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



Saturday, March 31, 2018

Saturday


Riotous summer is long gone
brilliant yellows and red
bright greens
faded
into the muted tones of fall
and then
deeper still into the grey and brown
of winter

a death

spring lies in a tomb
of frozen earth underneath the trees
reluctantly thawing and softening
giving hope that it will yield
and life will again emerge
from dark
dirt

and so we wait
and wait
for the tomb to crack open
and a gentle green
piece of life
to push its way into the cool clean air

Holy Saturday
the vitality of one
fully sacred
fully human
is gone
brutally killed for being love and reconciliation
in a world of hate a violence

gone is the man
entombed in stony darkness
and yet
hearts are reluctantly thawing and softening
hoping

that the tomb will crack open
and love and life
will flow again
into waiting hearts

and so this day
we wait
we wait


Thursday, March 29, 2018

No spectators allowed


Don't just learn, experience.
Don't just read, absorb.
Don't just change, transform.
Don't just relate, advocate.
Don't just promise, prove.
Don't just criticize, encourage.
Don't just think, ponder.
Don't just take, give.
Don't just see, feel.
Don’t just dream, do.
Don't just hear, listen.
Don't just talk, act.
Don't just tell, show.
Don't just exist, live.”
              Roy T. Bennett, The Light in the Heart
_____________________________________

It is easy to go through life, just going through the motions
Being a human doing, and not a human being

We often are the “hit and run drivers” of the universe
Careening throughout day
Without engaging

We are not touched
By the sky
The sunrise
By the person in front of us

We are observers of life
Detached
A half a step outside
The world

Perhaps
If we want to transform the world
(I certainly do)
We cannot be spectators

Yes, life is messy
Situations and relationships
Are messy

But I suspect that just as the Sacred is woven into the mess
(think incarnation if you will)
We are to be participate in the mess

We cannot run away from our garbage
We cannot run away from other people's junk.
People are dealing with pain, hurt, and difficulty all around us.

We cannot touch this pain from a distance
We cannot love from a distance.

We must get our hands
And our hearts
Dirty

And listen, even when it’s hard
See, when we don’t want to
Feel, even when it hurts

There is love
To be done




Wednesday, March 28, 2018

Lightness


And
For no reason
I start skipping like a child.

And
For no reason
I turn into a leaf
That is carried so high
I kiss the Sun's mouth
And dissolve.

And
For no reason
A thousand birds
Choose my head for a conference table,
Start passing their
Cups of wine
And their wild songbooks all around.

And
For every reason in existence
I begin to eternally,
To eternally laugh and love!

When I turn into a leaf
And start dancing,
I run to kiss our beautiful Friend
And I dissolve in the Truth
That I Am.
Hafiz
__________________________

It seems
I have to have a reason
To be happy

It seems I have to have a reason
To be content
With who I am

Wealth
Power
Success
Titles
Love
Intimacy
Adoration

Bring it on

All those provisos
With which I must surround myself
In order to lift my head
And crow

“I am King of the World!”
Or perhaps
Merely
“I am OK”

So much energy goes into collecting
Grasping
Fusing
With these things

And they are
So
Heavy

So burdened one simply cannot dance
And yet life is the dance

Ah
May I find lightness
And walk with the unencumbered
Step of a child

May I be so buoyant
That I rise
Lost in the unfathomable sky

Lost in the greatness of it all
Lost in the greatness of the Sacred
So lost
That I am found



Tuesday, March 27, 2018

Acceptance and Commitment


“A man is a success if he gets up in the morning and gets to bed at night,
and in between he does what he wants to do.”
                                            Bob Dylan
______________________________________

Here I am
Now
Noticing what I am thinking
Accepting what I am feeling
And doing what I care about,
Anyway

Living in the moment
Not fused to the past
Not fearful of the future

But just being where one is, in the moment
Noticing the person in front of you
Feeling the warmth of the sun
Being awed by the clouds

Accepting that life is full of all kinds of
Joy
And all kinds of pain
Embracing the feelings that come
Without judgement

Saying
“I am having a human experience”

And then
Focused on one’s values
On what is important

On love, and service
On the things that make a difference in people’s live

And living towards one’s values
Doing one act
And then another,
And another

That takes one toward those values

Doing the thing one wants to do
That is how
One finds some peace
At the end of the day

That is how one falls asleep
With
A
Smile


Monday, March 26, 2018

new eyes


“The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes, but in having new eyes.”
                                                                        Marcel Proust
______________________________

