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Showing posts from 2012

Does Anyone Really Know What Time It Is?

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  Taking time off between Christmas and the New Year is a luxury of which I've rarely been able to indulge.  This year it's a special treat. I've already used the time to clean my Inbox of the 400 emails that I was going to read some time . I've also read through the email box named "Inspiration" where I put things along the way that look interesting but which I didn't have time for at the moment.   The idea of time has come up in enough conversations lately that I've noticed the trend.  Some of those conversations centered around the beleif that time seems to be moving faster than ever; blink it's Christmas, blink it's summer.  I attribute the seemingly increased pace of time to the fact that I'm getting older--it takes me more time to prepare and more time to let go.   But other conversations regarding time have to do with a vague sense that "the times" in which we are living are changing--perhaps even on a co

PREPARING THE WAY

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This morning on my way to the church, I left a container of Christmas cookies on the step of a camper that was by the side of the road.  Well, perhaps I'm already ahead of myself. Last Sunday morning as we were on our way to church, there was a camper/rv at the side of a two lane divided highway.  I was a little irritated as I drove by thinking how unsafe a place to park not only for the owner, but for travelers.  However, by the time we passed by later in the day, I noticed it was gone. Then Tuesday morning on another little road I frequent, the camper/rv was back again this time at the side of an even more narrow two lane road. Really quite out of place. Surprised to see it a second time, I began to wonder about the folks who owned it or were in it.  Why weren't they at one of the 100 rv parks around here.  Why at the side of the road with no electric, no water. While leaving home this morning, I packed a container with Christmas cookies (the kind I only make once a ye

HOLDING ON and LETTING GO

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We had a momentous occasion at our house this week.  A car transport pulled up at 7:30 in the morning and took away a car that my husband had purchased almost 40 years ago.  As I write it's on its way to Oceanside, CA...to its new owner.  Many parts and pieces that never got attached went along with it, including a OEM bumper sitting in the passenger seat. It never occured to me that this day would come. I sometimes wondered if I'd find a note attached to his Last Will and Testament with instructions for him to be buried in that car! We are both at that place in life when we're wondering what to "hold on to" and what to "let go of." Many conversations have taken place leading up to this major letting go. As we face into retirement we've begun to plan on where we'll live and what we'll take with us.  Over the almost 24 years of our marriage we've managed to collect a lot of stuff -- in addition to what we both brought into this union. Sa

HAFIZ ON BLOGGING

Hafiz is a 14th century Persian poet.  The likes of Goethe and Ralph Waldo Emerson commented on his works. Goethe wrote that "Hafiz has no peers" which is high praise. Though I don't think any new writings of Hafiz have been discovered, his poems are often re-translated by folks with better linguistic ability or even just a better handle on  his body of work. I find in his poems an uncanny sense of the Presence of the Divine. In his poem, An Enthusiasm To Express Discovery  Hafiz wrote: "The greatest and most lasting art, the impetus of it, I feel, always comes from a wanting to help.  A wanting to free, and an enthusiasm to express discovery... the artist...becomes aware of inner spheres and minlges with them, and then puts those experiences into what they most care about for the world to touch and see if the world wants. I know all my poems come from a wanting to give something useful." It's not often I sit down to read a book of poems,

LAYING MY HEAD ON THE SPIRIT'S SHOULDER

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For worship on Trinity Sunday, I'd asked our AV folks to project the image of Rublev's Trinity onto the two screens that are behind me as I face the congregation to preach.  For decades I've referred to it as my 'favorite' sacred image.  Having been raised Catholic, I was not as adverse to sacred images as some Protestants-who misunderstanding, thought people worshiped the icon iteself, rather than what it represented. We're often afraid of what we do not understand. Last night as we prepared to enter a weekend of silence, one of our presentations was on the history and use of icons in prayer.  Part of the library was draped in beautiful deep fabrics and five icons were placed on small tables, surrounded by candles and a few scattered chairs.  As we walked from image to image we learned its history, some scholary insights and were invited to return and pray with these images in our 48 hour silence. Not surprisingly, one of the icons was the one above.  Hmm

THEOLOGY OF A GATE

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It's a mild spring day in Pikesville, Maryland just outside of Baltimore. Fluffy, crisp, white clouds make the day more shady than sunny but the chirping birds are sounding the fullness of spring. Like most days in: life according to the Celtic Monk it's a good day for reflection. Which is what's on my heart. Surely you've heard the saying "good fences make good neighbors." Having lived in a crowded city with bearly three feet between houses, I can see how that could be true. With a good fence I know what's mine and you know what's yours. With a good fence I don't have to guess if I've mowed too much or too little of the lawn. With a good fence it's clear whose insurance will have to pay if that tree falls and damages my car. A good fence delineates between what is yours and what is mine. It's the law. But what about a gate? A gate makes a way for you and I to come together. A gate provides access from me to you and fr

GLORIOUS HUMANITY

I have to stop using the word ‘human’ as a pejorative. What I mean when I say humanity disparagingly is really that part of our nature yet to be redeemed. What I mean is ego, hubris, pride, selfishness, greed, self-seeking, narcissism, anger, lacking compassion. It’s the fallen-ness which I’m trying to name. God made and delights in humanity. He created us, and knowing we are prone to wander, God redeemed us. He comes to us and all humankind in celebration. Jesus’s first miracle in the Gospel of John was a wedding – a joining – a union – and the one who helped keep the party going was The Christ, who turned water into wine… and not just any wine, but the best wine. The Church marks Jesus' Incarnation – His beginning and end as God made human, in celebration–but not celebration as those who are yet-to-know God practice celebration. In His beginning, the celebration starts in darkness, as on the first Christmas Eve, when He came into being for the celebration of a new morning

All the kings horses and all the kings men...

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It surprises me when in times of reflection on grown-up issues or problems, childhood nursery rhymes seem to hold the wisdom of the universe. Take Humpty-Dumpty for example. No one put him up on that wall from which he fell,he got up there all by himself. And likewise no one pushed him; yet it seems that the fact of his being up there led to his demise. Then once the deed was done--well you know the rest not horses nor men could restore him. As I watched the Komen for the Cure and Planned Parenthood debacle unfold this week I though about old Humpty. Komen is small potatoes in the not-for-profit world. I have to say that I didn't even know they were in the business of giving the money they raised to anyone other than for breast cancer research. But it seems along the line they decided to climb up with the big guys (in this case Planned Parenthood)and rub shoulders with the rich and powerful. But when they tried to slip away with a mere 700/k--small potatoes to PP--they were slamm