Jay Woodman Quotes

I never think of myself as an attacker, only as a defender - usually of rights - mine and others.
Jay Woodman
I don't have to be safe to feel safe, I always feel safe at my core.
Jay Woodman
We are the wilderness withinScreaming out for true expression.Even when we’re sleeping,There’s no escape from this obsession.
Jay Woodman
be the calm eye of the storm where nothing phases you, focus on your centre to remain balanced, let your life flow like a stream of wind
Jay Woodman
Don't be afraid to be authentic, show up in the world as you truly are.Be as you mean to be, but be light with it. Love it, give it, share it, laugh at it, walk everywhere with it.Be in the world but not OF it.
Jay Woodman
Spiritual counselling is helping people find the deep root of stillness in themselves, which is also a connection to everything else.
Jay Woodman
Fly (poem from the book Blue Bridge)Delicate, / butterfly winged, / we vainly push against the sky, / each trying to find our place.Yes, we are going to die, / let's not beat about the bush. / Maybe today, maybe tomorrow, / maybe even years from now. Meanwhile, / we have someone who loves us, / someone to love. / Surely there is no need to hesitate.
Jay Woodman
Sometimes it's better to show our vulnerability / pain / regrets so others don't think us impervious / unapproachable - be real / open
Jay Woodman
I honour the clarity of the present moment, and the stillness at the centre of being (mine & others), even in the midst of so much doing.
Jay Woodman
Breathe in that vital connection to the life source and sensual beauty everywhere. Feel loved and strong.
Jay Woodman
just find your way, like a river settling into its bed, and the sigh of the wind over a lake, light but restful... content with the joy in the arc of an arm throwing a ball for a dog to fetch
Jay Woodman
.... just find your way, like a river settling into its bed, and the sigh of the wind over a lake, light but restful... content with the joy in the arc of an arm throwing a ball for a dog to fetch, the ease of the grassy slope stretching away, birds in the trees singing sweet high notes, flowers growing close in the ditch.
Jay Woodman
Every moment we are new and full of infinite possibility as we are part of ALL.
Jay Woodman
Personal truth differs from one person to the next, so how can truth itself be a constant? At least we can listen to each other in truth.
Jay Woodman
Chaos is peaceful when you stand quietly & watch - we are eternal observers, reflecting both tiny & vast, singing infinitely within.
Jay Woodman
The Holy Grail is within you – find your Inner Treasure
Jay Woodman
What if there is no such thing as other people's wrongness..... ?
Jay Woodman
I am permitted to travel in the corridor between sky and heather" from the poem "Beyond the Beacon" in TerraAffirmative
Jay Woodman
Breath (from the book Blue Bridge)Whispering to myselftWith every step I take,Trying out names, for I knowtThere is something yet to be called …..I know it, something up aheadtJust around the bendOr over the rise –tA bird taking to the skyFrom the edge of a jagged cliff – A bird floating outwardsIn silence ……. A silencetWaiting for a footstepTo crunch on stones,tFor a voice to fling upwardThrough sharp sunlighttWith a name…… callingBefore the bird could calltBefore the bird called.Oh the bird was there alrighttAnd sure it took flightWhen it heard me approachtBut it broke my heartWith a mighty croak!So I’m sitting here playingtWith a purple flowerSlender stem, no leavestPurple fizz –And it’s quiet again.tI am stillI am nothingtAnd the hillIs a long, long slopetDown, down, down to the seaFar below.I could rolltI could runI could screamtBut I am nothing.A cool wind blowstAnd the light is naked and namelessAnd the rocks are faces of angelstAnd the bird in the sky wheelsAnd cries to forget the earthtAnd its ancient bones –Oh, sensual pain –tWings…. Wings…. Wings,Singing wings.If only I could begin To describe the emptinessWhich fills me to the brimtWith new breathI might almost lose my nametAnd take instead a feather for my soul.
Jay Woodman
Feeling free of full & empty, feeling here but also there, Neither or but simply both, a universe within, one single stare.