There are those moments
In the midst of an ordinary day
While in the ordinary places
Surrounded by the ordinary people

That our lives are changed
Something changes
Deep down at the center of who we are

In that Holy place
Where the Sacred dwells

Nothing has changed
Yet everything has changed
For good or for ill

And in an instant
Or perhaps two
The world is different
The sky is bluer, or grayer
Our heart expands or shrinks

And we see
With eyes physical
With eyes spiritual

The world differently
Others differently
Ourselves differently

There are times when I pray for new eyes
That I might see that person in the mirror with eyes of love
That person whom I hate (yes I admit it)
Yes that one who acts in ways I despise
That one who hurts and wounds, with eyes of compassion

So that I might see not the flaws but the beauty
Not the deficits, but the potential

And gaze into the future with expectation not fear
May I wake some morning
Perhaps not this morning
But some morning

and find the world a place
Not filled with evil
But filled with the Presence of the Sacred

And see the sun
As angel fire

Sunday, March 25, 2018

Cracked


May the blessing of light be upon you,
Light on the outside, Light on the inside.

With God's sunlight shining on you,
May your heart glow with warmth,  Like a turf fire
that welcomes friends and strangers alike.

May the light of the Lord shine from your eyes,
Like a candle in the window,  Welcoming the weary traveler.
_________________________________________________

I want to be a person
Of hospitality

I want to be a person from whose eyes shines
The light of love

I want my compassion to be so complete
It is like a beacon
Drawing people
Welcoming them

Into a place where they are safe
And accepted

I want to have a heart that glows
With the warmth of that which I have first received
Holy fire
Sacred love

Love received , love given
It is the Sacred way

Sounds simply
But its not

Sometimes the “Anthem” plays through my mind

Ring the bells that still can ring, Forget your perfect offering
There is a crack, a crack in everything (there is a crack in everything)
That's how the light gets in

It  seems odd sometimes
that my desire to be a heartening
presence should be rooted
not in strength and purity
but in brokenness.

Jesus is our example
How was Jesus the light?
Sure he gave us amazing teaching, words to live by,
Sure, he performed miracles

But is that how Jesus was the light?
It seems to me that Jesus was the light through the way he touched the lives of people
Through the way he touched, and loved, and restored, and lifted up
The sick, the sinful, the poor, the hurting, the outcasts

And he was the light, most of all, by dying on a cross
By being battered, and beaten, and, yes,
Killed

Jesus who changed the world, and opened the door to the Sacred
Not through power but through brokenness

It is when we are struggling in the dark
When we are stumbling around
Needing light
Needing love
Needing God
Hungry, seeking, wounded, and full of cracks
It is then that the light finds its way into our souls

It is through our cracks
Through our brokenness, our need
Our hunger, our seeking
That the light gets in

And that is also how the light gets out!

We share the light
Not through power
Not through strength
Not by us being a “perfect offering,” by buying into the “purity project”

We share the light not when we stand on spiritual pedestals and proclaim our truth as the truth
Not when we tell everyone around us how bad or evil they are
Not as we judge and reject, not when we are strong, and quite often arrogant…
But when we let the light we have received
shine back out through the cracks

It is how we are in the darkness
It is how we are in our pain
It is how we are in our failure
It is how we are in our weakness
That most reveals the light in us…….

And it is in this way
That we become
A welcoming person, in whose presence
People can find the freedom, to be themselves.

Saturday, March 24, 2018

Who are you going to serve?


“You're gonna have to serve somebody;
well, it may be the devil, or it may be the Lord,
but you're gonna have to serve somebody...”
                                                          Bob Dylan
______________________________________

We all serve someone, or something
Whether we admit it or not
Like it or not

Its true

We all have something or someone who influences
Everything (perhaps) we do
That shapes what we believe
That determines what we see

And sadly, the truth is that often
We don’t know
What drives us

We just don’t

There really is only one way to find out
And that is to look in the mirror
Look at how we treat others
Where we put our energy
Who we choose to align ourselves with,
In short,
How we live

Do we hate?
Do we grasp?
Do we lie?
Do we treat others cruelly?
Do we support people who are dishonest, greedy, hurtful?
Do we side with power and wealth?

Who would our master be, if we behaved like that?

Do we love
Do we give
Are we honest, and full of integrity
Do we treat others with compassion
Are we people for others, especially for the poor?

What kind of Master would cause us to behave like that?

Think about it!

