Perfect Love Casts Out Fear

Passing time has invited me to revisit a poem that I had composed a couple of years ago and add  a second verse. I'm so very grateful for the ongoing healing path that beckons towards more wholeness and transformation. Where are you on the healing path? Do you find yourself on a desolate coast or a shore of consolation?


On the desperate desolate coast...


A tinkling of fragmented glass

Stunning in its beauty

Brilliant remnants reflect

the Father's love and mercy.

Clinking filaments and shards threaten old wounds...

Bound up in courage-

Perfect love casts out fear-

step across the dazzling devastation

into new found freedom.

 

Returning…

Tides of time

Sweeping waves of grace and forgiveness

Tumble fragments – transformed edges smoothed

reminders of redemption.

Winking beach glass

Gathered up

Perfect love embraced

on the gentle shore of consolation.


(images courtesy of photobucket)

A Simple Christmas - now past

 

As I anticipated the Christmas holiday season this year I simply couldn't bear the thought of entering into all the usual rush and falderal. Memories of Christmas over the past ten years or so prove to me the reality of my existence - the times they are a changing. I can’t fight the changing times. I might as well go with the flow. May I do so with grace and ease. 

This year, extended family gatherings were planned weeks in advance of what had been traditional celebrations on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. This is the way it goes when children grow up, get married and make choices as to how and where and with whom they are going to share the holiday. When grandchildren arrive on the scene each individual family naturally circles around immediate family. I get that. At some point long ago a decision was made by my own aunts and uncles and cousins to let go of extended family gatherings and simply gather with their own. Wonderful memories remain. New memories are being made.

Now, an empty nester with both my daughters far away and not coming home for Christmas this year, I chose to not put up a Christmas tree and to leave most of the decorations in their boxes. Jim was agreeable to the idea. It felt like the right thing to do this year. Though I’ve never gone hog-wild with decorations - think Griswald Christmas lights- neither am I an Ebenezer Scrooge. I wanted to have some symbolic reference and arrived at a simple advent wreath and lots of candles and peaceful seasonal music.

Each Sunday of Advent I lit the candles one by one – Peace. Hope. Joy.  Praying that all my dear ones would be blessed with each of these. I was really enjoying the simplicity that I had chosen. As I anticipated lighting the Love candle however, a deep melancholy rose up. An almost irresistible urge came upon me – to fly to the mall and join the consumers in the last minute frantic search – for what? Self-awareness invited me to consider what was going on. I missed my girls. I missed the former times. I was sad. I was lonely. I was grieving. I’ll admit it.

Christmas day found just Jim & me at home – alone. It was a quiet restful day. I took delight in cooking up a lovely dinner for two. Even so, I would have loved having a crowd around my table. It wasn’t to be this year.

Now, two days post Christmas day I’m content. To have been spared so much rush and hurry with the choices I made did my soul a world of good.  I wondered if more of life could be lived at a simpler pace. Confirmation of this came to me from this morning’s read from Common Prayer – a Liturgy for Ordinary Radicals:

 Twentieth-century Quaker, Thomas Kelly wrote, “Over the margins of life comes a whisper, a faint call, a premonition of richer living which we know we are passing by. We have hints that there is a way of life vastly richer and deeper than all this hurried existence, a life of unhurried serenity and peace and power. If only we could slip over into that Center! If only we could find the Silence which is the source of sound!”

Listen. Do you hear the whisper, the faint call? May you be blessed with unhurried serenity and peace and power in these last days of 2012 on into the New Year.

I’ve been wondering when and if the time would ever be right to resume the craft of blogging. Today my heart is so overwhelmed with gratitude that if I don’t put something out there I fell as though I’ll explode. A few questions moderate my enthusiasm. The first is, “will any one care to listen?” Another is, “who has time to read one more blog post?”

Then, I question my own sanity - why would I choose to engage with cyber technology when it so often confounds my capabilities. This is actually my second attempt at posting for  the day- *sigh* the other one disappeared in cyber space.

