When chaos reigns

Watching from a distance

As flames consume what once was loved

And is now lost,

We ache for all who suffer, all who burn,

And for those who throw more fuel

Onto the fire...

Looking toward the ruture

From the shelter of our present,

We contemplate the risks inherent in our future:

When will we step out,

And how will we carry what we’ve learned

Into the adventures that await us

When we leave behind the safety of the shore?

We can’t presume

So many roads we drive right by,

And never choose to follow.

But unless we make the time 

To walk the path that someone else must take,

It’s presumptuous to assume

We can predict where it will lead,

Or what they may have encountered along the way.

Attuned to the light

Each year, more poppies come to visit, uninvited.

Happy to dance around the edges of my yard,

They lift their golden faces to the sun, 

Attuned like radar to its arc throughout the day

And folding back into themselves at night,

As if, having reminded us of joy and light,

their work is done.

A prayer for those not safe

Standing here, in this place and time,

We wonder if we’ll ever reach

that farther shore that waits in the distance:

Will we ever feel safe again?

Absorb that feeling: drink it in,

And pray for all who Never have felt safe.

What better time than this

To learn compassion?

What is birthed in confinement

From a distance you wouldn’t know 

That my dogwood is in full flower:

Her petals bear a strong resemblance

To her leaves.

If you think you haven’t grown,

If nothing new is blossoming

From our enforced confinement,

Perhaps it’s time to take a closer look.

Remember when “confinement”

Was another word for pregnancy?

What new life is already blooming in you?

Beyond the dark thoughts

Beyond the dark thoughts —

The concerns and anxieties branching out,

Thickening, multiplying, hiding the light —

Hope, however fragile, is being born anew: 

Look beyond to the new life that awaits us.

Trust, and don’t despair.

Obsessing on differences

Our human eyes are so quick to focus on differences:

The one white bud on a bush full of red blossoms,

The one dark cloud in an otherwise sunny day...

How can we train ourselves to appreciate

A life blooming with rosy goodness

Instead of obsessing on whatever’s blocking the light?

Anticipating loss

How intricately connected they are:

The joy in seeing the flowers,

And the mourning for those fallen.

Beholding what is now,

How can our hearts contain the ache

Of knowing what’s to come?

Cultivating unity

Cultivate those holy moments 

when we begin to comprehend

The seamlessness of life;

When it’s no longer clear

Where the soul ends and the Divine begins;

When sea and sky are effortlessly intermingled.

In unity we will find the preservation of the world.

Amusing coincidences

When Mother Nature decides to enforce 

The Stay-at-Home order,

We have no choice but to listen!

But we DO have a choice

In how our emotions react: 

How would you feel? 

Annoyed? Frustrated?

Protected? Or simply amused?

(So grateful to the neighbors and their chainsaws:

What a blessing!)

The scent of blessings

Feeling stressed? 

Seek the center, deep within,

The source from which you bloom and grow.

Breathe deep, and inhale 

The vivid scent of blessings.

Which window?

Trapped inside, or contained?

Imprisoned, or protected?

Isolated? Or connected to all mankind?

How we view these troubled times

Is colored by perspective;

Influenced by what we hear and read.

Through which lens, which window,

Will you be looking?

Feeling grateful

Here I sit, dreaming in the shadows,
Remembering the touch of loved ones far away;
Grateful in spite of everything
For the warmth of the sun upon my cheek.

Fruitful in spite of it all

Whatever contortions we go through to survive,

We can still be fruitful; still gift the world

With our own unique and special ways

Of seeing, blessing, and being;

Inviting all to a brighter, better future

Tired of waiting

We grow weary and disillusioned,

Waiting for the promise of a future 

That may have been put permanently on hold..

You’ve done all you can do to prepare;

Perhaps it’s time to stop scanning the horizon

In hopes of a rescue that may never arrive.

Sit down, take off those painful shoes,

And find a way to enjoy what’s here, what’s now.

Beyond present trials

Lift thine eyes, O lift thine eyes;

Look beyond the boundaries,

The walls we build that cut us off

From future possibilities.

Step out in faith: there will be life

And love beyond the trials of the present moment.

Irresistible invitation

Every spring unfolds again

That lush and silken invitation to rejoice;

To celebrate the return of hope and potential.

How can we resist?

In close quarters

When dealing with humans in close quarters,
It’s best to take a panoramic view;
To accept the sweet green wholeness of their being.
But if you have to focus on one aspect of personality,
Let it be the open fields, the trees, or the sheds,
The fences or the fruits of their labors —
Anything other than the pigs:
They’re really such a small part of the picture...

You are loved

Feeling lost, alone, bereft?

Take a moment to sit here in silence:

Let the song of the birds and the heat of the sun

Caress you, enfold you, and soothe away your cares.

Know this: you are loved.

You are blessed.

You are forgiven.

When faith goes into hiding

The stresses and the strains of this new life
Can be debilitating.
Tiny threats seem to cast much larger shadows,
While fear and frustration
Reduce our willingness to trust and believe
That somehow there is light still glowing
Deep beneath the darkness.
Why does faith go into hiding
At those times when we need it most?

Mothers Day 2020

Mothers Day is an opportunity
To honor that instinct in all of us,
Male and female, whether parents or not,
That seeks to shelter and protect
The small, the vulnerable, the weak and the wild;
The innocent exuberance that resides in each of us
And echoes throughout all of creation.

Away from the busyness, what might we find?

So glad I was bored and restless;

So glad I went for a walk outside:

Just look what I found, hidden in the woods!

Beauty I’d have missed, had I been buried

In my usual occupations, never looking up...

What else might we discover

In a world without all those daily distractions?

Sharing our blessings

Whatever shelter we’ve been blessed to have

Surely enables us to share

Some portion of our gifts with those in need.

How can we build on our advantages; 

Transform and expand our blessings 

To fuel further generosity?

What can we do today to pay it forward?

Hungry for connection

Like extroverts, isolated, hungry for connection,

We flowers stretch thin petals out:

Heat-seeking; eager for the touch

Of a loving sun...

Don’t make a god of fear

Do not let fear become your god:

Don’t listen to its promptings.

Just because the skies are gray,

You needn’t build an ark and gather

More than you could ever need

In hopes you’ll be the only one who’s saved...

Blessings in the branches

The delicate scent of Now

Frames our vision of the distant future:

With so much tangled in the way

It’s hard to see or even imagine

What’s to come: let’s just enjoy

What blessings we can find among the boughs.

A thirst for light

Like the lion and the lamb,

The sun and the rain fall down together:

As if the earth must be thirsty for light;

For some reminder that blessings do abound...

That deeper melody

Listen:

Behind and beneath the craziness,

The waves of sorrow, fear, and desperation,

In that deeper, darker place where spirit lives,

There is a song — can you hear it?

Step into that space and tune your ears 

To hear that ancient melody:

Let its calm descend like cooling rain

Upon our burning hearts.

Prayer for those in need

A prayer today for all who wonder

Where their next meal’s coming from,

How they’ll feed their children,

And where they’ll sleep tonight.

No tomorrows

Nestled in the leaves, so plump and pink,

Bright harbingers of fruitful days to come:

Why, then, do I, on seeing them,

Feel tears spring to my eyes?

So many lives that will not see tomorrows...