God in whom we live and have our very being, who enlivens all death, who effortlessly turns the pages of the Book of Life, who dances on graves, and who says "Yes" to every "No," the leaves fall, the ground hardens, the buried rest and we must go on living. The earth continues to turn and so many of those in the world continue their death-dealing ways. Dwell with us once again so we may join you in your divine dance holding hands with all of the ones who have gone before us into your music. Amen.
One Moonlit Night
When I first learned ecstasy could be found on the other side of moonlight I thought of you. Remember the rule of our love falling out of the sky? Doing unto you. Having done unto me. Both dropped away on that night when even the cicadas ceased their chatter to listen to the sounds of our passion. Yes, there will always be those who would build up rigid walls of dogma around meaning and have God all to themselves. We knew on that moonlit night long ago the intention behind how the stars move and, shivering, turned our distant gaze within each other's eyes into a dance.
Walden Pond
Walden Pond still lies in the midst of the wilderness for all those seeking to be by themselves. Daydreams are welcome. Please leave all dogmas behind and lean into important matters with a heartfelt embrace. Remember that rigidity resists the creative urge of the world to become new. Greet any adventure that makes the distant things become less remote in your sight. You will find any experiment of joy justification enough for your next breath.
To Be Delivered
Rejoice! Water still drips from rock in the middle of the wilderness. The illusion of dryness will dry up once you learn to see Moses still leading people to the Promised Land. Even you can walk for a long time and keep up with all who seek to reconcile themselves with deliverance from bondage and the way water parts for those who dare to be delivered.
A Drink of the Wilderness
How often do we assume things will take care of themselves only to find what we had been hoping for lying out back in the dumpster? And then a teacher never met before steps through the narrow door of our very lives and introduces herself with intimacies and challenges taking our breath away to some other land. We try to explain the essence turning us into the separate and excluded. We look for the reconciliation including oneness without becoming sameness. We open our mouths to speak in parables finding that once again we can drink abundantly from the deep wilderness.
“Let us also lay aside every weight…that clings so closely.” – Hebrews 12:1
God who knows the weight of the universe, driving down the frenzied highway of life we glance and see the future in our rear-view mirrors holding a sign reading, "The end is near." We wonder what strange powers order letters into these particular words. What message attempts to come to life and be declared? Are we missing something important, something everyone else but us knows? If we are the last to hear and to understand will that endanger the lives of our loved ones? Our questions cling to our bodies and weigh us down. Give us strength to gently shudder them to the ground so that on this day and in this hour and at this time we can breathe and get on with living. Amen.
Patient Love
Proper maintenance of patience lies in wait around the next corner. Go. Carefully. Stepping as if with the next blink of your eye you will miss everything. Be. Wonderfully. Do not worry. You have left the monsters to storm out of the closet into thin air. Love. Abundantly. Let others be impatient wondering where your love will be given next.
Leaving Weekends
People stand as the sweetness slowly evaporates and another life begins to step out of themselves. People wander through twisted wreckage along roadsides following accidents numb with shock at the fragility of life. Is it any wonder we leave weekends behind and follow death with tears beginning to fall down our faces?
Stranger Still
Be thankful for strange communities of strange persons doing strange things at strange hours.
What Is at Risk?
Begin with the question, What did you come here for? which is really another way of asking, Why take your next breath? Then slowly, as if all of life depends upon how you unfold the tapestry of life, ask, What is at risk to live?
A Thread You Follow 