All things belonging to the earth will never change—the leaf, the blade, the flower, the wind that cries and sleeps and wakes again, the trees whose stiff whose arms clash and tremble in the dark . . . all things proceeding from the earth to seasons, all things that lapse and change and come again upon the earth—these things will always be the same, for they come up from the earth that never changes, they go back into the earth that lasts forever. Only the earth endures, but it endures forever . . . Under the pavements trembling like a pulse, under the buildings trembling like a cry, under the waste of time, under the hoof of the beast above the broken bones of cities, there will be something growing like a flower, something bursting from the earth again, forever deathless, faithful coming into life again like April.
~ from YOU CAN’T GO HOME AGAIN by Thomas Wolfe, quoted in An Almanac for the Soul by Marv and Nancy Hiles
SPRING BLESSINGS! dear friends. A brief meditation, if you wish:
In the silence, repeat your name to yourself a few times ... reall the different feelings of being alled by name over the years: by family members ... teachers ... friends ... nicknames ... titles ... changes of name. Listen. Imagine God, the Beloved of your heart (whateer name you all the Unnameable Mystery) calling you by name ... Silently bask in this naming as a way of honoring your name and the Name.
We are uniquely loved more than we can imagine; each one of us is known and called by name. How we respond is up to us.
Know who you are. Do not debase the name. Carry it in your heart, a root flame of love. Walk through the world in silence. The moment will come. The sign will be a soft, stirring of wings, a gold shimmer of air.
A name ís an important word with meaning and energy that identifies someone or something. Our names bring certain patterns to our lives and have the capacity to forge our destinies. A name is also used as a way of entering into a person's world, wisdom, or life ... a code ingrained is us that allows us, when it is called, to remember, recognize and respond to our purpose.
There are many truths that do not have a name. Truths do not need names. But we do. We notice truths with names much more easily than truths we have not yet named, and naming is a way of realizing a truth that we had not noticed before
A name is a holy place. The name is a womb that nourishes the one who bears it with all the love and hope mingled in the giving of the name. If not dictated by some angel, names are chosen carefully for for saints or statesmen, prophets or poets, family doctors or relatives or places with wonderful sounds. Names are chosen with love in gratitude or by faith in potential or for hope of intercession. Names carry meaning within them, every year of life drawing out the meaning of the life named.
The human being is God's representative on this earth, one who knows the true names of things. This knowing of the names is the knowing of the distinguishing characteristics of things, their innate qualities.
We have seen the highest circle of spiraling powers. We have named this circle God. We might have given it any other name: Abyss, Mystery, Absolute Darkness, Absolute Light, Matter, Spirit, Ultimate Hope, Silence. But we have named it God because only this name, for primordial reasons, can stir our hearts profoundly. And this deeply felt emotion is indispensable if we are to touch the dread essence beyond logic.
All things change when you measure them. You might as well sing, the sound of your voice joining the others, like water overflowing, the name of the living God.
Please call me by my true names so I can hear all my cries and my laughs at once, so I can see that my joy and pain are one. Please call me by my true names so I can wake up, and so the door of my heart can be left open, the door of compassion.
What is my name? What is your name? What is God's Name? Our name is: that we must be born. And the Creator's name is: to bear. The soul alone among all creatures is generative like God is.
