Advent again...grateful for this season...grateful that there continue to be words that sustain...grateful for the poets and artists and thoughtful humans who capture their feelings and words...the journey continues - broken...blessed...given... in this journey of life, the journey of being human...(photos from my recent UK trip)
11/28
FOR THE TRAVELER
When you travel,
A new silence
Goes with you,
And if you listen,
You will hear
What your heart would
Love to say.
A journey can become a sacred thing:
Make sure, before you go,
To take time
To bless your going forth,
To free your heart of ballast
So that the compass of your soul
Might direct you toward
The territories of spirit
Where you will discover
More of your hidden life,
And the urgencies
That deserve to claim you.
- John O'Donohue
Excerpt from the blessing, 'For the Traveler'
BENEDICTUS (Europe) /
TO BLESS THE SPACE BETWEEN US (US)
When you travel,
A new silence
Goes with you,
And if you listen,
You will hear
What your heart would
Love to say.
A journey can become a sacred thing:
Make sure, before you go,
To take time
To bless your going forth,
To free your heart of ballast
So that the compass of your soul
Might direct you toward
The territories of spirit
Where you will discover
More of your hidden life,
And the urgencies
That deserve to claim you.
- John O'Donohue
Excerpt from the blessing, 'For the Traveler'
BENEDICTUS (Europe) /
TO BLESS THE SPACE BETWEEN US (US)
 |
| South West Coast Path above Branscombe Beach, Devon |
11/29
At any time you can ask yourself: At which threshold am I now standing? At this time in my life, what am I leaving? Where am I about to enter? What is preventing me from crossing my next threshold? What gift would enable me to do it? A threshold is not a simple boundary; it is a frontier that divides two different territories, rhythms and atmospheres. Indeed, it is a lovely testimony to the fullness and integrity of an experience or a stage of life that it intensifies toward the end into a real frontier that cannot be crossed without the heart being passionately engaged and woken up. At this threshold a great complexity of emotions comes alive: confusion, fear, excitement, sadness, hope. This is one of the reasons such vital crossing were always clothed in ritual. It is wise in your own life to be able to recognize and acknowledge the key thresholds; to take your time; to feel all the varieties of presence that accrue there; to listen inward with complete attention until you hear the inner voice calling you forward. The time has come to cross.
From To Bless the Space Between Us, John O’Donohue longer excerpt here: https://sarasmeaton.com/
You never really know where life will lead you, but if you live with pure intention and feed what you love with all your might, consistently and honestly...you might find yourself in places you'd never dreamed you'd go. - Laura Munson
 |
| Exeter |
12/1
For all those who are walking in grief, who have lost so much, whether the pain and ache is current and acute or distant but still tender.
Solace is not an evasion, nor a cure for our suffering, nor a made up state of mind. Solace is a direct seeing and participation; a celebration of the beautiful coming and going, appearance and disappearance of which we have always been a part. Solace is not meant to be an answer, but an invitation, through the door of pain and difficulty, to the depth of suffering and simultaneous beauty in the world that the strategic mind by itself cannot grasp nor make sense of.
This long and lonely path
That I walk upon
Is full of mystery
And hope, that one day
I shall find my way home
- Athey Thompson
Solace is not an evasion, nor a cure for our suffering, nor a made up state of mind. Solace is a direct seeing and participation; a celebration of the beautiful coming and going, appearance and disappearance of which we have always been a part. Solace is not meant to be an answer, but an invitation, through the door of pain and difficulty, to the depth of suffering and simultaneous beauty in the world that the strategic mind by itself cannot grasp nor make sense of.
- David Whyte
Do not rush to make meaning.
When you smile and say what purpose
this all serves, you deny grief
a room inside you,
you turn from thousands who cross
into the Great Night alone,
from mourners aching to press
one last time against the warm
flesh of their beloved,
from the wailing that echoes
in the empty room.
When you proclaim who caused this,
I say pause, rest in the dark silence
first before you contort your words
to fill the hollowed out cave,
remember the soil will one day
receive you back too.
Sit where sense has vanished,
control has slipped away,
with futures unraveled,
where every drink tastes bitter
despite our thirst.
When you wish to give a name
to that which haunts us,
you refuse to sit
with the woman who walks
the hospital hallway, hears
the beeping stop again and again,
with the man perched on a bridge
over the rushing river.
