Ready, Set, Spring!

 

Ready for Spring (by Annette L. Sherwood, 2013)

 

I stand here watching
waiting, listening
in early Spring
I see the tiny bud
shooting up from
the tip of the branch
in anticipation, I remain still

I take in the cold air,
watching a few snowflakes fall by,
even feeling some of them
melt on my cheek
I breathe in this Holy moment

I did not plant the seed,
nor spend effort to encourage
original years of growth
No, that was not my work
only yours, Dear
I stand here with you now,
holding your hand,
awaiting Spring

We’ve made it through
another harsh spell,
cold, windy, bare
facing together a New Season,
we stand in a patch of wet snow
as it melts at our feet

Here I am, to Rejoice with you
as we experience New Growth
little buds are formed,
the flowering has already begun
together or apart, we delight
and share this moment
knowing New Life,
fresh perspective, and green leaves
are arriving,
even as the last storm is passing…

Spring starts blossoming now

The winter of our hearts will
begin to fade into cold
distant memories

Joy begins sprouting
with our eyes,
in our smiles,
as it softens our hearts,
leading us to laughter

Hope enters,
which we know
will bud,
into the flower,
and then the seed,
gently dropping to feed the birds

The passing order of this Season
feels like it is rooting us on
toward New Life

Before long,
these cold days will pass away
into warm ones with
mild breezes
and
Easter Blessings
carrying a new promise for Life

In Gratitude,
I bear witness
to Your Beautiful Spring
and Celebrate!

http://annettelsherwood.com/prayers/ready_for_spring.html

 

 

Seasons of Lessons . . .

Lessons on Life

There was a man who had four sons. He wanted his sons to learn not to judge things too quickly. So he sent them each on a quest, in turn, to go and look at a pear tree that was a great distance away.

The first son went in the winter, the second in the spring, the third in summer, and the youngest son in the fall. When they had all gone and come back, he called them together to describe what they had seen.

The first son said that the tree was ugly, bent, and twisted. The second son said no it was covered with green buds and full of promise. The third son disagreed; he said it was laden with blossoms that smelled so sweet and looked so beautiful, it was the most graceful thing he had ever seen. The last son disagreed with all of them; he said it was ripe and drooping with fruit, full of life and fulfillment.

The man then explained to his sons that they were all right, because they had each seen but only one season in the tree's life. He told them that you cannot judge a tree, or a person, by only one season, and that the essence of who they are and the pleasure, joy, and love that come from that life can only be measured at the end, when all the seasons are up. If you give up when it's winter, you will miss the promise of your spring, the beauty of your summer, fulfillment of your fall.

 

 

 

 

Don't let the pain of one season destroy the joy of all the rest.
Don't judge life by one difficult season.
Persevere through the difficult patches
and better times are sure to come some time or later   
Author Unknown

Holy Waiting Time . . .

You keep us waiting.
You, the God of all time,
Want us to wait for the right time
in which to discover
Who we are, where we must go,
Who will be with us, and what we must do.
So, thank you . . . for waiting time.

You keep us looking.
You, the God of all space,
Want us to look in the right and wrong places
for signs of hope,
For people who are hopeless,
For visions of a better world
that will appear among the disappointments
of the world we know.
So, thank you . . . for the looking time.

You keep us loving.
You, the God whose name is Love,
Want us to be like you –
To love the loveless and the unlovely and the unlovable;
To love without jealousy or design or threat,
And most difficult of all, to love ourselves.
So, thank you . . . for loving time.

And in all this you keep us,
Through hard questions with no easy answers;
Through falling where we hoped to succeed
and making an impact when we felt useless;
Through the patience and the dreams
and the love of others;
And through Jesus Christ and his Spirit, you keep us.

(By Lisa Terneus of the Iona Community in Scotland)
https://www.ionabooks.com/

"People of the Cloud" . . . Second Sunday of Lent

Life is difficult. This is a great truth, one of the greatest truths. It is a great truth because once we truly see this truth, we transcend it. Once we truly know that life is difficult--once we truly understand and accept it--then life is no longer difficult. Because once it is accepted, the fact that life is difficult no longer matters. Scott Peck

To be fully alive, fully human, and completely awake is to be continually thrown out of the nest. Pema Chodron 

Spirituality means waking up. Most people, even though they don't know it, are asleep. They're born asleep, they live asleep, they marry in their sleep, and they die in their sleep without ever waking up. They never understand the loveliness and the beauty of this thing we call human existence.                Anthony de Mello    

In this Sunday’s Gospel, Jesus has taken his BFF’s  up the high mountain. It was believed that on mountains there one could go when seeking a special relationship with God.  Here on this mountain, Jesus stands with two prophets, Moses, “the liberator” and Elijah, “the troubler of Israel.”  On this holy mountain, Jesus bursts forth into a presence that overwhelmed the disciples.  Jesus turned into a radiant laser-like beam of energy!

