work of Soul Care and stories,
songs,
and poetry
writings from my own life.
It's been an unexpected journey that I'm able
to share
through writing and music
what's happened over the last couple decades of
my life.
But in this
episode, I want to share a poem with
you called prayer of aligning with love.
It's found in the book, love breathes with
me, the first little published book I did.
And so I wanna tell you a little
story about that.
I was
raising funds for one of the albums that
I was doing.
And so I did a Kickstarter
and I thought, what can I give in
response to people
that are supporting me in my musical endeavor?
And so I decided to
collect
some of the poems from my journals
from the previous years.
And one of the
the poems prayers that
I had written,
I had actually etched in my bathroom wall
with permanent marker
as a way to
remind me every day of what to think
about.
My friends laughed at me and said, this
is not so good for the resale value
of your home
to write something in permanent marker on your
bathroom wall.
But at that moment, I thought, well, what's
more important? My mental health
or the resale value of my home.
So
I kept it there.
And
this prayer, which is,
I've used in many retreats
and,
it it became something
powerful for me to meditate on every single
day.
We go to the bathroom every day, brush
our teeth every day,
and so it was staring at me all
the time,
and it reminded me, and I think we
need
reminders. I need reminders.
There are so many things that
one spiritual director, she called it being hooked
out of ourselves,
Doreen Kostianuk,
who you will hear about many times in
this
podcast series,
brought to me many,
many images and messages
on how to care for my soul.
And one of those was to notice when
I'm being hooked out of myself.
I speak more about this in
the,
the book walk with me,
but one of the things that
I began to notice was, oh, I'm spiraling.
Oh, I'm ruminating.
Oh, I'm being hooked out of myself.
And so a prayer like this would
allow me to return,
and I think we need practices that help
us return to a place where we're rooted,
where we're grounded, where we remember,
how it is to stand
in ourselves,
stand in what is true,
instead of being looped out into a spiral
that brings us into a place of reactivity,
a lot of times self doubt or overcompensating,
over functioning.
So this is a prayer called prayer
of aligning
with love,
and here it is.
May my bones
shine
with the radiance of the presence of love.
May my heart beat
with the joy of knowing my intrinsic
value.
May my mind be filled with thoughts and
intentions rooted in the Creator's love for me.
May my longings align with love's longings.
May my feet be carried
to where I need to be.
May my eyes behold beauty.
May my mouth
speak truth.
May my hands be open and receptive
to all love longs to give.
May my hands offer blessing to all they
touch.
May I move out of love's response
rather than fear's reaction?
May I be energized
by love?
May I receive
forgiveness and compassion?
May I offer forgiveness
and compassion?
May I receive grace and mercy?
May I offer
grace and mercy?
May I receive the gaze of love?
May I become the reflection of the gaze
of love?
May I become
the radiance
of the presence
of love?
So I wanna take a few moments just
to share
a bit about
some of these lines.
We'll start with the first three lines, may
my bones
shine with the radiance
of the presence of love.
It's quite remarkable to meet a person
who is radiant,
and that's pretty rare these days.
I noticed that a lot of people have
a bit of a dull look on their
face or
defensive
reactive,
but radiance comes from within.
Radiance is,
I believe,
part of our essence of what
we're meant to be like to radiate
there's
light that's within us.
We
are created with this incredibly
beautiful
soul.
And when that soul awakens
to
to being recognized,
it it shines like light.
I remember when I was teaching music,
and one of the things that
someone had told me that, you know, that
you're connecting with a child when their eyes
begin
to shine.
And,
and so it was something I always looked,
I've always looked for.
When are the eyes
shining?
Well, often it become they, they begin to
shine when there's a,
there's a sense of being recognized,
being a sense of
valued,
known,
cherished,
seen,
validated.
We're often looking outwardly for those things,
And when we can know an internal
place within ourselves, the sanctuary of the heart,
where we know how valuable our lives are,
I believe that there
emerges
a radiance,
a sense of home that lives within a
person that begins to shine from the face.
And it's so powerful.
This is something that I so desperately needed
in my own life
is to learn
that sense of belonging,
belonging to the divine,
belonging within
that my life was significant.
May my bones shine with the radiance
of the presence of love.
One could just meditate on this one line
and allow it to work itself into one's
being.
The second line is made my heart beat
with the joy of knowing my intrinsic value.
This is similar in that
the very pulse of my heart
can know joy
when I know my value
from within,
not looking
at another
for recognition,
but knowing it from a deep, deep place.
And the third line is may my mind
be filled with thoughts and intentions rooted in
the creator's love for me.
It's interesting as I spend time listening to
people,
a lot of people have a sense of
spirituality
about them,
but those that come from a deeply religious
background often have a distorted view
of how the divine,
God, or whatever word you might use,
might view them, and often it's not very
loving,
not very kind.
And so there's a sense of the
image of the divine as being
judgmental, even if there's lip service to a
loving God,
there's a sense of judgment.
And so
how can we trust
this
unseen loving force
if we're somewhat
concerned
and defensive?
It's incredible to think
and to ponder the possibility.
What if,
what if, and this is a question I'd
love to leave with you. What if
the intentions rooted
in the creator's love
is good?
What if there's goodness intended
for your life?
And if you just hold that as a
possibility,
it could open up something very precious within
you.
I believe
there is goodness
intended
for you
and that your life
is here for a reason.
My name is Kathy Hardy.
I'm on a soul journey.
I'm a pilgrim
on this earth just like you.
I have a lot more questions than answers,
but I look forward to sharing more
in the days ahead.
Thanks for listening.
I'll close with sharing a portion of a
song
from the album I am she, a soul's
journey home,
And this song is called my bones will
shine.
Thank you, and blessings on your day.
Me,
and I will
walk again.
Tell me
once again
how your
heart
will shine.
To know more about the work of soul
care,
spiritual direction, spiritual direction training, retreats,
music, books,
please go to kathyajhardy.comor
soulcare.ca.