Welcome

Primitive religion is not believed, it is danced!

Arthur Darby Nock

Earth's crammed with heaven,
And every common bush afire with God;
And only he who sees takes off his shoes;
The rest sit round it and pluck blackberries.

Elizabeth Browning



Thursday, June 29, 2017

Looking through Sacred eyes

“It is an absolute human certainty that no one can know his own beauty or perceive a sense of his own worth until it has been reflected back to him in the mirror of another loving, caring human being.”
                                                          John Joseph Powell
____________________________________________

Looking in the mirror we see it all
The beauty perhaps

But it is most likely that we see
All the warts and wrinkles
The sagging chin

Every flaw jumps off the glass

And our eyes reflect back
All the emptiness and fear in our souls

Most of us (with rare exceptions) cannot appreciate ourselves
We are our own worst critics
And we cannot see our own beauty

But sometimes someone
Looks at us with the eyes of love
They see what is best

And they think we are wonderful
Beautiful

And we mostly believe it

And when that someone is God?

Ah

Wednesday, June 28, 2017

lost and found

“Most people felt lost after high school. Sometimes I felt like I'd never really been found in the first place.”
                              Lish McBride, Hold Me Closer, Necromancer
__________________________

In the dusty dying moments of a life
there are wonderings
an adding up of columns

debits and credits
doing the math

does it add up, this life?
have I made a difference for good,
or have I blundered through life,
like a drunken hit and run driver

doing more harm than good?

have I become what I was meant to be?
who was I meant to be?
do I even know?
what that true self looks like
plan A in the book of life?

have I followed my path
or merely let others determine who I am?

it is all a mystery
and perhaps that is the way it is meant to be
one day
one step at a time

left foot
right foot
left foot
breathe

being nudged by the Sacred

standing in the rain
saying
“here I am
in this moment

doing the best I can,
doing what I care about

not really lost,
just on the way


to somewhere

Tuesday, June 27, 2017

All roads lead to us

“When you fly across the country in an airplane the country seems vast; but it isn't vast. It's all connected by roads one can ride a bike down. If you watch the news and there's a tragedy at a house in Kansas, that guy's driveway connects with yours, and you'd be surprised by how few roads it takes to get there.”
                             Donald Miller, A Million Miles in a Thousand Years
___________________

like it or not
we are all connected

like it or not when something happens to one
it happens to all

when a person gets shot in Virginia
the road to that baseball field
leads to the end of my driveway

when a person loses their insurance
my well insured life is left more vulnerable

when someone is angry
it hurts us all
when one is joyful
we are all to rejoice

it has been said many ways
no one is an island
we are family
we are the body of Christ

and so we must speak with care
act with care

when there is a tear in the fabric
we cannot widen the wound
we cannot make it deeper

for our own benefit
the pain of the family
cannot be exploited

instead we must treat this “body” gently
we must treasure this family
no member is expendable
not the crazy Uncle
not the cruel father (or politician)
not the inebriated cousin

not the poor
the hungry
the naked
the imprisoned
the oppressed
the minimized

we must what we can
as best we can

for we are all connected
all roads
lead

home

Monday, June 26, 2017

Hate is so convenient

“...I want my spirituality to rid me of hate, not give me reason for it.”
― Donald Miller, Blue Like Jazz: Nonreligious Thoughts on Christian Spirituality
________________________


oh
no, no, no, no, no

hate is so convenient
I can hate people who area different creed
I can hate people whose words are different
whose skin is different
whose way of thinking is different

and thus I protect myself
for “they” are clearly
out
and I am clearly
in

if I don’t want to hate
I can hate the haters
and convince myself of my own spirituality

oh
no, no, no, no

it doesn’t work that way
my hate is not different from their hate
hate is still hate

and it still destroys
it still feeds upon itself

and yet
there are this injustice
there are these lies
there is the choice to value money and devalue people

and I don’t know what to do
with those
responsible

how can my spirituality empty me of anger, disgust
how did Jesus stumble painfully to the cross
battered and covered with spit
and say

father forgive them
they know not what they do

today you will be with me
in

paradise

life can be deadly

“I once listened to an Indian on television say that God was in the wind and the water, and I wondered at how beautiful that was because it meant you could swim in Him or have Him brush your face in a breeze.”
         Donald Miller, Blue Like Jazz: Nonreligious Thoughts on Christian Spirituality
___________________________________

life can be deadly
day in and day out
life dictated by a scheduler

encounters in which nothing
(or little) happens
A mind disengaged
A heart disengaged