Do not let your handful of light
sting the eyes of those
who have bathed in darkness.
-Christine Valters Paintner
When you smile and say what purpose
this all serves, you deny grief
a room inside you,
you turn from thousands who cross
into the Great Night alone,
from mourners aching to press
one last time against the warm
flesh of their beloved,
from the wailing that echoes
in the empty room.
When you proclaim who caused this,
I say pause, rest in the dark silence
first before you contort your words
to fill the hollowed out cave,
remember the soil will one day
receive you back too.
Sit where sense has vanished,
control has slipped away,
with futures unraveled,
where every drink tastes bitter
despite our thirst.
When you wish to give a name
to that which haunts us,
you refuse to sit
with the woman who walks
the hospital hallway, hears
the beeping stop again and again,
with the man perched on a bridge
over the rushing river.
Do not let your handful of light
sting the eyes of those
who have bathed in darkness.
-Christine Valters Paintner
12/4
Talking to Grief
Ah, Grief, I should not treat you
like a homeless dog
who comes to the back door
for a crust, for a meatless bone.
I should trust you.
I should coax you
into the house and give you
your own corner,
a worn mat to lie on,
your own water dish.
You think I don't know you've been living
under my porch.
You long for your real place to be readied
before winter comes. You need
your name,
your collar and tag. You need
the right to warn off intruders,
to consider
my house your own
and me your person
and yourself
my own dog.
12/5
As I walked down the avenue, the late afternoon sun was turning the lovely and dying sycamore leaves into fragments of brilliant stained glass, and I said to myself, "This alone is worth the price of admission to our broken and glorious world.'"
- Linda Larsson.
12/6
There was something in my soul that knew that this was what it needed, that this was the next step in my journey. And it was exciting and terrifying, and it felt like home when I was there.
- Dan Allender.
 |
| West Highland Way - Scotland |
12/7
"And then there are times for leaving; times when—as Jesus counsels his disciples—the holy thing to do is to shake the dust from our feet and leave behind a place that is not meant for us. This blessing is for those times."
BLESSING IN THE DUST
You thought the blessing
would come
in the staying;
in casting your lot
with this place,
these people;
in learning the art
of remaining,
of abiding.
And now you stand
on the threshold
again.
The home you had
hoped for,
had ached for,
is behind you—
not yours, after all.
The clarity comes
as small comfort,
perhaps,
but it comes:
illumination enough
for the next step.
As you go,
may you feel
the full weight
of your gifts
gathered up
in your two hands,
the complete measure
of their grace
in your heart that knows
there is a place
for them,
for the treasure
that you bear.
I promise you
there is a blessing
in the leaving,
in the dust shed
from your shoes
as you walk toward home—
not the one you left
but the one that waits ahead,
the one that already
reaches out for you
in welcome,
in gladness
for the gifts
that none but you
could bring.
—Jan Richardson
from The Cure for Sorrow: A Book of Blessings for Times of Grief
Whatever is, is the teacher
- Richard Rohr
12/9
It is absolutely crucial...to keep in constant touch
with what is going on
in your own life's story
and to pay close attention to what is going on in the stories of other's lives.
If God is present anywhere,
it is in those stories that God is present
- Frederick Buechner
The work of the mature person is to carry grief in one hand and gratitude in the other and to be stretched large by them. How much sorrow can I hold? That's how much gratitude I can give. If carry only grief, I'll bend toward cynicism and despair. If I have only gratitude, I'll become saccharine and won't develop compassion for other people's suffering. Grief keeps the heart fluid and soft, which helps make compassion possible.
- Francis Ward Weller.
 |
| Walking in the south of England with my friends Dawn and Bronwen, both of whom, like so many other of my friends teach me much about honoring the dignity of those around them that they encounter. I'm grateful to be surrounded by so many who seek to make the world a better place. |
12/11
You should not underestimate the power you have to affirm the humanity and dignity of the people around you. When you do that, they will teach you something about what you need to learn about human dignity, but also what you can do to be a change agent.
- Bryan Stevenson
"The whole of this day is held by God, whose entire Being is love for us."
