I recently had a vision in that space between awake and asleep. It was raining outside, the first rain of the season and I wasn't sleeping. I imagined I was a drop of rain running down the window, dripping onto the ground, sinking into the earth and filtering ever downward across the hilly landscape until I arrived at the stream.
Love is gentle and kind
nurturing and supportive
Love is boundaries
and discipline
and loving expectations
Love is forgiving
Love is being willing
to know the story
underneath the story
Love is understanding
Love is partnership
and limits and compromise
Love is its own force
sometimes carrying us to places
we never knew existed
Love is complicated
Love is a choice and a commitment
Love, lasting love, changes you
burns away selfishness
requires surrender to something greater
Love creates its own space
Holy is snuggling into my husband's back as he stirs something on the stove.
Holy is looking into the eyes of Cheyenne, our miniature dachshund. Pure love and adoration shining back.
Holy is holding my mom's hand. It's soft and warm as she talks about dying and her desires. She's letting go. I'm holding on. Her hand, so warm.
Holy is standing on the deck and having a hawk flying circles above, break out and dive directly towards me as it lets out its cry.
Holy is the early morning light, wiping out the darkness, foreshadowing the rising of the sun.
Surrender
to the silence
the urge to rest
quiet the mind
release the tension
simply be
allow the cool waters
to flush you clean
warm your bones
by the fire
let the winter winds
blow away your struggles
sink your mind
deep into the earth
breathe into it
sending tendrils
of rootedness
deep, deep, deep
into Mother Earth
ground into this moment
rest now beloved one
allow the inner workings
of your mind to settle
it's winter
time to rest
let your self lie fallow
until the spring sun
“We have to consciously study how to be tender with each other until it becomes a habit.”
—Audre Lorde
Remember me
The one as close as your breath
The one who can soothe and
bring those shoulders down from your ears
I will always love you
I will release the tension in your chest
I will help you sleep
when your eyes will not shut
I will heal your heart
if you will let me work my way through it
Sometimes my ways
may seem painful
challenging
unwarranted
but the journey
is always worth it in the end
Come, follow me
down the trail of life
down the trail of your beingness
I will lead you unto yourself
I once attended a personal growth seminar where we did an exercise. Everyone was seated on the floor with eyes closed and hands moving together and then apart. Back and forth, back and forth. Hands together, hands apart. Pretty soon, people started making up stories in their heads about what the exercise was supposed to be about and started trying to control the experience, perhaps taking someone else's hand or singing a song. The facilitators would quiet any noise but otherwise, let the exercise go on.
Guide my feet to walk the path you lay down before me
Teach my hands to offer love and healing to whatever I touch
Teach my eyes to see you in all of creation
Guide my ears to hear the songs of nature and the words, and what is behind the words, of my sisters and brothers
Teach my heart to feel love and not take offense to the words or actions of others, but to feel the pain underlying such actions
Help my voice to sing my song
Thank you for all the beauty you have placed in my life
Thank you for this day
We watched the movie, Evan Almighty last evening. It's a bit of a quirky movie but with a great message and certainly feel good viewing. Evan Baxter played by Steve Carell runs for Congress on a platform of "Change the World". After he wins, God, played by Morgan Freeman asks Evan to build an ark.
I was recently reminded of an event that happened a number of years ago...
I was a single mom at the time and both my washing machine and my car were broken down. One Sunday we had a guest speaker at church by the name of Barbara King. Reverend King was from Atlanta Georgia, stood well over six feet tall and had a powerful presence. She involved the congregation in her sermon and one of the phrases she had us repeat was, "Nothing is ever lost in God."