Putting in time
Finger on the time clock
In
Finger on the time clock
Out

and yet there is the mountain
fresh with snow
and the wind
scented through the firs
and the sunset
Sacred grandeur

Ah!
For those moments which God
Caresses our eyes, our nose
Our face
Our heart

Life
Restored


Friday, June 23, 2017

Many kinds of death

“When the star dies,
Its eye closes; tired of watching,
It flies back to its first bright dream.”
                                           Dejan Stojanovic
---------------------------------------------------------

there are many kinds of death
deaths that are as final a death
deaths that sneak into existence
killing you without
a clue

the death of innocence
and dreams
where what you assumed
proves false
and the destination you anticipated
becomes unreachable

I sit on the porch
on a cool day
watching the mountain disappear
behind the clouds

and realize that this is not
what I expected of life

it is better
it is worse
it is fulfilling
it is disappointing

sometimes I strain to see the mountain
hidden there
and strain to see
what has been and what will be

I put one foot in front of the other
But some days
I am tired
And my eyes can no longer seek
And they close

A little death
As dreams fade
Shattering

With luck
With time
New dreams
Will come

Or not

Wednesday, June 21, 2017

Staring into Space

“In an age of hope men looked up at the night sky and saw “the heavens." In an age of hopelessness they call it simply “space.”
                                                                         Peter Kreeft
___________________________________________

Sometimes,
he thought
we simply lose the mystery

she becomes not love, or passion
not a beautiful things whose depths hold
treasures

but merely a lover, a wife
someone who secrets we no longer seek

each day becomes
merely routine
boxes on a calendar to be marked off
endlessly

the sun rise is merely the sunrise
it just comes, and comes again
and then goes
gold to gray

and life, well life
is no longer about wonder
and dreams
no longer about love
but about responsibility, and pain
and angst

and we grow tired
and we no longer gaze into the heavens
but stare heavily

into space

Monday, June 19, 2017

Slow Down

You may have seen the bumper sticker that says, "If you lived in your heart, you'd be home now." Now normally, little bumper stick thoughts, especially spoken to me as wise spiritual advice, enrage me. I listen nicely, while fantasizing about poking a fork into the person's head, like a baked potato. But whenever I see this bumper sticker, it spritzes me into hope. It reminds me that there is a place in me that is warm and safe and gentle, unlike my usual pinball mind explosion of fear, judgment, doom, blame, and corrective thoughts on how other people should behave better, and a structured plan for how they can begin to do that.
                                                                                      Anne Lamott
___________________________________________________

Sometimes we just need to slow down,
Take a few breaths
And settling into our hearts

Snuggling down deep into the fabric of our being
Much like we snuggle down in our favorite chair
With a good book

This is the place God lives
This is the warm and safe place
This is where
Everything quiets

All the fear,
All the anxiety

This is where I can hear
More than my own voice
More than the voice of that bully who lives in my brain
More than the voices of my critics

Here in this still place
I can hear God

Gently whispering in my ear


“I love you”

Sunday, June 18, 2017

Beatitude people

If we do not transform our pain, we will most assuredly transmit it." —Richard Rohr.
_____________

The images flutter on the TV screen
Websites throw headlines in our faces
Designed to shock, and even mislead

We look around us and see anger and bitterness
We hear people who should know better ridicule an aging Senator
Who deserves better

We witness violence in our streets
Violence in our homes
We hear people once friends eviscerate each other

This is America
This is the World

Trump, ISIS
Turkey
Terror in London

It takes its toll
Unless we disassociate our selves
It hits us where it hurts
Not our in pocketbooks
But in our souls

We not only carry love in our hearts
We carry pain as well

And pain like love must be expressed
Love trapped, dies
Pain trapped grows

And if we do not find a way to transform it
Into compassion, forgiveness generosity

It becomes the gift that keeps on giving
And pain begets pain
Violence, violence
Hate, hate

This the is the Good News
When the Sacred is awake
And prowling through our souls
Pain is transformed

And we become,
Beatitude People

“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
“Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.
“Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.
“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.
“Blessed are the merciful, for they will receive mercy.
“Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.
“Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.
“Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

We have a choice
To nurture pain and be part of the problem

Or to transform pain
And be part of the solution


What is it going to be?