I say these words at the start of the litany of prayer I lead on Wednesday nights. This week has occasioned deep grief in one circle of my life, and I'm hearing how it ripples in other circles too. At the same time I sense the steady thrum of time and the full range of emotion in the hearts and expressions of loved ones, friends, acquaintances, and strangers. For, while we sometimes forget, this is how life is.
As we all move into the end of this week, with all that may mean for each of us, may the tenderness of Spirit's Hold rest our spirits in the ways we need most.
- Mindy Danylak
12/14
How to be a poet -
i
Make a place to sit down.
Sit down. Be quiet.
You must depend upon
affection, reading, knowledge,
skill—more of each
than you have—inspiration,
work, growing older, patience,
for patience joins time
to eternity. Any readers
who like your poems,
doubt their judgment.
ii
Breathe with unconditional breath
the unconditioned air.
Shun electric wire.
Communicate slowly. Live
a three-dimensioned life;
stay away from screens.
Stay away from anything
that obscures the place it is in.
There are no unsacred places;
there are only sacred places
and desecrated places.
iii
Accept what comes from silence.
Make the best you can of it.
Of the little words that come
out of the silence, like prayers
prayed back to the one who prays,
make a poem that does not disturb
the silence from which it came.
- Wendell Berry
12/15
Greet the day
Lead me to the ones I need
And to the one who's needing me.
I won't assume the worst is true,
And do the best that I can do.
A word of kindness, I believe,
Is heard throughout eternity...
And to the one who's needing me.
I won't assume the worst is true,
And do the best that I can do.
A word of kindness, I believe,
Is heard throughout eternity...
Hey, hey
This is how I greet the day,
I greet the day...
This is how I greet the day,
I greet the day...
- Amy Grant - https://www.youtube.com/watch?
 |
| Montalto Estate, N. Ireland |
12/16
Two takes on solitude. As a lover of words, I know the power they can hold. As a human, I know the power of being present. As an introvert, I know the cost of both and solitude is so essential.
SOLITUDE
Solitude is one of the most precious things in the human spirit. It is different from loneliness. When you are lonely, you become acutely conscious of your own separation. Solitude can be a homecoming to your own deepest belonging. One of the lovely things about us as individuals is the incommensurable in us. In each person, there is a point of absolute nonconnection with everything else and with everyone. This is fascinating and frightening. It means that we cannot continue to seek outside ourselves for things we need from within. The blessings for which we hunger are not to be found in other places or people. These gifts can only be given to you by yourself. They are at home at the hearth of your soul.
It looks like the sky is coming apart and together at the same time
And the body is holding its losses like a fist. And a fleshy hopeis opening to an unprecedented vastness. And whatever we think
we are leaving behind will keep insisting. And the things we desire
will elude us. And our efforts will pose as failure. And we will not recognize
how far we’ve come. And we will solve one problem and create another.
And we will feel broken. And we will not be broken. And the silence
will be deafening. And we will love destructively. And no one
will appear to be listening. And there will be too many doors
to choose from. And we will keep saying, “I don’t know how to do this.”
And we will be more capable than we ever imagined.
- Maya Stein - https://gratefulness.org/
12/18
When the east wind
breathes into your soul
and the morning sun
warms your face
Pause in the solitude
Sink into the stillness
expanding with every breath
savouring
as things settle
and clear
In still clarity
perceive with childlike wonder
the breath of dawn
the light
dancing in your heart
to heal you
to hold you and to make you whole.
- Bob Holmes
Prayer for the Morning
Did you rise this morning,
broken and hung over
with weariness and pain
and rage tattered from waving too long in a brutal wind?
Get up, child.
Pull your bones upright
gather your skin and muscle into a patch of sun.
Draw breath deep into your lungs;
you will need it
for another day calls to you.
I know you ache.
I know you wish the work were done
and you
with everyone you have ever loved
were on a distant shore
safe, and unafraid.
But remember this,
tired as you are:
you are not alone.
Here
and here
and here also
there are others weeping
and rising
and gathering their courage.
You belong to them
and they to you
and together,
we will break through
and bend the arc of justice
all the way down
into our lives.
Why I Wake Early
Hello, sun in my face.
