Tuesday, December 20, 2011

Dance by Oriah Mountain Dreamer

Tell me a story of who you are, and see who I am in the stories I am living.

And together we will remember that each of us always has a choice.

Don’t tell me how wonderful things will be . . . some day.
Show me you can risk being completely at peace,
truly OK with the way things are right now in this moment,
and again in the next and the next and the next. . .

I have heard enough warrior stories of heroic daring.
Tell me how you crumble when you hit the wall,
the place you cannot go beyond by the strength of your own will.
What carries you to the other side of that wall,
to the fragile beauty of your own humanness?

Take me to the places on the earth that teach you how to dance, the places where you can risk letting the world break your heart.
And I will take you to the places where the earth beneath my feet and the stars overhead make my heart whole again and again.

Show me how you offer to your people and the world the stories and the songs you want our children’s children to remember, and I will show you how I struggle not to change the world, but to love it.

Sit beside me in long moments of shared solitude, knowing both our absolute aloneness and our undeniable belonging. Dance with me in the silence and in the sound of small daily words, holding neither against me at the end of the day.

And when the sound of all the declarations of our sincerest intentions has died away on the wind, dance with me in the infinite pause before the next great inhale of the breath that is breathing us all into being, not filling the emptiness from the outside or from within.

Don’t say, “Yes!” Just take my hand and dance with me.
~
This is a letter from me to you. It is a letter from God to you, imploring you to share, to encourage, to reach out, to recognize the weak and the strong face of Christ in others, and within yourself. This is a letter about loving the light within each person and honoring that light in all persons. It is about letting Love IN and holding it to the light, dancing in life with Love. This is the message of Gabriel to Mary on the night of the Annunciation. "Come dance with me."

The word, perichoresis, is used theologically to describe  the "mutual inter-penetration and indwelling within the threefold nature of the Trinity." Literally perichoresis means "around - contain,' and choresis is related to chorea, from the from the Greek word χορεία (=dance). Perichoresis is commonly used in reference to the Spirit, who is eternally in dynamic, reciprocal relationship with Word and Source. Perichoresis refers to the relationships of our hearts to God and to each other. Our awareness of this indwelling divinity, this Spirit by whom we are all connected, all unified as holy harbingers of Godliness is entirely dependent on our consent, our receptivity, our "Yes."

Molly Marshall, in her book, Joining the Dance: The Spirit, Gabriel "calls life forth from from the emptiness of Mary's womb...The birth of the Son is a collaboration of human and divine. The conception requires the Spirit's fecundity and Mary's fruitful yes. God's creative movement accords with the receptive participation of the human partner." Christ is born through the Spirit of consenting hearts of "Yes" in shared relationships.

May your heart be open to the dance of the Spirit. May you realize the birth of the divine Christ within you and honor God's light within all who share this glorious dance of humanity and creation. Life is a sacred gift from God. Share. Trust. Love. Dance!

Namaste my friends, on this beautiful Christmas celebration of divine renewal! Thanks be to God.
Peggy
Artwork: Annunciation Henry Ossawa Tanner

Saturday, December 10, 2011

Advent by Thomas Merton

Charm with your stainlessness these winter nights,
Skies, and be perfect!
Fly vivider in the fiery dark, you quiet meteors,
And disappear.
You moon, be slow to go down,
This is your full!

The four white roads make off in silence
Towards the four parts of the starry universe.
Time falls like manna at the corners of the wintry earth.
We have become more humble than the rocks,
More wakeful than the patient hills.

Charm with your stainlessness these nights in Advent,
holy spheres,
While minds, as meek as beasts,
Stay close at home in the sweet hay;
And intellects are quieter than the flocks that feed by starlight.

Oh pour your darkness and your brightness over all our
solemn valleys,
You skies: and travel like the gentle Virgin,
Toward the planets' stately setting,
Oh white full moon as quiet as Bethlehem!

Read this poem slowly. Read it, perhaps two or three times so you can feel into the words and rest deeply into the place from which Merton describes the scene of Advent unfolding. Read and rest with the words until you step out of time and feel yourself  "more humble than the rocks, more wakeful than the patient hills." Smell the sweetness of hay and hear the lowing of the beasts in the barn and in the vast open mountainside the sheep graze in a silent starry night. Let the words of the poem, like the coming of the New, pour over you slowly, slowly and gently lift you into the flow of the journey to Bethlehem.

