Calm and Bright

Sacred.  It cannot be manipulated by our thoughts, even when the thoughts are heartfelt.  It is here, continuously present even when we are not paying attention to it.  The sacred is at the most simple plane of being.  There are countless ways to come to it.  When we find it, we realize it has been looking for us too, for it is a mirror to our knowing.  The knowing it mirrors is the kind of knowing that is waiting there for us at the moment when we open to the sacred expressing itself.   Only to find, with exuberant inhale, that we are the expression of the sacred. 

Untitled  2013   by Glee 

When we find in our body a hunger, a thirst, a need to witness to the sacred, we are ready to experience expectant worship. In this place, there is an opening between the sacred divine and the song of our souls, and it can flow into the present like wind blowing through an opening in the rocks or through the ancient trees.  Something vibrates just enough, as if it is harmonic to the sacred divine moment we are seeking.  In this moment, we find ourselves in the act of vocal ministry. 

There is a moment, in the presence, when we sense an utterance forming in our throat, but it does not have a sound.  It has a vibration, an expression given to us from the sacred divine presence, and it is not coming out or staying in.  It is not silence or sound.  It is the utterance before the utterance. 

We are sacred.  Our words are sacred.  Our waiting is sacred and divine.  When we wait, we find it is waiting for us, too. 

Advice To A Clerk

Lead as if you are looking through a kaleidoscope, at something that can only be seen when light shines through the moving pieces of our sentient experience. 

Looking at one piece of the fractured rainbow of colors cannot obscure the presence of the other pieces.  Together, we are in the present.  In the light of the perfect moment, we are willing to put an eye to the darkened tube, at the end of which lives the light.  Don’t burn your eye by looking straight at the light, look at it through all of us, for we are never separate and we are never alone.  The light passes through all of us equally.  At times, we can see the vision of our greatest dream, all lit up in the warmth of this perfect presence.  Can we be leaders by this vision?  Can we lead our lives in community by seeing truth through a kaleidoscope? 

Through A Child's Eyes by Glee 2010

There is more.  Who catches the light?  How do we find the light?  We wait individually for it to arrive again.  The light sleeps, just like the sun. And we rest in darkness, to rekindle, to seek, for seeking is to find.  Some take a turn witnessing to the light when it is shining brightly, so brightly it cannot be denied.  We walk with it, for it lights the way.  We can construct candles, flashlights, and fire to guide us.  Or we can look up, unsheltered, to the open and infinite sky, and find the light waiting for us.  The cool and feminine light of night, of Nuit, the goddess overarching, is holding us through until the warmth and heat of the day.  

The day is for work.  There is the resting light and the working light.  There is a time to be held, and time to venture out with a different kind of trust.  The evening trust is a sense, a vastness.  It is outward reaching, with an overwhelming feeling of being held in our Mother’s womb.  The daytime light pushes us to see and yet not to look, to work, to grow, to gather, in the knowing of full sunlight.  We follow it through the sky on a chariot of purpose.  Despite its different qualities, it is light.  On any given day, it is for lighting the glass, for expression, feeling, and inspiration of color, and it can push the energy up and up to the leaping and hollering of white water rapids in the river of life.

A Circle of Love

Watching the autumn garden fade and fresh green plants return for another cool, wet season, it is easy to find ourselves contemplating the celebration of the seasons.  We see the dyeing of plants and the dropping of seeds into the hopeful soil of the future, when the glory of spring returns.  

Hydrangea flower by Glee 2008

When Christ died at the hands of humanity, the sun went away.  And in our darkness and grief, seeds of hope were planted in each living soul.  These are the spiritual ancestors, in which was born a faith that grows from within, reaching outward to find a garden of life in which to grow.  This loving presence dies and returns in every moment and again with each lifetime, and it has many faces. Like the endless variety of life in our biosphere, we cannot fathom the number of patterns in which Christ returns.  For me, this is our connection to our earthly body.  When we travel and carry this message of love to one another, how do we stay connected to the essence without suffocating continuing revelation?