Hello, you who make the morning
and spread it over the fields
and into the faces of the tulips
and the nodding morning glories,
and into the windows of, even, the
miserable and crotchety–
best preacher that ever was,
dear star, that just happens
to be where you are in the universe
to keep us from ever-darkness,
to ease us with warm touching,
to hold us in the great hands of light–
good morning, good morning, good morning.
Watch, now, how I start the day
in happiness, in kindness.
- Mary Oliver
On the longest night/shortest day of the year in the northern hemisphere, I am grateful for light that can only be seen in the dark. I am grateful for the journey, for new and long long time friends who faithfully sojourn alongside. I am grateful for sleep and rest, for beauty abounding...
There can be Light in the darkness.
"Our grief does not break us. At least, not forever or in full. But it has laid us bare. Naked, we cannot deny - we are flesh of each other's flesh, bone of each other's bone. And so we practice solidarity with life past, present, and future and we are reborn. We re-member the body of God - slowly stitching life back together on different terms. Just terms. Loving terms. Collective terms. Life has endured, even if only barely, and we will help it grow, together."
"Our grief does not break us. At least, not forever or in full. But it has laid us bare. Naked, we cannot deny - we are flesh of each other's flesh, bone of each other's bone. And so we practice solidarity with life past, present, and future and we are reborn. We re-member the body of God - slowly stitching life back together on different terms. Just terms. Loving terms. Collective terms. Life has endured, even if only barely, and we will help it grow, together."
- Rev M Barclay
 |
| Kew Gardens, November 2021 |
12/22
I Worried
I worried a lot. Will the garden grow, will the rivers
flow in the right direction, will the earth turn
as it was taught, and if not how shall
I correct it?
Was I right, was I wrong, will I be forgiven,
can I do better?
Will I ever be able to sing, even the sparrows
can do it and I am, well,
hopeless.
Is my eyesight fading or am I just imagining it,
am I going to get rheumatism,
lockjaw, dementia?
Finally, I saw that worrying had come to nothing.
And gave it up. And took my old body
and went out into the morning,
and sang.
 |
| Italian Gardens, Kensington Gardens, London |
12/23
The Sacrament of Waiting
Slowly
she celebrated the sacrament of letting go.
First she surrendered her green,
then the orange, yellow, and red
finally she let go of her brown.
The Sacrament of Waiting
Slowly
she celebrated the sacrament of letting go.
First she surrendered her green,
then the orange, yellow, and red
finally she let go of her brown.
Shedding her last leaf
she stood empty and silent, stripped bare.
Leaning against the winter sky
she began her vigil of trust.
she watched its journey to the ground.
She stood in silence
wearing the color of emptiness,
her branches wondering;
How do you give shade with so much gone?
And then,she stood empty and silent, stripped bare.
Leaning against the winter sky
she began her vigil of trust.
she watched its journey to the ground.
She stood in silence
wearing the color of emptiness,
her branches wondering;
How do you give shade with so much gone?
the sacrament of waiting began.
The sunrise and sunset watched with tenderness.
Clothing her with silhouettes
they kept her hope alive.
They helped her understand that
her vulnerability,
her dependence and need,
her emptiness,
her readiness to receive
were giving her a new kind of beauty.
Every morning and every evening they stood in silence
and celebrated together
the sacrament of waiting.
– Macrina Wiederkehr
her vulnerability,
her dependence and need,
her emptiness,
her readiness to receive
were giving her a new kind of beauty.
Every morning and every evening they stood in silence
and celebrated together
the sacrament of waiting.
– Macrina Wiederkehr
 |
| Oxford St. London |
12/24
When you find yourself in the darkness
May you make friends with the stars.
May the lights of the city on a hill far on the horizon lead you home,
and may you experience the love of God,
the light of the world,
in your darkest corners of grief.
- Sarah Bessey
John 1:5
Lost and weary traveler, searching for the way to go.
Stranger, heavy-hearted, longing for someone to know.
May you find a light.
May you find a light.
May you find a light to guide you home.
- Josh Garrels
Stranger, heavy-hearted, longing for someone to know.
May you find a light.
May you find a light.
May you find a light to guide you home.
- Josh Garrels
Last Christmas this song was on repeat. I'm sure I posted it several times. For what it's worth, here it is again. https://www.youtube.com/watch?