May the serenity of the season surround you~Peggy

Saturday, December 3, 2011

O Come!

I have always sensed great beauty in austerity: the paintings of Andrew Wyeth, the Belgian fog, the stark vast flint hills of Kansas, medieval chants. These stunning landscapes of solitude have called my heart into mystery all my life. In austerity, the clutter and noise of business fades away, leaving only what is essential; as if all of time is poised in quietude's vast open arms, waiting for my soul to enter.
“O Come!” the silence whispers. “Be. Here. Now. Stop. Listen.”

There is a universe in this one silent, open instant. “O Come!”

Ransom my mind from captivity in the business and distraction of time! Hear my bounded heart, crying for the True! You, O Silence, are a balm for my bloodied shackled body. I am exiled in the turbulence of Chronos, choking on each breath, missing moment after moment in which austerity peeks from behind “ the shroud that is over all the peoples, the woven covering that is over all the nations” (Is 25:7) and invites me to that sacred slice of Kairos.

"Be still! Be. Still. In the simple,  the timeless hospitality of austerity I am gathered into the unbounded arms of God with Us, Emmanuel, transcendent Christ, and held  transfigured into timelessness itself.

“O Come!” The Beloved waits.

“Keep watch!” The owner of the house stands waiting at the door. Do not let him find you sleeping!

Oh, come, oh, come, Emmanuel,
And ransom captive Israel,
That mourns in lonely exile here
Until the Son of God appear.
Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel
Shall come to you, O Israel!

May the open arms of austerity, the calm peace of solitude, beckon to your soul - Be Still! May you realize your abundance in simplicity. May the voice of the Beloved whisper softly to your heart, "O Come. Come into my love, my peace, my joy. Listen! I am waiting, always waiting just for you."

Advent Blessings, Peggy

austere -plain, simple, stark, sparse 

Monday, November 28, 2011

Our Deepest Fear —Marianne Williamson


Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate.
Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.
It is our light not our darkness that most frightens us.

We ask ourselves, who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous,
talented and fabulous?
Actually, who are you not to be?

You are a child of God.
Your playing small does not serve the world.
There's nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other
people won't feel insecure around you.
We were born to make manifest the glory of
God that is within us.

It's not just in some of us; it's in everyone.
And as we let our own light shine,
we unconsciously give other people
permission to do the same.

As we are liberated from our own fear,
Our presence automatically liberates others.

—Marianne Williamson

Matthew 5:14-16  “You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.

SHINE ON! Peggy

Thursday, November 24, 2011

Give Thanks in All Circumstances

Gratitude is the ascending reflection of descending grace."~ Beverly Novak

Gratitude is the foundation of the communion of souls, and also its highest reward. That's why eu-charist means thankfulness. Derived from Greek, eu - good, charistia - grace, or εὐχαριστία (eukharistia, “gratitude, giving of thanks, blessing of good grace”) and circular in movement, gratitude is its own experience…both a means and an end. Gratitude is an entry point to the awareness of blessing and the flow of grace. When shared in relationship, gratitude permeates our being and our doing, as we are perpetually grateful 1) for the opening of our heart, 2) for stepping into the flow of thanksgiving, 3) for the fruits that we enjoy in communion (in "good grace") with each other. We lift our grateful hearts in reverence and humility to the eternal spirit of providence and possibility for the experience. A circle of gratitude, a reflection of grace.

Gratitude is an opening for the expression of love in the world, as it necessitates a posture of humility. One cannot be truly grateful without also being humble. So, be thankful in all circumstances, for to be thankful is to find the blessing, to identify the Good, receive the grace, and return the gift, in gratitude. And so the circle continues. A means and an end.

