Lent...another period of waiting...preparation...
Weren't we just doing that for Advent?
If I'm honest, I am often tired of the waiting
For what's next...for the already not yet
For this to be over.
So we continue to wait
And be present
Attending to the small and the great things all around
As we continue to journey together.
More words that continue to sustain me... from people and places that inspire and move me.
Josh Garrels The Light Came Down was my steady music companion this past Advent and Christmas. I don't know if I'll be able to post every day during Lent but his closing song on that record feels like a good connection from Advent to Lent and a good starting place to begin this Lenten journey.
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.
There are weary travelers, searching everywhere you go.
Strangers who are searching, longing deeply to be known
To start with, a reminder of the importance of poets and poetry...
'The word workmanship (in Ephesians 2:10) is the word poema in Greek, from which we get the English word poem. We are God’s poem or poetry in the world. What a beautiful image! Whatever else the urban poor (and I would add, all of us really) need today, they need more poetry and less prose. Our exhaustive prose has become a millstone. It’s filled with monologue and imposes blame because it is so often derived from places of privilege and power. In this end, it suffocates, even when is aim is to liberate. Perhaps this is why the great Hebrew prophets were also poets. Perhaps this is why Jesus told riddles and stories. Poets let the air in, and create room for us to breathe again.' Meal from Below pp34-35 Kris Rocke and Scott Dewey
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| While the locals in Bermuda would disagree, there really aren't cold winter days, so I Included this photo of trees taken during a quick trip to DC in January this year. |
Winter Morning
When I can no longer say thank you
for this new day and the waking into it,
for the cold scrape of the kitchen chair
and the ticking of the space heater glowing
orange as it warms the floor near my feet,
I know it is because I’ve been fooled again
by the selfish, unruly man who lives in me
and believes he deserves only safety
and comfort. But if I pause as I do now,
and watch the streetlights outside winking
off one by one like old men closing their
cloudy eyes, if I listen to my tired neighbors
slamming car doors hard against the morning
and see the steaming coffee in their mugs
kissing their chapped lips as they sip and
exhale each of their worries white into
the icy air around their faces—then I can
remember this one life is a gift each of us
was handed and told to open: Untie the bow
and tear off the paper, look inside
and be grateful for whatever you find
even if it is only the scent of a tangerine
that lingers on the fingers long after
you’ve finished eating it.
for this new day and the waking into it,
for the cold scrape of the kitchen chair
and the ticking of the space heater glowing
orange as it warms the floor near my feet,
I know it is because I’ve been fooled again
by the selfish, unruly man who lives in me
and believes he deserves only safety
and comfort. But if I pause as I do now,
and watch the streetlights outside winking
off one by one like old men closing their
cloudy eyes, if I listen to my tired neighbors
slamming car doors hard against the morning
and see the steaming coffee in their mugs
kissing their chapped lips as they sip and
exhale each of their worries white into
the icy air around their faces—then I can
remember this one life is a gift each of us
was handed and told to open: Untie the bow
and tear off the paper, look inside
and be grateful for whatever you find
even if it is only the scent of a tangerine
that lingers on the fingers long after
you’ve finished eating it.
-James Crews
'Now if I hear the sound of the genuine in me, and if you hear the sound of the genuine in you, it is possible for me to go down in me and come up in you. So that when I look at myself through your eyes having made that pilgrimage, I see in me what you see in me and the wall that separates and divides will disappear, and we will become one because the sound of the genuine makes the same music.'
-Howard Thurman
(More from Street Psalms and Kris Rocke...Thurman was a contemplative activist through and through. He recognized that direct encounter with God and direct action with humanity is where the Gospel comes alive. Encounter and action is the way of Jesus.)
From my Meal from Below Lent series five years ago...still good words for today...
How do we embrace being fully human, open and mindful and present? Perhaps if we can't embrace it, we start by not judging...just being aware and attentive to all that swirls within and around us - the beauty and the brokenness...
We are forever running from and neglecting the deepest mysteries of our human lives-missing the truth that our humanness itself bears the gift of our salvation. As Paula D’Arcy observes, God comes to us disguised as our lives. God comes most naturally through broken people and broken places and well as our own broken experience to say, ‘I am here!’ This is the way of the Lord…God typically resists the spectacular appearance, knowing how prone we are to deny and escape these earthen vessels in favor of some heavenly vision. That is why TS Elliot claimed that the Incarnation is always in the ‘unattended moment.’ Meal from Below p 44 Kris Rocke and Scott Dewey
A liberated soul is a pierced soul, one that has experienced the piercing of its own violence, and one that has experienced the piercing of grace. The liberated soul is secure and at peace, held in mercy by the graceful One – Jesus, the Prince of Peace. This is our anointing. Meal from Below pp50-51 by Kris Rocke and Scott Dewey
God does not send us out into the desert to die. Though we may feel that we have been in the wilderness of Lent for a long time this year, we are not without lots of well-seasoned guides. It is reassuring to know that thousands have walked out into the desert, led by God, before us and not only survived but thrived and grown in intimacy with God as a result of their experiences.
If you would enter
into the wilderness,
do not begin
without a blessing.
Do not leave
without hearing
who you are:
Beloved,
named by the One
who has traveled this path
before you.
Do not go
without letting it echo
in your ears,
and if you find
it is hard
to let it into your heart,
do not despair.
That is what this journey is for.
I cannot promise
this blessing will free you
from danger,
from fear,
from hunger
or thirst,
from the scorching
of sun
or the fall
of the night.
But I can tell you
that on this path
there will be help.
I can tell you
that on this way
there will be rest.
I can tell you
that you will know
the strange graces
that come to our aid
only on a road
such as this,
that fly to meet us
bearing comfort
and strength,
that come alongside us
for no other cause
than to lean themselves
toward our ear
and with their
curious insistence
whisper our name:
Beloved.
Beloved.
Beloved.
- Jan Richardson
One of the greatest teachers God gives us is the place where we are. - Dwight Friesen
A good journey begins with knowing where you are and being willing to go somewhere else. - Richard Rohr.
(Overlooking Horseshoe Bay from the Fairmont Southampton, Bermuda)
Sometimes you have to let go of the picture of what you thought it would be like and learn to find joy in the story you are actually living. - Rachel Marie Martin
Growth is painful. Change is painful. But nothing is as painful as staying stuck somewhere you don't belong. - Mandy Hale
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