Saturday, June 17, 2017

Asking the right Questions

“Why do you pray?" he asked me, after a moment.

Why did I pray? A strange question. Why did I live? Why did I breathe?

"I don't know why," I said, even more disturbed and ill at ease. "I don't know why."

After that day I saw him often. He explained to me with great insistence that every question possessed a power that did not lie in the answer. "Man raises himself toward God by the questions he asks Him," he was fond of repeating. "That is the true dialogue. Man questions God and God answers. But we don't understand His answers. We can't understand them. Because they come from the depths of the soul, and they stay there until death. You will find the true answers, Eliezer, only within yourself!"

"And why do you pray, Moshe?" I asked him. "I pray to the God within me that He will give me the strength to ask Him the right questions.”
                                                                                      Elie Wiesel, Night
__________________________________________________________

I ask a lot of questions
A lot
Of
Questions

I am not sure they are the right questions
I am not sure I hear the answers

Or perhaps I hear them, and simply don’t understand

That is just the way life is
Why do bad things happen?
Why do leaders lie (when they don’t have to)?
Why are we so addicted to power?
How can people justify their mistreatment of the vulnerable
Why can’t I be the person I want?
Where or where is love?

I wish I knew the right questions
I wish I could find that inner place
Where the answers live

For in those questions
And in those answers
In that dialog with the Sacred
I will find
Myself
I will find
Love
I will find
God

And perhaps I will finally know
How to be in this world
As a sacred
child



Friday, June 16, 2017

community

“Joy multiplies when it is shared among friends, but grief diminishes with every division. That is life.”
                                                           R.A. Salvatore, Exile
___________________

we are in this together
souls bound by Sacred Presence

love holding hands

connected, woven into a Sacred fabric
we call community

there are many kinds of communities
families
work places
churches
mosques
synagogues
the local bar
the local play ground

how you know you are in a real community
and truly among friends
is that when you share a joy, your joy explodes and dances
from person to person, growing strong with the laughter
and the shouts of joy

when you share your grief
it gets lighter
with every touch of the hand
every tear

every murmured prayer 

Thursday, June 15, 2017

Creeping into God

“Just as in earthly life lovers long for the moment when they are able to breath forth their love for each other, to let their souls blend in a soft whisper, so the mystic longs for the moment when in prayer he can, as it were, creep into God”
                                                                                                      Søren Kierkegaard
____________________________________________

for all our talking
and all our reading

all our philosophizing
and all our theologized

for all the debates and dialogs we have inside our heads
and have outside our heads

the reality is that the reality of God
must be experienced
if we do not have that moment

when, like the lover who realizes he or she is in love

when we “creep into God”
and find our place there
or perhaps creep into the place
inside ourselves where God dwells
and find the Sacred there

and like a dog seeking
warmth, affection, and acceptance from its master

burrow up against the presence

we will never get it
and all the thinking, reading and debating
will take us not into truth
but into untruth

and love will become judgement
and grace will become law
and the living Word will become dead words on a page

and faith will become dogma
purity of heart is to will one thing (Soren Kierkegaard)
to draw near to God
and to allow God to draw near to us

faith is the intimacy of lovers
if it is not that

it is not faith

Tuesday, June 13, 2017

Don't lose the passion

“It's better to get lost in the passion than to lose the passion”
                                                           Søren Kierkegaard
___________________________

How much do we love the Sacred?
How much do we love the earth?
How much do we love our neighbor?
Our lover?