12/25 The Christmas trifecta
Merry Christmas friends...I took these photos at the fountain at Piccadilly Circus last month. It's chilly and the sun has long set (hello, it's London in November.) On one side of the fountain is a Free Julian Assange gathering (again, London....) On the other side, two street performers are dancing in sync and inviting the crowd to join them in spreading a little joy and cheer (and hoping to make a little money at the same time.) No one is joining in but people are enjoying the show. And a slightly awkward, eight or nine year old boy steps up and starts dancing with them...in front of everyone, always a step or two behind what they are doing, completely enthralled with their moves, watching the two entertainers so intently and trying so hard to keep up with their steps, oblivious of everything except the music and the joy of the dance he has encountered and how it makes him feel.
I want to be more like that kid. And I wish the same for each of you, that you will be able to lean in and be embraced by whatever dance you have chosen or stumbled upon that brings you life, without caring what anyone around you thinks.
Christmas trilogy poems for next year
“Every child has known God,
Hafiz
“Every child has known God,
Not the God of names,
Not the God of don’ts,
Not the God who ever does Anything weird,
But the God who knows only 4 words.
And keeps repeating them, saying:
“Come Dance with Me , come dance.”
Hafiz
“He is the Way.
Follow Him through the Land of Unlikeness;
You will see rare beasts, and have unique adventures.
He is the Truth.
Seek Him in the Kingdom of Anxiety;
You will come to a great city that has expected your return for years.
He is the Life.
Love Him in the World of the Flesh;
And at your marriage all its occasions shall dance for joy.”
WH Auden
Be still, my soul, and steadfast.
Earth and heaven both are still watching
though time is draining from the clock
and your walk, that was confident and quick,
has become slow.
So, be slow if you must, but let
the heart still play its true part.
Love still as once you loved, deeply
and without patience. Let God and the world
know you are grateful. That the gift has been given.
 |
| healthy tiny orchid (encountered in a friends' bathroom) in a tinier pot surrounded by even smaller healthy moss. a good metaphor of the power of small things to thrive and make a difference as they do so |
12/26
needs less room to grow
than one might think—
is able to find purchase
on even the slenderest
of ledges, is able
to seed itself
in even the poorest of soils.
Just today, I marveled
as a small gratitude
took root
in the desert of me—
like a juniper tree
growing out of red rock.
If I hadn’t felt it myself,
I might not
have believed it—
but it’s true,
one small thankfulness
can slip into an arid despair
and with it comes
a change in the inner landscape,
the scent of evergreen.
- Rosemerry Trommer
 |
| Exeter |
12/27
previous postings on gratitude...
April 16 2014
You breathe in gratitude and you breathe it out too. Once you learn how to do that, then you can bear someone who is unbearable. Rumi said "There are hundreds of ways to kneel and kiss the ground" and bearing the barely bearable is one of the best.
Gratitude begins in our hearts and then dovetails into behavior. It almost always makes you willing to be of service, which is where the joy resides. Saying and meaning 'thanks' leads to a crazy thought: What more can I give? Anne Lamott
You breathe in gratitude and you breathe it out too. Once you learn how to do that, then you can bear someone who is unbearable. Rumi said "There are hundreds of ways to kneel and kiss the ground" and bearing the barely bearable is one of the best.
Gratitude begins in our hearts and then dovetails into behavior. It almost always makes you willing to be of service, which is where the joy resides. Saying and meaning 'thanks' leads to a crazy thought: What more can I give? Anne Lamott
April 12 2014
Have you become more generous, which is the ultimate healing? Or more patient, which is a close second? Did your world become bigger and juicier and more tender? Have you become ever so slightly kinder to yourself? This is how you tell if your spiritual experiences change your behavior.
Anne Lamott - Help. Thanks. Wow.
April 8 2014
Prayer is taking a chance that against all odds and past history, we are loved and chosen, and do not have to get it together before we show up.
Anne Lamott - Help. Thanks. Wow.
 |
| London |
12/28
Enough
I asked God for a miracle.
She didn't answer.
But the sun came up this morning and
(for want of better options)
I've decided that will do.
~ Anonymous
She didn't answer.
But the sun came up this morning and
(for want of better options)
I've decided that will do.
