Blest be the ties that bind

What do you see when you look at this image? Does this goddess look tied down or bound up to you? Or does she look grounded -- maybe even fed -- by her connections to the world around her?

We all have ties -- to family, to church, to work, to community, to the past. Do these ties feed you and keep you grounded? Or do you find yourself straining at the leash? And what about memories -- those thoughts that keep you connected to your past. Do they hold you back? Or do they sustain and fuel you?

I found myself thinking of these questions this morning because I was reading Joyce Rupp's chapter on memories in her book, The Star in my Heart. Gratitude, she says, "is at the core of a healthy spiritual life. It helps me to recognize how cherished I am by God and to live in awareness of the generous daily miracles provided by God.

I cannot be grateful without the gift of memory, without recalling or recognizing the good things of my life. Memory helps me to be aware of my Sophia moments, those times when I have been drawn to deeper truths and wisdoms. Remembering my past blessings helps me to see how deeply involved God is with my life."

Reading this, I realized that we do have this unfortunate tendency to forget the amazing gifts and blessings that have been given to us over the years. And yet the memory of those wonderful moments -- if we can access it -- can sustain us through incredible difficulties.

Yesterday was kind of a crazy day, one of those days with lots of to-dos and last-minute tasks and errands that kept conflicting with each other -- which meant I forgot to do a couple of things, and the blog got sort of tossed aside in the middle of it all. I felt a little guilty for not doing more to honor that wonderful feathery chick that had appeared.

But now I see it was perfectly appropriate to keep it short and sweet, and to honor a particular network of friends whose connections have sustained me over the years. I rarely get to see these women; they're scattered all over the country. And yet we find ourselves in email contact almost daily, and have been sustaining that connection since we first met at a convention back almost 20 years ago. How amazing is that? And what a precious gift to celebrate.

So I hope you'll take some time today to ask yourself what grounds you and feeds you; what connections over the years have sustained you, and have repeatedly led you back into the arms of the Divine. Take a minute to remember, and then find a way to express your gratitude -- and watch how that refreshes your spirit. Whatever life is like right now, there are sure to have been miracles somewhere in your past. And touching into those memories can be a wonderful way to re-energize your soul.

In closing, I can't help but think of that wonderful old hymn; can you hear it?

Blest be the ties that bind
our hearts in Christian love.
The fellowship of kindred minds
is like to that above.

What I didn't remember until I looked it up was the song's third verse:

We share each other's woes,
each other's burdens bear,
And often for each other flows
The sympathizing tear.

So true.

And here's where my sympathy and frustration are flowing today: the oil spill. I can't believe another attempt has failed; this is just horrifying. Here's a link to Jim Wallis's blog entry about that at Sojourners....