Reflection for March 25, 2009

 To experience peace does not mean

 that your life is always blissful.

 It means that you are capable 

 of tapping into a blissful state 

 of mind amidst the normal chaos 

 of a hectic life. I realize that 

for many of us, the distance 

between our thinking mind and our compassionate heart 

sometimes feels miles apart. 

Some of us traverse this distance on command.

Others of us are so committed to our hopelessness, anger, and misery 

that the mere concept of a peaceful heart feels foreign and unsafe... 

The feeling of peace is something 

that happens in the present moment.

It is not something that we bring with us from the past or

project into the future. Step one to experiencing inner peace 

is the willingness to be present in the right here, right now...

The first thing I do to experience my inner peace is

to remember that I am a part of a greater structure - 

an eternal flow of energy and molecules  

from which I cannot be separated. Knowing that I am 

a part of the cosmic flow makes me innately safe and experience 

my life as heaven on earth.

-Jill Bolte Taylor, Ph.D

My Stroke of Insight: A Brain Scientist's Personal Journey

Reflection for March 18, 2009

                I Ask Percy How I Should Live My Life 

Love, love, love says Percy.

And run as fast as you can

Along the shining beach, or the rubble, or the dust.

Then, go to sleep.

Give up your body heat, your beating heart.

Then, trust.

                             I Will Try

I will try.

I will step from the house to see what I see

And hear and I will praise it.

I did not come into this world

To be comforted.

I came, like the red bird, to sing.

But I'm not red bird, with his head-mop of flame

And the red triangle of his mouth

Full of tongue and whistles,

But a woman whose love has vanished,

Who thinks now, too much, of roots

And the dark places

Where everything is simply holding on.

But this too, I believe, is a place

Where God is keeping watch

Until we rise, and step forth again and ---

But wait. Be still. Listen!

Is it red bird? Or something

Inside myself, singing!

From Red Bird, Poems by Mary Oliver

Reflection for March 11, 2009

Dear Friends,

May you each hold the ones you love close to your beating heart this season so that each of you

can be nourished by the shared warmth.

May the Winter Sun rise in our hears and minds, 

and remind us that we live 

by grace alone.

May we all remember that we each have 4 things with which 

to reconnect with ourselves,

our brothers and sisters, and with this Divine and Harmonious Universe:

Our Good Thoughts

Our Good Feelings 

Our Good Words, and 

Our Good Deeds.

May you and all your loved ones continue to be gifts 

and blessings to one another.

"You have been telling the people that this is the eleventh hour.

Now you must go back and tell the people that this is the hour 

And there are things to be considered...

Where are you living?

What are you doing?

What are your relationships?

Where is your water?

Know your garden.

It is time to speak your truth,

To create your communities,

To be good to each other.

And do not look outside yourself for a leader."

Then he clasped his hands together and laughed, and said,

"This could actually be a good time!

There is a river flowing now, very fast.

It is so great and swift that there are those who will be afraid

They will try to hold on to the shore.

They will feel they are being torn apart and will suffer greatly.

Know the river has its destination.

The elders say we must let go of the shore,

push off into the middle of the river,

keep our eyes open and our heads above the water.

See who is there with you and celebrate.

At this time in history, we are to take nothing personally, 

least of all ourselves.

For the moment we do, our spiritual growth and journey comes to a halt.

The time of the lone wolf is over.

Gather yourselves;

Banish the word 'struggle' from your attitude and vocabulary.

All that we do now must be done in a sacred way and in celebration.

We are the ones we've been waiting for."

-from the Hopi Elders, Oraibi, Arizona

  

Reflection for March 4, 2009

My experience  of prayer has been that dialogue between me and God - 

an ongoing conversation triggered by complaints, questions, thoughts that arise in my mind and are tossed out there into the seeming Silence of God 

whence I wait for a response.  

And responses come sooner or later by way of subtle or major changes 

in the circumstances and direction of my life or in the shape 

of the people I meet or mistakes I've made.  

Or then there's that sudden staleness of an idea I once prized that's been 

made obsolete by a new idea - which turns out to be the old idea 

experienced as more profound and truer than ever before!  

Or often God's response seems to emerge from the space between the lines of whatever I am reading, be it Scripture, a poem, a novel, a billboard, or even something I myself am writing - as though even while I'm saying something it occurs to me that Someone's saying 

something to me in what I just said!  

Figure that out.      Geoff Wood

Suppose you are reciting Psalms.

If all goes well, this may be a truly prayerful experience.

But it doesn't always go well. While reciting Psalms you might experience 

nothing but struggle against distractions.

Later, you are watering your African violets.

Now, suddenly, the prayerfulness that never came during the prayers overwhelms you.

Your heart expands and embraces those velvet leaves, 

those blossoms looking up to you.

The water and drinking become a give-and-take so intimate 

that you cannot separate your pouring of the water 

from the roots receiving, 

the flower's giving of joy from your drinking it in. 

Everything has meaning. 

You are communicating with your full self, with all there is, with God.

Which was the real prayer, the Psalms or 

the watering of your African violets?

     Brother David Steindl-Rast, Gratefulness, the Heart of Prayer