The Feminine Urge To Devour

I went to see the psychic man

Who told me to eat.

He said your body isn't strong enough

To carry the souls to earth

That are calling your name.

And he drew my hunger out of me

As I sat there like a pale shell

The hunger that says more, more, never enough

The devouring that stamps her feet for more love, more food, more pleasure.

That sends them away with their head low

Away from the cave of longing and endless depth.

The hunger I am scared to let loose

Incase I never stop.

Death and destruction and start again

Once a month.

Women can do that, you see,

We are used to tearing things down.

Turning the seeds of ideas into a river of blood.

It's rushing out of me through the dam they tried to build

Mother River

And She is Me.

- Jenny Wren

The Rosary

One of the most moving things I've ever seen was a grandma praying the rosary at a birth. In a way that I didn't yet understand, I knew I was in the presence of a sacred devotion.

I didn't have any idea that I would one day become a daily devotee of the rosary myself, that I would pray it silently at birth, beads slipping through my hands, weaving a web of love and protection.

My children know that after breakfast is done is mama's time for prayer. I sometimes pray in the evening too if I need to quiet my mind. Often a little person will stand behind me quietly waiting for a gap between the prayers, to ask a question, to ask for assistance. In this sense the rosary is a mother's spiritual practice - it is easily paused, set down, transported.

The rosary teaches us that joy, sorrow and glory go round in a circle, that we are held within this cycle always. It reminds us we are never alone. Marianne Williamson talks about God in her book "Return To Love", saying that when we are young we hate the idea of a higher power being in control, and as we mature we are relieved to find that it is so.

I will often send a quick prayer, a "Memorare", on request. I am in daily habit of handing things over and on dark days and light days the repetition and the habit are soothing to me.

I highly recommend the book "The Way Of The Rose" if you want to learn more about this ancient form of Goddess devotion.

May loving thoughts prevail always.

Love Jenny xxx

Love And Consciousness

My femininity

Is not a gift he gives to me.

It exists in the dance

Between Love and Consciousness

As I make my body softer, make my breaths slower

As I listen and move to my inner song.

There is a man who is as silent as a sunset

And I thought I needed all the words from him

Like so many men before-

"Can't live without you, can't bear the thought

Of not getting to touch you"

So desperate for sweet nothings

In place of a real something

(The truth, I am indescribable)

When what I needed was to be witnessed

So I could sink further into tenderness.

I am a tornado of wanting

I am a well of love

That will draw you into the deep

From which you drink and taste life.

- Jenny Wren