“In daily life we must see that it is not happiness that makes us grateful, but gratitude that makes us happy.” Fr David Steindle-Rast

Holy Creator in whom we live and breathe and have our being, We give thanks for your eu-charist, your “good grace.” May it illuminate our hearts and minds, so that we recognize ourselves as instruments of your peace.  May our lives be one continuous prayer, rising like incense, as we breath the fragrance of Christ into the world. Keep our hearts humble and grateful in all circumstances, allowing the gift of love to flow forth from us freely, as givers and receivers of your goodness. May our cups overflow with abundant joy in Christ Jesus, the means and the end – the beginning and the ending – the first and the last, a circle of continuous, eternal, life-giving peace.  Amen
 
A blessed Thanksgiving to all! Peggy
This is part of a message on 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18: Rejoice always,  pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.

 
"If the only prayer you ever say in your entire life is 'thank you', it will be enough." ~ Meister Eckhart.

Wednesday, November 9, 2011

Who do You say I am?

The Invitation - Oriah Mountain Dreamer
It doesn't interest me what you do for a living
I want to know what you ache for
and if you dare to dream of meeting your heart's longing.

It doesn't interest me how old you are
I want to know if you will risk looking like a fool
for love
for your dreams
for the adventure of being alive.

It doesn't interest me what planets are squaring your moon...
I want to know if you have touched the center of your own sorrow
if you have been opened by life's betrayals
or have become shrivelled and closed
from fear of further pain.

I want to know if you can sit with pain
mine or your own
without moving to hide it
or fade it
or fix it.

I want to know if you can be with joy
mine or your own
if you can dance with wildness
and let the ecstasy fill you to the tips of your
fingers and toes
without cautioning us to
be careful
be realistic
to remember the limitations of being human.

I want to know if you can see Beauty
even when it is not pretty
every day.
And if you can source your own life
from its presence.

I want to know if you can live with failure
yours and mine
and still stand on the edge of the lake
and shout to the silver of the full moon,
"Yes."

It doesn't interest me
to know where you live or how much money you have.
I want to know if you can get up
after a night of grief and despair
weary and bruised to the bone
and do what needs to be done
to feed the children.

It doesn't interest me who you know
or how you came to be here.
I want to know if you will stand
in the center of the fire
with me
and not shrink back.

It doesn't interest me where or what or with whom
you have studied.
I want to know what sustains you
from the inside
when all else falls away.

I want to know if you can be alone
with yourself
and if you truly like the company you keep
in the empty moments.

I have always loved this poem because it speaks of knowing someone for who they are rather than what they do or where they come from. It speaks of knowing someone's essence rather than their external qualities. What can we really tell from the outside? It can totally misrepresent what lies within. Some people (intuitives) can see within a person in the first few minutes of meeting. Its almost like they can look within before they see what is without. Its because they "see" first with the heart and then with the eyes, rather than vice versa. Intuition connects hearts first.

Jesus (and all spiritual masters) ask us to see with the heart before we see with the eyes. They implore us to see each other as reflections of self - human to human with the same vulnerabilities, the same courage, the same tenderness, the same neediness, the same potential, the same worthiness, the same Godliness. When Jesus said, "Love the Lord your God and love your neighbor as yourself." he meant Love becomes and reflects love. When I Love God, I become as God, who is love, and I extend that love to all whom I encounter and we become Love together in God. This is how the Christ concept works. Christ gathers us all in love through love.

Who are you at your essence? How will you be known? How will you seek to know others? Several people asked Jesus at one time or another, "Who are you?" He often replied, "Who do you say I am?" Who do you think he was hoping they would see? A barefoot nomadic teacher and social radical? Or the greatest example of love a human can fathom? The Christ incarnate. And how do you think Jesus "saw" people? As reflections of himself?

May you be blessed with eyes that look within; eyes that see from a heart that is open and vulnerable to the hearts of others. "It takes one to know one," they say. May love recognize itself through you. Peggy

Thursday, October 6, 2011

The Persona Dei: The Image of Truth by Dorothy Sayers

I the image of the Unimaginable
In the place where the Image and the Unimaged are one,
The Act of the Will, the Word of the Thought, the Son,
In whom the Father's selfhood is known to Himself,
I being God and with God from the beginning
Speak to Man in the place of the Images.

You that We made for Ourself in Our won image,
Free like Us to experience good by choice,
Not of necessity, laying your will in Ours
For love's sake creaturely, to enjoy your peace,
What did you do? What did you do for Us
By what you did for yourselves in the moment of choice?

