Alert to the spark within

In stumbling through my piles of email yesterday I found a sweet note from a young Canadian woman who mentioned how hard she found it to make time for contemplative moments while caring for three children.

I had actually led a workshop on this subject a couple of years ago, and thought I'd send her a copy of the handouts.  But as I began walking through them, I could see ways to update them and clarify some of the points.

One thing led to another, and I ended up spending much of my day turning the whole thing into a little book -- which continued calling to me as I sat in meditation this morning, until I realized that it was written when I still thought God was something outside us that we beckoned in.

Now what I believe is that each of us has a permanent spark of God-ness within us (I feel it in my heart, if I pay attention), and the function of meditation, of being present, even of breathing is to fan that spark into a flame.  Somehow, thinking of that during meditation, I came to see Mary as an icon for all humanity, carrying that God-given spark to maturity, nurturing and feeding and birthing it into being...

When I opened my eyes, it was to see the candle burning in the lap of my Buddha, and when I rose this was the sight that greeted me -- that spark of light on the horizon that gifts us every day with light.  And then I went to take a final pass at the new ECVA exhibit which will go up shortly, and found in the curator's statement this wonderful quote from Thoreau: "“Only that day dawns to which we are awake.”

May today find you fully awake, alert to the spark within, and aware of your many blessings...