It is so easy to become careless
For life to become lost in the living
And love to be lost in the loving

We cannot lose our passion for the Sacred
We cannot lose our passion
For all good things

For when passion dies
We become those who seek what we have lost
In things that cannot give us what we seek

Money
Power

We seek them
We will do anything for wealth
Anything for power

But we end up
Lost

Pouting
Angry
Mean
Brutal

We have traded in life for a counterfeit
And no degree of power, no amount of wealth will work
We can even become President, and we will still be empty shells

For when our hearts harden
And passion for God, and others dies


We die too

no options

“If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor. If an elephant has its foot on the tail of a mouse, and you say that you are neutral, the mouse will not appreciate your neutrality.”
                                                                                       Desmond Tutu
__________________________

It is an unassailable fact
The vulnerable in our nation are being bullied

They are being shamed
Guilted
And abandoned

They are being told they are worthless
They are being guilted
Shamed

Their souls are being sold
For pieces of silver
For tax cuts for those
Already obscenely wealthy

They are seeing safety and possibility
Legislated away by people who, for whatever reason, fear or hate them

Even the earth is under attack
By those who value money over life

Those that see it cannot remain neutral
We cannot stand by and say “let us see how it works out”

We must respond
We must act
It is not an option

When Jesus was asked to say what living a sacred / spiritual life looks like he said,
It looks like feeding the hungry
Helping the poor
Protecting the stranger
Clothing the naked
And fighting for justice

And he left no room for prevarication
No room for lies
No room for empty brags
No room for meaningless disjointed blather

He told us what do
We must do it!



Sunday, June 11, 2017

Silence

“The present state of the world and the whole of life is diseased. If I were a doctor and were asked for my advice, I should reply, 'Create silence'.”
                                                           Søren Kierkegaard
_________________________________________________

So many people talking
Blogging
Posting

So much noise

Some of it is profound
Most of it is reactionary, impulsive

It is lies compounding lies
Misconceptions compounding misconceptions
Misunderstanding compounding misunderstand

We are witty
Stupid
Cruel
Trite

Sometimes

It seems

we would do better to
stop
breathe
think

and then perhaps
say nothing at all

but ponder these things in our hearts

Friday, June 9, 2017

Selfishness

“We all of us need to be toppled off the throne of self, my dear," he said. "Perched up there the tears of others are never upon our own cheek.”
                                                           Elizabeth Goudge, The White Witch
________________________________________________________

ah my friends
it is all about “I”
so find your throne and perch on it!

the grab what you want
after all you are the king
you are the queen

and it is all about you

you having power
you having wealth
you having safety

it matters not if what you want has a cost
a planet for a little more profit in the American economy
no problem

cutting health care so that one might have
a few more dollars in one’s account
acceptable

destroying education
neglecting children
abandoning the poor
is merely collateral damage
as one pursues essential selfishness.

sitting, perched on thrones of essential selfishness
there are no tears
there is no remorse

and the tears of the failing earth
the hungry child
the homeless person with bipolar

are never even seen



Thursday, June 8, 2017

Beatitude People

If we do not transform our pain, we will most assuredly transmit it." —Richard Rohr.
_____________

The images flutter on the TV screen
Websites throw headlines in our faces
Designed to shock, and even mislead

We look around us and see anger and bitterness
We hear people who should know better ridicule an aging Senator
Who deserves better

We witness violence in our streets
Violence in our homes
We hear people once friends eviscerate each other

This is America
This is the World

Trump, ISIS
Turkey
Terror in London

It takes its toll
Unless we disassociate our selves
It hits us where it hurts
Not our in pocketbooks
But in our souls

We not only carry love in our hearts
We carry pain as well

And pain like love must be expressed
Love trapped, dies
Pain trapped grows

And if we do not find a way to transform it
Into compassion, forgiveness generosity

It becomes the gift that keeps on giving
And pain begets pain
Violence, violence
Hate, hate

This the is the Good News
When the Sacred is awake
And prowling through our souls
Pain is transformed

And we become,
Beatitude People

“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
“Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.
“Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.
“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.
“Blessed are the merciful, for they will receive mercy.
“Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.
“Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.
“Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

We have a choice
To nurture pain and be part of the problem

Or to transform pain
And be part of the solution


What is it going to be?