O Eve My daughter, and O My dear son Adam,
Try to understand that when you chose your will
Rather than Mine, and when you chose to know evil
In your way and not in Mine, you chose for Me.
It is My will you should know Me as I am--
But how? for you chose to know your good as evil,
Therefore the face of God is evil to you,
And you know My love as terror, My mercy as judgment,
My innocence as a sword; My naked life
Would slay you. How can you even know Me then?
Yet know you must, since you were made for that;

Thus either way you perish. Nay, but the hands
That made you, hold you still; and since you would not
Submit to God, God shall submit to you,
Not of necessity, but free to choose
For your love's sake what you refused to Mine.
God shall be man; that which man chose for man
God shall endure, and what man chose to know
God shall know too--the experience of evil
In the flesh of man; and certainly He shall feel
Terror and judgment and the point of the sword;
And God shall see God's face set like a flint
Against Him; and man shall see the Image of God
In the image of men; and man shall show no mercy.

Truly I will bear your sin and carry your sorrow,
And, if you will, bring you to the tree of life,
Where you may eat. and know your evil as good,
Redeeming that first knowledge. But all this
Still at your choice, and only as you choose,
Save as you choose to let Me choose in you.

Who then will choose to be the chosen of God,
And will to bear Me that I may bear you?


Dorothy L. Sayers (1893-1957) was an English writer, best known for her detective fiction, particularly the novels and stories featuring Amateur Sleuth Lord Peter Whimsey. Before the detective fiction career took off, she worked as a copywriter at a London advertising agency, where she worked on a long-running series of ads for Guinness and created a sensationally successful viral marketing campaign for Colman's Mustard. She was also a playwright, whose works frequently examined moral and theological questions. In later life, Sayers began work on a translation of Dante's Divine Comedy. She had completed Inferno and Purgatorio, and was working on Paradiso when she died; the work was completed by her colleague and later biographer, Dr. Barbara Reynolds, and published posthumously.  From http://www.tvtropes.com/

May life lead you always closer to the truth. May your mind be keen and your heart open to receive such a gift! For we live in an illusion purchased at the great price of misunderstanding and self-indulgence. God is with us, always with us, never left us. For God so loves the world that He gives his Son, that whoever loves Him also will not perish but realize everlasting life! Love never deserts, never betrays, never gives up...but Love must give free choice.
The grace of God and wisdom of humanity live in your heart, Peggy

Artwork: Christ Consciousness, http://www.spiritpathwaysfoundation.com/

Wednesday, September 28, 2011

Meditative Moment with Brother David Steindl-Rast


MEDITATIVE MOMENTS with Brother David Steindl-Rast from Milos Savic on Vimeo.

Deep stillness is a spaciousness within, an openness to what is. In silent meditation, one enters into the present moment which is the only transcendent moment, Kairos, the moment of all possibility; a moment in time and transcendent of time, in which all that is may come together as one in a vast expansive consciousness.


“Our own interiority, including our reflective self-awareness, is just as much part of the natural world as plants, mountains, and oceans. In human beings the self transforming universe has now become luminously conscious of itself. This interior vein of consciousness running throughout cosmic history, and within the dramatic depths of life, allows us to realize the Spirit of God as essence of Life. Our inner knowing, this intuition leads us to realization of the risen Christ, consciousness of the cosmos, gathering all matter and mind into his Eucharistic body.” 1

May there be a moment of stillness in your busyness today, so that you may mindfully enter into the process of living breathing Life, and realize the precious beauty of your being and of all those with whom you share the Eucharistic Body of Christ.

May you dwell in Love’s spaciousness, Peggy

1Adapted from John Haught on the theology of Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, Making Sense of Evolution, Darwin, God, and the Drama of Life, Georgetown University.

Tuesday, September 20, 2011

Being and Doing...Spilling Love

God is a noun – Love is a verb – God is love is a verb. God is love is me is a noun. I am a noun. I am a verb. I am love. I give love. The difference between Buddha and Bodisattva, between God and Jesus, is being and action. But both are one and the same. Martha and Mary. The Potter and the clay. The water and the vessel. Love, like water is contained in vessels. When vessels take action, love spills over….God fills our vessels; we are made in Gods image. Water is still water when it resides in the pot. Cracked pots, I have heard us called and so it is. Our imperfections spill our love to the world on God’s behalf, for that is how God lives and moves and has God’s being. Spilling thoughts for a Tuesday.