~ Anonymous
12/29
I thought You were mostly incognito
I could not have been more wrong
The whole universe is Your cathedral
And every heartbeat is Your song
I could not have been more wrong
The whole universe is Your cathedral
And every heartbeat is Your song
- Carolyn Arends - Almost Didn't Recognize You (Signs and symbols in London)
 |
| Clifton Suspension Bridge, Bristol |
Above all, trust in the slow work of God.
We are quite naturally impatient in everything to reach the end without delay.
We should like to skip the intermediate stages.
We are impatient of being on the way to something unknown, something new.
And yet it is the law of all progress
that it is made by passing through some stages of instability—
and that it may take a very long time.
And so I think it is with you;
your ideas mature gradually—let them grow,
let them shape themselves, without undue haste.
Don’t try to force them on,
as though you could be today what time
(that is to say, grace and circumstances acting on your own good will)
will make of you tomorrow.
Only God could say what this new spirit
gradually forming within you will be.
Give Our Lord the benefit of believing
that his hand is leading you,
and accept the anxiety of feeling yourself
in suspense and incomplete.
- Pierre Teilhard de Chardin
 |
| Sandhutton, Yorkshire Dales |
May you know that absence is alive with hidden presence,
that nothing is ever lost or forgotten.
May the absences in your life grow full of eternal echo.
May you sense around you the secret Elsewhere,
where the presences that have left you dwell.
May you be generous in your embrace of loss.
May the sore well of grief turn into a seamless flow of presence.
May your compassion reach out to the ones we never hear from.
May you have the courage to speak for the excluded ones.
May you become the gracious and passionate subject of your own life.
May you not disrespect your mystery through brittle words or false belonging.
May you be embraced by God in whom dawn and twilight are one.
May your longing inhabit it’s dreams within the Great Belonging.
- John O'Donohue
that nothing is ever lost or forgotten.
May the absences in your life grow full of eternal echo.
May you sense around you the secret Elsewhere,
where the presences that have left you dwell.
May you be generous in your embrace of loss.
May the sore well of grief turn into a seamless flow of presence.
May your compassion reach out to the ones we never hear from.
May you have the courage to speak for the excluded ones.
May you become the gracious and passionate subject of your own life.
May you not disrespect your mystery through brittle words or false belonging.
May you be embraced by God in whom dawn and twilight are one.
May your longing inhabit it’s dreams within the Great Belonging.
- John O'Donohue
.JPG) |
| South West Coast Path above Branscombe Beach, Devon |
1/1
FOR A NEW BEGINNING In out-of-the-way places of the heart,Where your thoughts never think to wander,This beginning has been quietly forming,Waiting until you were ready to emerge.For a long time it has watched your desire,Feeling the emptiness growing inside you,Noticing how you willed yourself on,Still unable to leave what you had outgrown.It watched you play with the seduction of safetyAnd the gray promises that sameness whispered,Heard the waves of turmoil rise and relent,Wondered would you always live like this.Then the delight, when your courage kindled,And out you stepped onto new ground,Your eyes young again with energy and dream,A path of plenitude opening before you.Though your destination is not yet clearYou can trust the promise of this opening;Unfurl yourself into the grace of beginningThat is at one with your life's desire.Awaken your spirit to adventure;Hold nothing back, learn to find ease in risk;Soon you will be home in a new rhythm,For your soul senses the world that awaits you.- JOHN O'DONOHUE 'To Bless the Space Between Us' (US) / Benedictus (Europe)
FOR A NEW BEGINNING
In out-of-the-way places of the heart,
Where your thoughts never think to wander,
This beginning has been quietly forming,
Waiting until you were ready to emerge.
For a long time it has watched your desire,
Feeling the emptiness growing inside you,
Noticing how you willed yourself on,
Still unable to leave what you had outgrown.
It watched you play with the seduction of safety
And the gray promises that sameness whispered,
Heard the waves of turmoil rise and relent,
Wondered would you always live like this.
Then the delight, when your courage kindled,
And out you stepped onto new ground,
Your eyes young again with energy and dream,
A path of plenitude opening before you.
Though your destination is not yet clear
You can trust the promise of this opening;
Unfurl yourself into the grace of beginning
That is at one with your life's desire.