Because

“You're gonna have to serve somebody;
well, it may be the devil, or it may be the Lord,
but you're gonna have to serve somebody...”


Thursday, March 22, 2018

I am


When Akiba was on his deathbed, he bemoaned to his rabbi that he felt he was a failure. His rabbi moved closer and asked why, and Akiba confessed that he had not lived a life like Moses. The poor man began to cry, admitting that he feared God's judgment. At this, his rabbi leaned into his ear and whispered gently, “God will not judge Akiba for not being Moses. God will judge Akiba for not being Akiba.”
                                                                        From the Talmud
__________________________________________________

The Sacred only asks one thing from us
That we be who we are

That we be the unique special
Carrier of the Sacred
We were created to be

I cannot believe I am merely an accident of history
The result of random history
Of casual couplings

There is a mystery in all this
Something mystical
About my presence

I am
I am here
I am here now

In this time and in this place
For a reason I might well never understand

But for a reason

And that reason is nothing more
Than to do the best I can with the gifts I have been given

To do my best
Knowing that I will fail and succeed
Be weak and strong
Wise and foolish
Calm and anxious

Do my best to be me
Allowing that the Sacred Presence
Which makes me “me”
To guide me
Empower me
And define me…

I will not be a Moses
I will definitely not be a Jesus
But perhaps I can be
Stephen

Child of God

Wednesday, March 21, 2018

Thin Places


Heaven and earth are only three feet apart,
but in thin places that distance is even shorter.
                                           Old Celtic Saying
______________________________________

Sometimes the air is thick
With the heaviness of earth
And so we trod
Heavy too

All the weight of hate and fear
Burdens us
We are bent beneath it all

But there are moments
When we walk into
A thin place

and the Sacred caresses our soul

We can sense the bright mountain behind the mountain,
Taste water cold and clear from an inexhaustible stream
Lose ourselves as the sky opens and we are drawn into a great openness
That expands into eternity

Then the door between the world
And the next
is cracked open for a moment

and we can see
heaven

and we are light
and we are light


Tuesday, March 20, 2018

Open hands


“In a world that lives like a fist
mercy is not more than waking
with your hands open.”
                              Mark Nepo
__________________________

how do I walk through my day?
fists clenched?
angry at what I see,
angry at those who dare affront me
confront me?

Angry at the things that are not fair,
Are not right?  (by my definition of course)

It is so easy to become a tight ball of resentment
So easy to see the world as dangerous and dark

It so easy to put my energy into those people (Trump and crew)
Into those events (school shootings)
Those beliefs and values

That I judge (alas, I did say judge)
As wrong
As ungodly
As not “Jesus” (or Buddha or….)

How much harder it is
To live mercy
To walk through the day
Unencumbered

With mind open
Heart open
Soul open
Hands open

Ready to receive
Ready to give
Ready to hug

Closed hands can receive nothing
And do nothing
(except hit)

Closed hands cannot contain anything but emptiness
Cannot grab hold of what is good
Cannot caress
Cannot comfort

May I, as the sun rises
And as the sun sets
And in every moment in between
Open my hands
Palms up

And wait for what comes



Monday, March 19, 2018

Let it go


“let it go -- the
smashed word broken
open vow or
the oath cracked length
wise -- let it go it
was sworn to
go

let them go -- the
truthful liars and
the false fair friends
and the boths and
neithers -- you must let them go they
were born
to go

let all go -- the
big small middling
tall bigger really
the biggest and all
things -- let all go
dear
so comes love”
― E.E. Cummings
----------------------------------------

When we hang on to the ugly things
The hard things
The deceitful things

When we become fused with those things
That diminish
And burden

then
We
walk through life
head down
Hands closed
Heart cold

It is only when we accept things as they come
And see them for what they are
Things that are not
“me”

That we can let go
Lift up our heads
Open our arms
And find our hearts ablaze

Only then are we free
To
Love

This is how lies die
How haters are confused
How evil is overcome

This is how greed loses
And generosity wins

And power that is not power
Is consumed by
Compassion

Let it
Go
Let it all
Go
So comes love

Let it go


“let it go -- the
smashed word broken
open vow or
the oath cracked length
wise -- let it go it
was sworn to
go

let them go -- the
truthful liars and
the false fair friends
and the boths and
neithers -- you must let them go they
were born
to go

let all go -- the
big small middling
tall bigger really
the biggest and all
things -- let all go
dear
so comes love”
― E.E. Cummings
----------------------------------------

