A BLESSING FOR THE DAY

May this new day find you
Caught up with her
Adding your own splashes
Of unique unexpected beauty

AWAKENING WONDER

Through a chink too wide...

We have tested and tasted too much, lover-
Through a chink too wide there comes in no wonder.
But here in the Advent-darkened room
Where the dry black bread and the sugarless tea
Of penance will charm back the luxury
Of a child's soul, we'll return to Doom
The knowledge we stole but could not use.

And the newness that was in every stale thing
When we looked at it as children: the spirit-shocking
Wonder in a black slanting Ulster hill
Or the prophetic astonishment in the tedious talking
Of an old fool will awake for us and bring
You and me to the yard gate to watch the whins
And the bog-holes, cart-tracks, old stables where Time begins

Advent ~ Patrick Kavanagh

TO WANT TO CHANGE

Why is it that we will for years go on living in small and shabby, bleak and barren, anxious and haunted spaces, when right before us, beauty and peace and rest and freedom await our arrival and invite us to come in? But beauty and peace and rest and freedom will not barge in on us.

This is the very longing we all have within us and yet we choose to remain in tormented places. Evidence of the torment is always present and is always set to boil over, even during those times when we are holding it together and things seem to be going well and we seem to be having fun on the surface. What does it take for a newness in our experience to become a reality? What does it take for us to even come to a place of admitting we need to change? How much of it is up to us? How much of it is out of our control and has to come from somewhere else? I do not know. But I do know this....the part that is up to us is up to us. We have to want a change bad enough for a change to happen. And yet it is good to know that when we want it bad enough and we make the decision to change directions in a tangible way, beauty and peace and rest and freedom come along side us and makes what seemed impossible, possible.

RHYTHM OF THE SOUL

During the time of quiet stillness that begins each new day, well before anything else begins to move in this neighborhood, the voice of the natural rhythm of my soul, the longing that arrived here with me when I came to this place, is a tangible presence in all my senses. Well before the first thoughts and demands of the realm of necessity begin to compete for my attention...it is there in clarity. And even though as the day moves along and the activities and clamor seek to drown that voice out....the experience of the early morning hours reassure me that the only way that can happen is if I allow it.

THE WISEST BALM

The wisest balm is that which is freely given. It's that way because the Creator is no respector of person....the love is excessive and free...and it must remain free so it's accessible equally to all...it's for whomever will pull themselves away and come to drink.

REST AND PEACE

Once you find the garden
in the midst of the desert

and taste it.......
Nothing else will ever satisfy you.

BELONGING

This was very good stuff to read. And very fitting stuff with the season that was right around the corner once I had finished reading it for the first time.


BELONGING: THE WISDOM OF RHYTHM

"To be human is to belong. Belonging is a circle that embraces everything; if we reject it, we damage our nature. The word "belonging" holds the two fundamental aspects of life: Being and Longing, the longing of our Being and the being of our Longing. Belonging is deep; only in a superficial sense does it refer to our external attachments to people, places, and things. It is the living and passionate presence of the soul. Belonging is the heart of warmth of intimacy. When we deny it, we grow cold and empty. Our life's journey is the task of refining our belonging so that it may become more true, loving, and free. We do not have to force belonging. The longing within us always draws us towards belonging and again new forms of belonging when we have outgrown the old ones. Postmodern culture tends to define identity in terms of ownership: possessions, status, and qualities. Yet the crucial essence of who you are is not owned by you. The most intimate belonging is Self-Belonging. Yet your self is not something you could ever own; it is rather the total gift that every moment of your life endeavors to receive with honor. True belonging is gracious receptivity. This is the appropriate art of belonging in friendship: friends do not belong to each other, but rather with each other. This 'with' reaches to the very depth of their twinned souls." ~~~ Eternal Echoes

THE FEAST OF DELIGHTS

This night I couldn't help but think of the immensity of what we have and how we push it aside and reduce it in favor of the confining pre-rigged gig this world system hands us. Humans were afraid of the wild immensity and the security offered them there and instead chose to build the city and do it their way. It's insanity. It always has been.

"The thing that saddens me about humans, is how in the midst of abundance they force themselves to live like paupers, with all the misery of not being able to inherit or receive the feast of delights that have been offered." John O'Donohue...Love Is The Only Antidote To Fear

Paupers when it comes to the things of value...the things that matter.