Jay Woodman
Live in a cosmic ocean, singing sweet hallucinations, dreams of many worlds, all flowing into one.... inner / outer mirrored love.
Jay Woodman
Once you face the truth, the knowledge both empowers you and sets you free.
Jay Woodman
We are all 'right' if we are being truly ourselves.... that is the best we can be in each moment, until we learn more...
Jay Woodman
The world is full of confusion and contradiction. We cannot expect to do anything that is absolutely right. We can only measure rightness by the truth within ourselves. And our own truth will never be quite the same as somebody else's.
Jay Woodman
APPROACHRain is falling. Winter approaches. I drive towards it. In the slow rain. In the semi-darkness. Cello music is playing in the car. The deep sad sound of the cello. It almost swamps me. Routine endeavours to swamp me. The everyday paying of bills.But I paint men walking in a city of icebergs and crystal. Some of the icebergs are red. I paint a woman swimming in green wavy water. Surrounded by desert mesas. Bright orange in the sunlight. With darker orange for shadows. I paint two people. With purple and pink and yellow and blue circles overlapping the boundaries of their bodies. Dancing.Life is not ordinary. When I see you tonight I will press my lips to your eyelids. Each one in turn. I will rub my fingertips over the skin on the back of your hands and around your wrists. I will sigh. I will growl. I will whinny. I will gallop into your smile. One sharp foot after the other.
Jay Woodman
The world is full of lots of people play acting and hurling stuff about, unconscious of the effects. And there are large group karmic things going on through history that none of us should ever take personally. Rushing about trying to rectify the sins of the past is not productive. The best you can do is to be present as the new you in the now, holding your light as a steady candle to add to the beam of calm and love now spreading to help wake more and more people up. Hopefully we will evolve as a species to eventually cease the unnecessary conflict between different groups of ourselves.
Jay Woodman
Meltwater (from the book Blue Bridge)Up here. A faceLoses its linesI look to seeThe colour of your eyes …They have turnedTo water.I lean forwardTo catchThe scent of your hair –All I smell is heather.I touch your handAnd all I feel is earth and stones.There is nothing leftBut the hillside’s breastYour flesh and bonesHave vanished.
Jay Woodman
Each pain is Unbearable / yet TriflingSeeing the TRUTH is Excruciating / yet ExquisiteThrough Laugher & Tears / Grinning & Fear, we face our demons.
Jay Woodman
I was moved beyond words. The train ride over the mountains from lake Titticaca to Cusco reminded me of Africa where I grew up; and 4 days walking on the Inca Trail, then more in the jungle, just magnificent - time, space, and splendour. Our planet is superb!
Jay Woodman
CREEPOther people have written about war. About how one plane sweeps over and the whole place is ablaze in minutes. About how a young man may kill another young many with perfect legality. I prefer to write about less sudden things. About how we inch further away without even noticing. And then it's too late. Or is it? No it's not too late to say sorry, we were wrong, let's try again to get along. No, it's not too late to quit lying, halt the greed, stop polluting air earth and seas. I prefer to write about less noisy things. About change happening so gradually that one day you just accept the world as different. And you don't question because you're old, and you don't feel like making waves, and anyway, they'd say you were insane.......
Jay Woodman
I simply wish to continue to learn, & try to do what I have to do, better.
Jay Woodman
Being here to witness the beauty, to learn, to be astonished, to love - is enough. Being able to create in addition is a delightful honour.
Jay Woodman
I am so grateful to be here on this awesome planet with it's diverse life - everything we need to not just survive but to thrive. I am excited to continually learn more about it, and always curious to see what is going to come up next.
Jay Woodman
everybody needs help in some way, we are a community on earth, giving & receiving, ebbing & flowing, reflecting, even tough lessons can help
Jay Woodman
Even cats have questions – like “Can’t you see my bowl is empty?” or “Why don’t you turn off the ***! rain now?” From their perspective we are gods!
Jay Woodman
from RIVERMy body is filled with sand. The heavy grains flow from my eyes and seek somewhere to fall.Speak to me friends. Tell me I am free to go now, for I need to sit alone in the sun on the river bank, juggling pebbles.