When we hang on to the ugly things
The hard things
The deceitful things

When we become fused with those things
That diminish
And burden

then
We
walk through life
head down
Hands closed
Heart cold

It is only when we accept things as they come
And see them for what they are
Things that are not
“me”

That we can let go
Lift up our heads
Open our arms
And find our hearts ablaze

Only then are we free
To
Love

This is how lies die
How haters are confused
How evil is overcome

This is how greed loses
And generosity wins

And power that is not power
Is consumed by
Compassion

Let it
Go
Let it all
Go
So comes love

Let it go


“let it go -- the
smashed word broken
open vow or
the oath cracked length
wise -- let it go it
was sworn to
go

let them go -- the
truthful liars and
the false fair friends
and the boths and
neithers -- you must let them go they
were born
to go

let all go -- the
big small middling
tall bigger really
the biggest and all
things -- let all go
dear
so comes love”
― E.E. Cummings
----------------------------------------

When we hang on to the ugly things
The hard things
The deceitful things

When we become fused with those things
That diminish
And burden

then
We
walk through life
head down
Hands closed
Heart cold

It is only when we accept things as they come
And see them for what they are
Things that are not
“me”

That we can let go
Lift up our heads
Open our arms
And find our hearts ablaze

Only then are we free
To
Love

This is how lies die
How haters are confused
How evil is overcome

This is how greed loses
And generosity wins

And power that is not power
Is consumed by
Compassion

Let it
Go
Let it all
Go
So comes love

Friday, March 16, 2018

I met God


“People encounter God under shady oak trees, on riverbanks, at the tops of mountains, and in long stretches of barren wilderness. God shows up in whirlwinds, starry skies, burning bushes, and perfect strangers. When people want to know more about God, the son of God tells them to pay attention to the lilies of the field and the birds of the air, to women kneading bread and workers lining up for their pay. Whoever wrote this stuff believed that people could learn as much about the ways of God from paying attention to the world as they could from paying attention to scripture. What is true is what happens, even if what happens is not always right. People can learn as much about the ways of God from business deals gone bad or sparrows falling to the ground as they can from reciting the books of the Bible in order. They can learn as much from a love affair or a wildflower as they can from knowing the Ten Commandments by heart.”
                                            Barbara Brown Taylor, An Altar in the World: A Geography of Faith
________________________________

This morning I met the Sacred in worship
perhaps it was an accident

its all the fault of that young child
who had never been at a church service before

for him everything was mysterious
everything was a mystery

I am not sure he understood what was going on
Snuggled next to mom
Sitting on the piano bench next to grandma

But his eyes shone
And his smile was quick
And he hugged me when it was all over

Some hit and run warmth on his way to the cookies

And I know that he drank it all in
The smiles and the hugs
The old ladies patting him on the head

I know he felt welcomed
And loved

This morning I met the sacred
Not in the space
Not in the music, or the liturgy
Or in the stolid presence of the faithful

But in the eyes of a boy
Who proudly proclaimed

“I am in the second grade
And the cookies were really good”


Thursday, March 15, 2018

wide open


“If you put a spoonful of salt
in a cup of water
it tastes very salty.
If you put a spoonful of salt
in a lake of fresh water
the taste is still pure and clear.

Peace comes when our hearts are
open like the sky, vast as the ocean.”
Jack Kornfield
__________________________________

Our souls are salted with many things
Fear
Hate
Greed

and when our souls are tiny
constricted due to ideology
or theology

when our lives are squeezed down
by social norms
and expectations

we can so easily lose our humanity
but worse, our divinity

the sacred image we carry
becomes blurred
sometimes beyond recognition

and we become unable to give
to offer compassion
to forgive
to love

how do we open our hearts?
how do we throw open the windows of our soul
to the wind of the Sacred?

We walk
We breathe
We notice the stars
We gaze in wonder at the mountain
And celebrate the sky

We dance in the dust
And the mud
And the snow

We throw our arms wide open
And embrace the Sacred
As She/He/It comes

Wednesday, March 14, 2018

small packages


It was a momentary thing
A Safeway thing

Head down
Roaring through the aisles
List in hand

Things to do
Places to go

And then a child
Following her mother
Serious and intent

Just like me

But in a moment
Her head raised
Her eyes caught mine
And she smiled

A tentative little smile
Offered freely
A tiny hint of empathy

In a day sorely lacking
Big gifts
Come
In small packages

Tuesday, March 13, 2018

Be Calm


You have traveled too fast over false ground;
Now your soul has come to take you back.