Peggy

Monday, September 19, 2011

Blessed Are You, Mystical Matter!

One of the most powerful mystical readings on the Spiritual nature of Matter (other than Genesis) is found in the Hymn of the Universe, by Jesuit philosopher and scientist, Pierre Teilhard de Chardin (May 1, 1881 – April 10, 1955)

Teilhard De Chardin was a French philosopher and Jesuit priest who trained as a paleontologist and geologist and took part in the discovery of both Piltdown Man and Peking Man. Teilhard conceived the idea of the Omega Point and developed Vladimir Vernadsky's concept of Noosphere. Some of his ideas came into conflict with the Magisterium of the Catholic Church, and several of his books were censured. (Wikipedia)

For Teilhard de Chardin, matter is divine. It is the clay from which God shapes creation over great spans of time.  Matter is the support for God’s Revelation and Christ’s Incarnation. Incarnation symbolizes the human face of God. Evolution is Spirit-in-process, working to awaken to itself. Humanity holds a special place in Teilhard's cosmology, because we represent the axis of evolution itself.

This fits perfectly with a physical science idea of Potential Energy (process) or Source, Energy or Spirit, and Matter or Incarnate Spirit. These living energy states are Trinitarian and they constitute an integrative understanding of both the divine and physical nature of reality.

Teilhard De Chardin’s extended reflection on the nature of spirit and matter which he based on the story of Elijah, beginning with 2 Kings 2:9-13:

9And it came to pass, when they were gone over, that Elijah said unto Elisha, Ask what I shall do for thee, before I be taken away from thee. And Elisha said, I pray thee, let a double portion of thy spirit be upon me. 10And he said, Thou hast asked a hard thing: nevertheless, if thou see me when I am taken from thee, it shall be so unto thee; but if not, it shall not be so. 11And it came to pass, as they still went on, and talked, that, behold, there appeared a chariot of fire, and horses of fire, and parted them both asunder; and Elijah went up by a whirlwind into heaven. 12And Elisha saw it, and he cried, My father, my father, the chariot of Israel, and the horsemen thereof. And he saw him no more: and he took hold of his own clothes, and rent them in two pieces. 13He took up also the mantle of Elijah that fell from him, and went back, and stood by the bank of Jordan;

Teilhard De Chardin continues the story… from HYMN TO MATTER (Hymn of the Universe)

The Man fell to his knees in the chariot of fire which carried him.
And he said this:
"Blessed be you, harsh matter, barren soil, stubborn rock: you who yield only to violence, you who force us to work if we would eat.

'Blessed be you, perilous matter, violent sea, untameable passion: you who unless we fetter you will devour us.

‘Blessed be you, mighty matter, irresistible march of evolution, reality ever newborn; you who, by constantly shattering our mental categories, force us to go ever further and further in our pursuit of the truth.

‘Blessed be you, universal matter, immeasurable time, boundless ether, triple abyss of stars and atoms and generations: you who by overflowing and dissolving our narrow standards or measurement reveal to us the dimensions of God.

‘Blessed be you, impenetrable matter: you who, interposed between our minds and the world of essences, cause us to languish with the desire to pierce through the seamless veil of phenomena.

‘Blessed be you, mortal matter: you who one day will undergo the process of dissolution within us and will thereby take us forcibly into the very heart of that which exists.

‘Without you, without your onslaughts, without your uprootings of us, we should remain all our lives inert, stagnant, puerile, ignorant both of ourselves and of God. You who batter us and then dress our wounds, you who resist us and yield to us, you who wreck and build, you who shackle and liberate, the sap of our souls, the hand of God, the flesh of Christ: it is you, matter, that I bless.

‘I bless you, matter, and you I acclaim: not as the pontiffs of science or the moralizing preachers depict you, debased, disfigured — a mass of brute forces and base appetites — but as you reveal yourself to me today, in your totality and your true nature.

‘You I acclaim as the inexhaustible potentiality for existence and transformation wherein the predestined substance germinates and grows.

‘I acclaim you as the universal power which brings together and unites, through which the multitudinous monads are bound together and in which they all converge on the way of the spirit.

