Short life poems based on Cynthia Bourgeault’s teachings. The first is grounded in the everyday practice of love. The second is based on the cosmological teachings of Boehme, Teilhard, and Gurdjieff.

Love’s Yielding Gesture

This motion lives in my first breath:
Love has me—I do not have it.
Love moves, and I consent.

I give the only gift I have: myself. 
I make a binding pledge of “we.”

I pour myself out,
until there is only pouring.

I practice the gesture:
opening, softening, yielding. 

Love remains after any loss.
I find the place where I am gathered,
okay, at rest.

Coming close to the origin of all being,
I become a gesture of freedom.

— William Britten

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Conscious Love: a Morning Intention

I meet this day 
in the fire that comes 
from knowing I am held.

I call forth spaciousness in others,
freedom meeting freedom. 

I give everything today 
and expect nothing back.

I trust the paradox:
the deeper we burn,
the more ourselves we become.

May this day’s encounters,
small and ordinary,
carry the infinite between us.

— William Britten

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Read the Impression on the Everyday Practice of Love

Read the Impression on the Energy of Love.

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