Take refuge in your senses, open up
To all the small miracles you rushed through.

Become inclined to watch the way of rain
When it falls slow and free.

Imitate the habit of twilight,
Taking time to open the well of color
That fostered the brightness of day.

Draw alongside the silence of stone
Until its calmness can claim you.”
                                            John O'Donohue
____________________________________________

I have been taught
My whole life
That my worth is dependent upon what I do

And so I have worked
Hard
To produce
To accomplish

To do the right thing

That I might be valued
Accepted
Admired
Perhaps, even, loved
Can’t say that it worked….

But now I am older
And after years of being
A human doing
Perhaps
Perhaps
Perhaps
It is time

To be a human being
To slow down

Monday, March 12, 2018

All heaven breaks loose


“When we practice generating compassion, we can expect to experience the fear of our pain. Compassion practice is daring. It involves learning to relax and allow ourselves to move gently toward what scares us. The trick to doing this is to stay with emotional distress without tightening into aversion, to let fear soften us rather than harden into resistance.”
                                                                                      Pema Chodron
______________________________________________________

If anything it true about Jesus
It is this
Jesus came to reveal God's compassion

Which really ruined things for the religious status quo
Who were all about rules and merit
Who saw themselves as the gatekeepers

But Jesus came and turned this upside down
He was the great disturber

Which is why the way of Jesus (aka the Gospel) tends to be: good news for the poor
disruptive to the status quo
offensive to the rich
and terrifying to those in power.

Think about all of the times, in Jesus ministry when he overturned the “tables”
When he simply ignored the rules and rituals
And showed…. Compassion.

Compassion for the Samaritan woman at the well. She was considered impure by bloodline and behavior.
Compassion for the woman accused of adultery threatened with stoning. She was surely considered impure and the written laws said so.
Compassion for sheep who are not yet part of God's fold ( Who are those people in our communities?)

God, Jesus is saying, is accessible to everyone
God Jesus is saying, is love
God Jesus is saying, is compassionate

All people have access to God, because of that compassion,

But Jesus says more than that doesn’t he?
If God is about compassion, we have to be about compassion
That is if we want to reflect the fact that we are created in the image of God

The fruit should fall close to the tree

But compassion isn’t easy
It means we have to be open, and vulnerable
We have to go outside our comfort zone
It means we have to let go of so much that gives us security

And when we feel like closing up
Rejecting
Excluding
Protecting

We can’t
We just can’t

That is the time we become softer
More open
More forgiving
More generous

Compassion leads us into the unknown
Into fear
Into pain

And then…
All heaven breaks loose

Sunday, March 11, 2018

hate doesn't work

“Now there is a final reason I think that Jesus says, "Love your enemies." It is this: that love has within it a redemptive power. And there is a power there that eventually transforms individuals. Just keep being friendly to that person. Just keep loving them, and they can’t stand it too long. Oh, they react in many ways in the beginning. They react with guilt feelings, and sometimes they’ll hate you a little more at that transition period, but just keep loving them. And by the power of your love they will break down under the load. That’s love, you see. It is redemptive, and this is why Jesus says love. There’s something about love that builds up and is creative. There is something about hate that tears down and is destructive. So love your enemies. (from "Loving Your Enemies")”
                                           Martin Luther King Jr., A Knock at Midnight
________________________________________________

Love your enemies
Really?

I mean who does that?
Who can do that?

I’ve tried
God knows I’ve tried
I’ve tried to love that person who lied about me
That person who cost me a job
That person who attacked me in order to promote themselves.

I’ve tried to love that person
Who abuses others
Exploits others

That one who is greedy, and hateful
Angry and violent

That one who lies, and lies, and lies again

Sometimes I can do it
But oh, how I want them to respond
After all, my feeble one time effort should totally change them, right?

Not

Love is patient
I hate that
That need to love, and love, and love and love
And keep loving even when the lies keep coming
Even when the behavior continues

That need to love even when one is attacked for loving
Or considered week
Or foolish
Or stupid

Even who love results in anger and rejection

Is it really true that love wins?
Is love truly redemptive?

Could the weight of love
Individual love, collective love

Bend history?
Could love change me, from the insecure person I am
(yes I know I am 66 and have pretty much been successful, but still…..)
Into a person who believes in himself.

Could love make Trump compassionate?
Could love stop racism?
Or calm fear

Could love make us generous?
Or kind?

I don’t’ know

But it seems like it’s worth a try
Because it is all too clear

That hate and violence
Don’t work