Here, then, is merely an invitation to hear what I have to say about this or that…

 

I’m a writer. It’s who I am. I’d like to share that part of me with any who care to know me better. I’ll welcome your comments as a way of conversing in community that we might learn from each other.

 

Allow me to begin once again with this little French Pantoum composed by moi a few months ago at a writer’s workshop – Writing as a Spiritual Practice with my friend, Jan Lundy at the Dominican Center.

 

How do I live my life from now on to honor the gift?

Why do I write?
I must write.
I write to say “yes” to God.

 

Why do I write?

Writing gives me a voice.
I write to say “yes” to God.
Perhaps others will listen.

Writing gives me a voice.

I must write.
Perhaps others will listen.
How do I live my life from now on to honor the gift?

simplifying

Honey girl's blog spot hasn't seen much activity of late and I've been pondering what to do here.
In an ongoing effort to keep things simple a discernment has been made to set it aside.

After reviewing Honey girl's early intent, I see that much has been realized and resolved and there just doesn't seem to be much more to say along those lines. It seems then, that (at least for now) this medium has fullfilled it's purpose. For that I'm grateful.
I've often wondered who my audience might be. Aside from my 4 - count them! FOUR faithful followers - Jodi, Jeff, Bobbe & Jami - Anonyms logged on now and then, along with Trish, Cheri, Janet, Caroline, Jan, Sheri, Linda, and Lisa. Thank you for visiting me here.
Awhile back I promised a book give away. A quick review of the above visitors indicates that Jami would get the prize for leaving the most comments - so, it seems fair that that would qualify her as the recipient of  Dan Allendar's, Sabbath.

It's been an interesting year and a little bit here in the blogging world. I don't know if or when I'll be back. Until next time, grace and peace

simple enough during Lent

Fast from discontent,
Feast on gratitude.

Fast from anger,
Feast on patience.

Fast from worry,
Feast on faith.

Fast from complaining,
Feast on appreciation.

Fast from bitterness,
Feast on forgiveness.

Fast from self-centered-ness.
Feast on compassion for others.

Fast from lethargy,
Feast on enthusiasm.

Fast from emphasis on differences,
Feast on recognizing unity.

Fast from unsettling anxiety,
Feast on inner peace.

Fast from half-hearted-ness,
Feast on commitment.

source unknown - but generally attributed to a longer
version by William Arthur Ward (1921-1994)

simply the best

What is the best thing you've ever done for yourself?
Never mind that it may seem selfish.
Never mind that it might not be what others would expect of or from you?
What is the one thing that is helping you live out of your core?
The one thing that allows you to realize more of your authentic self - the one thing that rings true - the one thing that shouts to your heart the biggest YES that you've ever heard?
The one thing that brings glory to your Creator?
The one thing that is helping integrate more of life into one big whole?
Where is the one place where you know that God is just waiting for you to show up?
Just a few questions - not simple, I understand.
But they were begging to be asked today....

simple beauty

I wake up with a song in my heart and simply have to share. Sara Grove's lyrics from her song, Add to the Beauty, offer a simple reflection expressing gratitude for God's goodness and abundant provision in my life these days.

We come with beautiful secrets
We come with purposes written on our hearts, written on our souls
We come to every new morning
With possibilities only we can hold, that only we can hold

Redemption comes in strange place, small spaces
Calling out the best of who we are

And I want to add to the beauty
To tell a better story
I want to shine with the light
That's burning up inside

It comes in small inspirations
It brings redemption to life and work
To our lives and our work

It comes in loving community
It comes in helping a soul find it's worth

Redemption comes in strange places, small spaces
Calling out the best of who we are

And I want to add to the beauty
To tell a better story
I want to shine with the light
That's burning up inside

This is grace, an invitation to be beautiful
This is grace, an invitation

Redemption comes in strange places, small spaces
Calling out our best

And I want to add to the beauty
To tell a better story
I want to shine with the light
That's burning up inside


Where can you add to the beauty this day, dear friend?