We hunger to be known and understood. We hunger to be loved. We hunger to be at peace inside our own skins. We hunger not just to be fed these things but, often without realizing it, hunger to feed each other these things because they too are starving for them. We hunger not just to be loved but to love, not just to be forgiven but to forgive, not just to be known and understood, but to know and understand each other to the point of seeing that in the last analysis we all have the same good times, the same bad times, and that for that very reason there is no such thing in the world as anyone who is really a stranger.
SPRING GREETINGS, friends. May blessings of life and love, healing and beauty, grace you lives ... may harmony flow that flowers may unfold and blossom within your inner beings! For "the currents of life in humanity and nature are always in accord unless humanity disturbs the harmony." (C. Heline)
Behold, my friends, the spring has come!
The earth has received the embraces of the sun,
And we shall soon see the results of that love!
Every seed is awakened and so has all animal life.
It is through this mysterious power that we, too,
have our being.
And we, therefore, yield to our neighbors,
even our animal neighbors,
The same right as ourselves to inhabit this land.
The world is not a machine, but an exquisite sanctuary. You need to be one with the world. You need to feel that you are not an accident in this world. You need to feel that the world is not an accident either. You need to celebrate your own uniqueness in a world that is sacred. The sacredness of the world, your dignity and your sovereignty, are assured by the assumption that the world is a sanctuary. To act in a world as if it were a sanctuary is to make it reverential and sacred; and is to make yourself elevated and meaningful. What the universe becomes depends on you. Treat it like it becomes a divine place. Treat it indifferently and ruthlessly and it becomes an indifferent and ruthless place. Treat it with love and care and it becomes a loving and caring place.
If our ordinary, self-centered viewpoint is dominant, rocks and tree roots are undesirable. But if we change our point of view, then the very fact that there are rocks and tree roots makes the valley stream more beautiful and the sight of waves breaking upon them beyond description. When we perceive joy, anger, happiness and sorrow as enriching our lives, just as rocks and tree roots and water spray embellish nature, then we are able to accept whatever happens and live like flowing water, without clinging to anything.
These are only hints and guesses,
Hints followed by guesses;
And the rest is prayer, observance, discipline,
Thought and action.
The hint half guessed, the gift half understood,
Is Incarnation.
Grounded in water and earth, we, like trees are connected to our mother. With roots deep in the earth, we are called to rest in her shelter where we don't have to say or do anything, just BE. Here we can know the nurturance and comfort of a God who surrounds un in warmth and wisdom in this sheltering womb, a constant Presence in our darkness and our light.
It is in deep silence that we enter into contact with the Indwelling Presence, with the radiance, the energy, the illumination and the fullness of Resurrection. In silence we discover our hunger and taste for the Word of God. our silence before the mystery of our own creation enables us to experience something of God drawing us ever closer. Silence in awe of God's creating love creates in us an ever deepening capacity for the word of God. The silence becomes a Presence.
I watch a hawk soar through the morning sky and something falls into place within me. It is as if I travel through a wood long unvisited and recognize familiar trees grown taller with the passing time. I come upon a thought, an act, a place with the vague sense of having thought that, done that, been there before. Or I come to a fork in the road and I know by some unexplainable sense which is right for me. I walk and uncover or discover anew what I have always known. Living intimately with nature opens doors in my spirit; the mystery becomes known, darkness becomes light.