‘I acclaim you as the melodious fountain of water whence spring the souls of men and as the limpid crystal whereof is fashioned the new Jerusalem.

‘I acclaim you as the divine milieu, charged with creative power, as the ocean stirred by the Spirit, as the clay moulded and infused with life by the incarnate Word.

‘Sometimes, thinking they are responding to your irresistible appeal, men will hurl themselves for love of you into the exterior abyss of selfish pleasure-seeking: they are deceived by a reflection or by an echo.

‘This I now understand.

‘If we are ever to reach you, matter, we must, having first established contact with the totality of all that lives and moves here below, come little by little to feel that the individual shapes of all we have laid hold on are melting away in our hands, until finally we are at grips with the single essence of all subsistencies and all unions.

‘If we are ever to possess you, having taken you rapturously in our arms, we must then go on to sublimate you through sorrow.

‘Your realm comprises those serene heights where saints think to avoid you — but where your flesh is so transparent and so agile as to be no longer distinguishable from spirit.

‘Raise me up then, matter, to those heights, through struggle and separation and death; raise me up until, at long last, it becomes possible for me in perfect chastity to embrace the universe.’

Down below on the desert sands, now tranquil again, someone was weeping and calling out: ‘My Father, my Father! What wild wind can this be that has borne him away?’

And on the ground there lay a cloak.

Entire text here: http://www.religion-online.org/showchapter.asp?title=1621&C=1537

Gen 2:19, 6. Now the LORD God had formed out of the ground all the wild animals and all the birds in the sky. Then the LORD God formed a man[c] from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being.

Gen 1:26 Then God said, “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, …27 So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.

Human is derived from the word humus or soil. Adam, from the masculine form of the word adamah meaning ground or earth and related to the words adom (red), We are, as all of the living, breathing cosmosphere, material life forms created from organic matter in harmony with this beautiful blue organism we call “Earth.” We are human before any other label we may call ourselves. We are humans, stewards of life, co-creators with Source, Imago Dei. May the blessing, and the responsibility, of this identity keep you in the mighty and fragile flow of Grace! Peggy

Comment: Every one of Teilhard De Chardin's blessings and praises of Matter is a discussion of the "realities" that living incarnate produces. This phrase has always struck my own heart: "If we are ever to possess you, having taken you rapturously in our arms, we must then go on to sublimate you through sorrow."


I would love to hear your comments!
Artwork: Elijah's Mantle recording artists, album cover Psalms from Invocations 1998

Tuesday, September 13, 2011

Who You Really Are

Could there be more
to this life we call "mine"
than a journey through space
or a story line? -
More to life than the body can sense
than the mind can conclude
from experience

Does who we are begin with breath,
depend on form or end with death? -
Strip away these roles, these names
and tell me what remains
And who you really are,
who you really are

We measure success
by the things we accrue
or the bonds that we form,
or the deeds we do
But these too shall pass,
as hard as we try
to hold on to form; form will die

But inherent in this dance of form
Is the chance to see what's yet unborn
And the choice to throw this chance away
And be caught up in the play
of who we think we are,
who we think we are

This is your lifetime; it could end at anytime.
Where is your attention?
Where is your prayer?
Where is your song?
In a fortunate life,
comes a call to be free
From the cycle of bondage and misidentity,
to wake from the dream
and finally realize
the truth of one's being
before the body dies

So before the final scene is past,
see the screen on which it's cast.
See what's seeing this me and you.
And then you will see who...t
who you really are, who you really are
Who you really are, who we really are

~ Kirtara

I write alot about Who You Really Are here. I dont do it intentionally at all, but the message is obviously a powerful one within me. This awareness is foundational. I believe that if we simply accepted that we are at least equal parts Spirit and flesh we would have a much greater understanding of ourselves and our realtionships. If our hearts are truly set on peace, then realizing our spiritual identity is critical. When you know you are Loving Spirit, the "rules" are built in to the identity. You dont have to think "I should love this" or "I should love that." You simply love because it  is WHO YOU ARE. The New Covenant comes from a more enlightened mind than the covenant with Moses. The covenant with Moses was based on extrinsic rules and conformity. The covenant with Jesus is based on intrinsic LOVE. Let the Spirit breath this new life into you and awaken you to yourself. You are God's beloved. In the image of God, you are Love itself. 