The voice within the cloud directs the disciples to listen to God’s Beloved – “not just here on the mountain top – but on the plains of challenge and within the valleys where the people of God experience hunger, injustice, poverty and exploitation at the hands of the powers that be.”

The Transfiguration is a moment of glory commissioning us all and empowering us to live in the presence of God and to see the radiance of that presence in all the events of our lives: the people, the cosmos, and in ourselves.  Initially, the disciples were overcome by sleep, yet with this “explosion” of divine energy, they were awake . . . wide-eyed awake!

By our Baptism, we are all called to be “people of the cloud.”  We are invited to listen, and to be wide-eyed awake to express something of God through our lives. Through us, God wants to say something to this world.  Our task is to radiate the image of God and let it shine through us by our compassion, our healing, our understanding, and our willingness to be transformed.  It is said, that the purpose of life is not to be happy.  The purpose of life is to matter, to have it make a difference that you lived at all.  Our Baptism is the gift in which we choose to live out our purpose and it is the purpose of every human being to give God glory simply by being who we are with all our potential.

In an ancient story, it is told of an old pilgrim who was making his way to the Himalayan Mountains in the bitter cold of winter when it began to rain.  An innkeeper said to him, “How will you ever get there in this kind of weather, my good man?” The old man answered cheerfully, “My heart got there first, so it’s easy for the rest of me to follow.”

So let us be open to the graces of these readings:

http://usccb.org/bible/readings/022518.cfm

http://www.sacredspace.ie/daily-prayer/2018-02-25

A Mountain Story . . .

 

Story: The Land of the Mighty Mountain

 

 

There was once a country famed far and wide for its holy mountain.  People from all over the world had heard about the holy mountain, but the strange thing was, the people who actually lived in that country had a habit of walking around with their eyes always focused on the ground.  They never lifted their heads. And if you asked them what they were doing, they would tell you: ‘We are searching for the holy mountain, of course. Why don’t you join us in the search? This is where you must look.’

And so they lived their lives, restless, moving round in circles, walking up and down the many lanes and alleyways of their country, poring over their maps and arguing with each other about where, exactly, the holy mountain was to be found.

Meanwhile, the holy mountain soared to the skies, waiting patiently for the people to discover its beauty and its power, and saddened to watch them picking their way through the world and never stopping to look up.

In one part of the country, there was a large lake, with water as smooth as glass. The mountain was reflected in this lake, and many of the people of that country would gather around the lake, point to the reflection and claim that they had discovered the mountain.  Some of them jumped into the lake and were drowned. Others thought that the mountain had an evil influence, and turned away from the lake. Others decided that, after all, there was no such thing as a holy mountain.

Then one day, amid all the hustle and bustle of the people’s desperate search for the mountain, one of them fell over, and was almost trampled to death by the milling feet all around him. He lay there, flat on his back, thinking that his end must surely be close, when to his amazement; he looked up and saw the holy mountain towering serenely above him. He tried to tell everyone what he had seen, but no one believed him, so he set off alone to seek out the path that would lead him to the mountain.

It was a hard journey, for the path was sometimes steep and perilous, and he kept losing sight of his goal. Many times he fell in his journeying, and every time he fell, he would see, once more, the mountain he was searching for, and be encouraged to keep on walking.  And as he walked, he noticed that the only other people on the path to the mountain were disabled or sick, or were carrying some great load that had made them topple over in their need.  He realized that only those who had fallen were ever able to see the mountain, and only those who knew the full meaning of the word ‘down’ could ever look up. (Source Unknown)

A Prayer of releasing and affirming . . .

Come, Holy Spirit ~
Replace the tension within me with a holy relaxation,
Replace the turbulence within me with a sacred calm,
Replace the anxiety within me with a quiet confidence,
Replace the fear within me with a strong faith,
Replace the bitterness within me with the sweetness of grace,
Replace the darkness within me with a gentle light,
Replace the coldness within me with a loving warmth,
Replace the night within me with Your day,
Replace the winter within me with Your spring,
Straighten my crookedness, fill my emptiness,
Dull the edge of my pride, sharpen the edge of my humility,
Light the fires of my love, quench within me the flames of envy,
Let me see myself as You see me, that I may see You
as You have promised ~
And be fortunate according to Your word, “Blessed are the pure of heart,
for they shall see God.”                          
(Anonymous)
                                         

The gift of interruptions . . .

 

Turning Points

 

Time turns
taking us
where we would
not choose to go.
Suddenly
we pass a point
we will never pass again.
Turning points interrupt us . . .
there must be some mistake!
Looking back we see them
for what they are:
bittersweet raw reality
breakthrough to beatitude
bedrock that gives us courage
to give ourselves away.
The less we struggle with turning points
the greater the strength
to return and turn again.

Author unknown