Contemplations

The marvelous thing about this question is that it has a thousand answers if we are willing to stand in the center of the whirlwind, brave the terrifying wind and the piercing heartbreak, and listen to the roar.

This is the unfair dilemma in which we find ourselves: how to hold the miraculous belonging, to accept the precious, joyous gift of kinship and community, while absorbing the telltale signs of a deeply unwell world and the unpreventable suffering of those we love.

In the detritus of grief and decay, new tendrils of being and connection were growing…

We learn that we are part of vast ocean of being, “deep time,” to which we are knit with bonds of love and responsibility, and that knowing is like a fire…

I am humbled by the insurmountable troubles of our planet, by the heart-rending sorrows befalling friends and loved ones, and by the personal brokenness with which I am confronted. I am in a mood to sit in the mud awhile, to let the moist earth seep around me, to be low and grounded.

When we plunge sensationally and whole-heartedly into the world beyond four walls we release the forest from the fetters of scenery, from being a bothersome backdrop to self-absorption.

May our prints be found to pause at times facing west, reminding those who come after to take in that setting sun, to hold each day to the last. 

…by the very speaking of the story, the greater forces of wisdom, generosity, courage, love are called into being in the world. 

During these intentional, festive days, we can deepen relationships with one another and with the living Earth and awaken to unseen realities that secretly sustain the world. We can open into the realm of the soul with its wondrous capacity for imagination, understanding, and joy. Then it may be possible to touch into all that is Holy and good and eternal.

Could being grateful and attentive to what we have help us to be fully present in the time we are in and actively inhabit the space where we live?