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

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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

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

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

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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

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

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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

Many kinds of death

“When the star dies,

Its eye closes; tired of watching,

It flies back to its first bright dream.”

                                           Dejan Stojanovic

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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

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

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”

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?

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

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 

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

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!

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

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

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.

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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

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

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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

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

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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