enoughness

According to Richard Rohr, via St. Francis, the way of Jesus “asks us to let go, to recognize that there is enough to go around and meet everyone’s need but not everyone’s greed. A worldview of enoughness will predictably emerge in an individual as they move toward naked being instead of thinking that more of anything or more frenetic doing can fill up our longing and restlessness…  This is hard for most of us to even comprehend…  Francis knew that climbing ladders to nowhere would never make us happy nor create peace and justice on this earth. Too many have to stay at the bottom of the ladder so we can be at the top.
__________________________________________

we have it so very wrong
we who make it all about “me” as the individual
my wealth
my power
my safety

we have it so very wrong
we who that that it is all about the individual
and that life is a contest
in which some win and some lose

the winners are worthy
and the losers?
well they are a waste of space

we have it so very wrong, thinking that
gathering to ourselves as much power, as much wealth as possible
is an appropriate goal

and that it matters very little how you get there
as long as you do

we have it wrong, thinking that it is OK to leave others behind
that we might get ahead
that it is OK to climb to success over the bodies of others
that it is acceptable and to use and abuse others if I gets us what we want

this has left us with people who are so rich
they could not spend all they have, ever
while other people live in poverty

but its OK, really, because clearly the rich are worthy
people blest by God, people who have earned their reward
while the poor, they are simply losers
not worthy of healthcare, or food stamps, or and education

we have not learned that safety comes
when everyone has what they need
we have not learned that safety comes from being connected
not from excluding and minimizing

we have not learned that unless we all get there, together
we have failed
because we are in this together
and there is enough for everyone’s needs
if not for everyone’s greed

we have not learned that accumulation leads
only to more hunger
and to fear

that our relationship to power and wealth is addictive
and will ultimately
only destroy


we have it so wrong

Wednesday, June 7, 2017

Remember who you are

“God creates out of nothing. Wonderful you say. Yes, to be sure, but he does what is still more wonderful: he makes saints out of sinners.”
                                                           Søren Kierkegaard, The Journals of Kierkegaard
_____________________________________

What is god about?
God is not so much about making saints out of sinner
(sorry Soren)

As God is about helping saints remember they are saints
And empowering them to live out their sainthood

God created us good
Full of potential, fire, love, hope, generosity, compassion

It is all in there, until seduced by power, and wealth
And the need for more, and more, and more

We eat the forbidden fruit
And lose our knowledge of good and exchange it
For what is fundamentally unnatural

Greed, fear, hate, anger, loathing, cruelty, apathy.

When we lose touch with ourselves
We take away healthcare from the poor
And make everyone not like “us” an enemy
We wrap cruelty in a lie

But Sacred presence can remind us
who we are


Tuesday, June 6, 2017

gratitude

“How did I get into the world? Why was I not asked about it and why was I not informed of the rules and regulations but just thrust into the ranks as if I had been bought by a peddling shanghaier of human beings? How did I get involved in this big enterprise called actuality? Why should I be involved? Isn't it a matter of choice? And if I am compelled to be involved, where is the manager—I have something to say about this. Is there no manager? To whom shall I make my complaint?”
                                                                         Søren Kierkegaard
________________________________________________

It seems so unfair
That I should be so blessed
Growing up affluent, white, male
Relatively bright
Eventually somewhat handsome

A good education
No, a great education
Whitman, Princeton, SFTS

So many privileges

I have it all, and yet
Life does not always come together
It feels like Ikea without instructions
A jumble of things that don’t quite go together

And then I look around me
At people whose parents told them horrible things
Or abused them

At people who have never known anything but poverty
And who could not find a way
To get an education

Some of them are badly damaged indeed
But some of them, are happy
Content
Loved and loving

Perhaps it is a matter of choice at some level
One chooses to be unhappy
Always looking for bigger, better, more
One can go for life pushing, grabbing, seeking, lusting

Or one can choose to accept life as it comes
Expecting love, looking for love, and
Surprise,
Finding it

Looking for what is best in a situation or
Even a person

And finding it

Perhaps one can go to the manager (who just might be God)
With gratitude
Rather than grievance

And maybe one can find a way
To be happy
To be
here