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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



Monday, June 30, 2014

Consider the lilacs!

“I think joy and sweetness and affection are a spiritual path. We're here to know God, to love and serve God, and to be blown away by the beauty and miracle of nature. You just have to get rid of so much baggage to be light enough to dance, to sing, to play. You don't have time to carry grudges; you don't have time to cling to the need to be right.”
― Anne Lamott
________________________________

I choose
not to be grim
I choose this day
not to put my energy into whatever is wrong

a friend long bald
used to joke that aging men only had so much testosterone
and if I wanted to waste mine growing hair
well, that was ok with him

there is only so much time
only so much energy

I am not going to spend mine
focusing on,
carrying,
failure
frustrations
grudges
anger

I am not going to spend it
“fighting sin”
in my life
or anyone else’s

I want to be light enough to dance
joyful enough to smile -- and mean it

I want to be full enough
of the sacred
to live it
to be it

the lilac blooms on the table
do not fight to be lilacs
they are so what they are
they just sit there

beautiful
fragrant

I want to be like them

Sunday, June 29, 2014

The world Narrowed Down

No belief is neutral.
Every one has the power to dictate
Each decision your make.
                                Gifts from A Course in Miracles
____________________________________________

misty morning
heavy sky dripping from the branches
the world narrowed down
to trees disappearing in the gray

there is no evidence
of mountains soaring
skies blue
no trace of the sun

only this
grayness

then clouds part
and the world is restored
in all its vast beauty

some days
O Sacred one
my world is narrow
squeezed and compressed
by thinking that cannot contain
the grandeur of Sacred love

I can only see vaguely
into the mist
and so I judge
and despair

until the greyness
is dispelled
by one wild beam of sunlight

grace

Saturday, June 28, 2014

illusions, delusions, and more

You cannot perpetuate an illusion about another
Without perpetuating it about yourself.
                                                Gifts from a Course in Miracles, Vaughan & Walsh
--------------------------------------------------------------

overcome
overcome evil
overcome evil with good

good

how do we create good?
how do we create evil?

it becomes all about comparisons
I am good
They are bad

I am righteous
they are evil

I am god’s beloved
they are god’s enemies

we create a world of contrasts and formulas
a world of black and white

it is a fragile world
hanging tenuously
and held in place
only by our ability
to hold on to our illusions

the illusion that we represent the God of love
as we fling spittle laden words of hate at another

the illusion that we are righteous
“Warriors of God”
when we give away guns to draw young men to church

the illusion that whatever weaknesses or faults we have
are not important
compared to the flaws of “them”

the illusion that God is for us
and hates everyone we hate

it is false
this dichotomy
this belief that they can only be out 
if we are in
they can only be damned 
if we are blessed
they can only be wrong 
if we are right

the truth
is that we are all in this together
all of us
doing the best we can
moment by moment

the truth emerges only when
we let go of our illusions

love is birthed
only when we can drop the fundamental delusion
that we are separate

and remember that we are one

one
in sin
one in fear
one in failure
one in success
one in joy

one in the sacred
one in grace
one