Awaken your spirit to adventure;
Hold nothing back, learn to find ease in risk;
Soon you will be home in a new rhythm,
For your soul senses the world that awaits you.
- JOHN O'DONOHUE 'To Bless the Space Between Us' (US) / Benedictus (Europe)
Rain, New Year's Eve
The rain is a broken piano,
playing the same note over and over.
My five-year-old said that.
Already she knows loving the world
means loving the wobbles
you can't shim, the creaks you can't
oil silent—the jerry-rigged parts,
MacGyvered with twine and chewing gum.
Let me love the cold rain's plinking.
Let me love the world the way I love
my young son, not only when
he cups my face in his sticky hands,
but when, roughhousing,
he accidentally splits my lip.
Let me love the world like a mother.
Let me be tender when it lets me down.
Let me listen to the rain's one note
and hear a beginner's song.
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| Above Branscombe, Devon |
1/3 - To possibilities, horizons, continued journeys and living into your story...
Be infinitesimal under that sky, a creature
even the sailing hawk misses, a wraith
among the rocks where the mist parts slowly.
Recall the way mere mortals are overwhelmed
by circumstance, how great reputations
dissolve with infirmity and how you,
in particular, stand a hairsbreadth from losing
everyone you hold dear.
Then, look back down the path to the north,
the way you came, as if looking
over your entire past and then south
over the hazy blue coast as if present
to a broad future.
Recall the way you are all possibilities
you can see and how you live best
as an appreciator of horizons
whether you reach them or not.
Admit that once you have got up
from your chair and opened the door,
once you have walked out into the clear air
toward that edge and taken the path up high
beyond the ordinary you have become
the privileged and the pilgrim,
the one who will tell the story
and the one, coming back from the mountain
who helped to make it.
- David Whyte, Mameen
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| Photos - Island Monastic Site founded in the 6th century by Saint Molaise on one of Lough Erne’s many islands, N. Ireland. |
This 11th day of Christmas (if my math is correct), is also the 14th anniversary of John O'Donohue's death (and let's be honest, this round of Words that have Sustained featured a lot of his work) so it's fitting to have two final thoughts of his today that go hand in hand. I'm so grateful for the encouragers in my life who help bring light to my soul.
Encouragement
Light of your Soul
1/5 12th day of Christmas...last one for this round...this prayer resonates. Grateful.
When someone encourages you, that person helps you over a threshold you might otherwise never have crossed on your own. There are times of great uncertainty in every life. Left alone at such a time, you feel dishevelment and confusion like gravity. When a friend comes with words of encouragement, a light and lightness visit you and you begin to find the stairs and the door out of the dark. The sense of encouragement you feel from the friend is not simply her words or gestures; it is rather her whole presence enfolding you and helping you find the concealed door. The encouraging presence manages to understand you and put herself in your shoes. There is no judgment but words of relief and release.
There are no manuals for the construction of the individual you would like to become. You are the only one who can decide this and take up the lifetime of work that it demands. This is a wonderful privilege and such an exciting adventure. To grow into the person that your deepest longing desires is a great blessing. If you can find a creative harmony between your soul and your life, you will have found something infinitely precious. You may not be able to do much about the great problems of the world or to change the situation you are in, but if you can awaken the eternal beauty and light of your soul, you will bring light wherever you go. The gift of life is given to us for ourselves and also to bring peace, courage, and compassion to others.
JOHN O'DONOHUE
Excerpts from his book, Eternal Echoes
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| Loch Lomond/Inchcailloch |
1/5 12th day of Christmas...last one for this round...this prayer resonates. Grateful.
A Prayer For The New Year
God,
Grant that I may pass through the coming year with a faithful heart. There will be much to test me and make weak my strength before the year ends.
In my confusion I shall often say the word that is not true and do the thing of which I am ashamed. There will be errors in the mind and great inaccuracies of judgment.
In seeking the light,
I shall again and again find myself
walking in the darkness.
I shall mistake my light for Your light
and I shall drink from the responsibility of the choice I make...
Though my days be marked with failures, stumblings, fallings, let my spirit be free so that You may take it and redeem my moments in all the ways my needs reveal.
Give me the quiet assurance of Your Love and Presence. Grant that I may pass through the coming year with a faithful heart. Amen
- Howard Thurman, Meditations Of The Heart
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