Jay Woodman
There is so much to see and learn here that I often find I'm not blinking in case I miss anything. I have to use artificial tears to moisten my eyes.
Jay Woodman
Go lovingly into each moment and experience your infinite being as you truly are. Feel, learn, play!
Jay Woodman
We are angels just like the rest of our brothers and sisters.
Jay Woodman
Let us not take offence over small cheese, let things slide off when they don’t really matter, not take things personally, be free to make better use of our energy, to get on with something meaningful instead.
Jay Woodman
Instead of letting our emotions run amok with our minds, we can use our minds as tools that allow us to build realities that serve us better,and we attract what we are meant to attract because we are aware and self-empowered enough to choose most of the time.
Jay Woodman
Everything in balance, everything in moderation – try not to go over the top in any direction but be free to explore & enjoy. Live heart-fully.I’m a writer & philosopher, of course I have the right to invent words! I try not to do it carelessly, I only write what sounds and feels right.
Jay Woodman
from the prose poem "The Universe Thrums on regardless" in my book SPAN.We are almost nothing in the night. Reduced to warm blobs and the sound of breathing. There is comfort in that.
Jay Woodman
Don't be afraid. You are never really alone. Just be yourself. You don't ever have to pretend you are someone else. If you try to do that, then you don't have anything to give the world. Accept and give your gifts with love.
Jay Woodman
Life is a game and you are the player. As you master the game, so you also create it.
Jay Woodman
I let go of all that I had thought was wounded, for there is no ego to wound, no ego to hold on with; there is only love & freedom to love.
Jay Woodman
At work, or anywhere in life, people should be a team, working for the best of all, not protecting individual egos.
Jay Woodman
Grant me the wisdom to know when to keep trying and when to stop wasting time, the patience to keep going with the 1st, and the courage & serenity to let go of the 2nd.
Jay Woodman
from the Prize winning poem - UNBORN in the book Terra Affirmative."Under the surface / her body is curled, / seed of the one race, / shell of the world. // She is thw waterfall, / she is the womb, / she is the bubble, /she is the tomb. // Her hair flows upward, / blood red of the birth. / Her arms are folded / deep into the earth. // She is the fern, / she is the bark, / she is the lantern, / she is the dark. // Her eyes burn the flame / of the old and the young. / Her breath is the name / of each branch of each lung. // She is the ingredient. / She is the blend. / She is the beginning. / She is the end.
Jay Woodman
Let us not fear our wild thoughts for they can give rise to wondrous contemplation, creative endeavour, life changing ideas, momentous bliss.
Jay Woodman
Sing the world into existence…..
Jay Woodman
Find your truth and make your existence real as you choose it. Your creation is your own greatest gift. (Neings of Light via Joules)
Jay Woodman
We have to let go of mistakes we can no longer do anything about and move forward with clarity, focus on positivity.
Jay Woodman
Love yourself enough to give what matters every chance of working by communicating as well as you possibly can, and trying for as long as you wish.
Jay Woodman
Love ENDURES and works out ways of enduring the other stuff. As long as you can communicate you can work out issues, but good communication seems to be one of the weakest skills in human beings, so don't be afraid to try and try different ways of communicating, be patient. Don't be afraid of seeking help either - the chance to keep love alive is too important to let fear get in the way.
Jay Woodman
Cherish the others in your life. Cherish your freedom to be yourself. Cherish your freedom to choose who you want to be, what you want to do next.
Jay Woodman
Words to invoke peace & awareness. Words to create freedom and fairness. Words to plant sacred seeds. and sing us back into balance.
Jay Woodman
Everything I am seems to be inside my awareness, rather than my awareness being inside of me.
Jay Woodman
Cherish the fabulous, the fantastic, the beautiful, the graceful, the moments of abandon, laughter, quirkiness. Cherish the tiny incredible details, the gigantic & varied display, and the infinite depths - of life.
Jay Woodman
Thou shalt wear trousers, but they shall fall half down to teach humility over arrogance.
Jay Woodman