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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 28, 2021

All Good Gifts

It is God’s will that we do all in our power to keep ourselves strong, for happiness is everlasting and pain is passing and will end.

                     Julian of Norwich

 

For this slight momentary affliction is preparing us for an eternal weight of glory beyond all measure,

                     Paul (2 Corinthians 4:17)

________________________________________

 

they come to me at night

they sneak, unbidden, into my mind during the day

 

those ruminations

about what has been

what is

and what might be

 

it is so easy to dwell on the bad news

on the traumas of life

 

on that moment when you made a decision that would alter

the trajectory of your life

 

that moment when planes crashed into the twin towers

 

that moment when hate won an election

 

it is important to face such moments

for while “not everything faced can be changed,

nothing can be changed until it is faced” (James Baldwin)

 

we must face systematic racism

we must face a looming nationalism

we must face the pandemic

we must face our own flaws and failures

 

but to make the bad news the focus of our lives

will wound us

cripple us

 

there are lessons to be learned from “the bad”

lessons about God

lessons about ourselves

 

but to ruminate on ill

to turn it over and over in our heads

until it dominates and controls

 

is to let it define us

 

we must face the bad

we must pick it up, examine it, prod it

and then we must lay it down

 

and find what is good

and pick it up, examine it, prod it

embrace it

 

ah there is it

that fawn, teetering across the pasture

those two calves, cavorting and flirting with Finn the dog

 

the sun, peeking out above the Seven Devils

the smell of lilacs

the intrusive affection of a cat

 

it is the good that gives us strength

God in creation

God in us

all the good gifts of heaven

 


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