Let the light of your Love Self shine before all! Peggy

Kirtana - singer/songwriter whose music has been described as new age vocal, devotional, "satsang,".

Saturday, September 3, 2011

Dark Night of the Soul



Dark Night of the Soul by John of the Cross (1542-1591). Music by Loreena McKennitt.

Saint John of the Cross was a reformer of the Carmelite Order and is considered, along with Saint Teresa of Ávila, as a founder of the Discalced Carmelites. He is also known for his writings. Both his poetry and his studies on the growth of the soul are considered the summit of mystical Spanish literature and one of the peaks of all Spanish literature. He was canonized as a saint in 1726 by Pope Benedict XIII. (Wikipedia)

"Dark Night of the Soul," like much of John's poetry, is based on "Song of Songs" from the Biblical Old Testament, and also on much of the romantic poetry and lyrics of Spanish popular balladry of that time, i.e., 16th century. The "secret stair" has less to do with a staircase in a monastery, and more to do with the popular theme of lovers meeting for a late night romantic tryst. In order for this to be possible, the young maiden of the song or poem would have to sneak out of the house, by the "secret stair." John uses this as a metaphor for the soul in prayer who, by means of contemplation, steals away from the world unnoticed, to meet in loving relationship with God. The dark night refers to the soul's search for God, beyond the confines of the human definitions we have put upon God."

~Fr. Emiel Abalahin

Certainly this explanation is congruent with the mystical notion of God and soul as lovers seeking union, This is the ultimate goal of the Christian spiritual path: purgation - illumination - union, and is often framed in the context of contemplative prayer as recollection between lovers - the Beloved and the Beloved.

Dark Night of the Soul
Upon a darkened night
the flame of love was burning in my breast
And by a lantern bright
I fled my house while all in quiet rest

Shrouded by the night
and by the secret stair I quickly fled
The veil concealed my eyes
while all within lay quiet as the dead

Oh night thou was my guide
oh night more loving than the rising sun
Oh night that joined the lover
to the beloved one
transforming each of them into the other

Upon that misty night
in secrecy, beyond such mortal sight
Without a guide or light
than that which burned so deeply in my heart

That fire t'was led me on
and shone more bright than of the midday sun
To where he waited still
it was a place where no one else could come

Within my pounding heart
which kept itself entirely for him
He fell into his sleep
beneath the cedars all my love I gave
And by the fortress walls
the wind would brush his hair against his brow
And with its smoothest hand
caressed my every sense it would allow

I lost myself to him
and laid my face upon my lovers breast
And care and grief grew dim
as in the mornings mist became the light
There they dimmed amongst the lilies fair

Friends,
In all of your Dark Nights, may you rest assured that God is with you. Find comfort in his arms and know you are dearly loved. And the mornings mist will become light....Peggy

Friday, August 19, 2011

The Prayer of the Children


Prayer of the Children is a song for a four-part men's choir, with words and music written by Kurt Bestor and arranged by Andrea S. Klouse. Bestor served as a missionary for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Serbia during the 1970s. Bestor described how he came to write the song (below).

Lyrics:
Can you hear the prayer of the children
on bended knee, in the shadow of an unknown room?
Empty eyes with no more tears to cry
turning heavenward toward the light.
Crying," Jesus, help me
to see the morning light of one more day,
but if I should die before I wake,
I pray my soul to take."

Can you feel the hearts of the children
aching for home, for something of their very own.
Reaching hands with nothing to hold onto
but hope for a better day, a better day.
Crying," Jesus, help me
to feel the love again in my own land,
but if unknown roads lead away from home,
give me loving arms, away from harm."

Can you hear the voice of the children
softly pleading for silence in their shattered world?
Angry guns preach a gospel full of hate,
blood of the innocent on their hands.
Crying," Jesus, help me
to feel the sun again upon my face?
For when darkness clears, I know you're near,
bringing peace again."

Dali čujete sve dječje molitve?
Can you hear the prayer of the children?

" Having lived in this war-torn country back in the late 1970's, I grew to love the people with whom I lived. It didn't matter to me their ethnic origin - Serbian, Croatian, Bosnian - they were all just happy fun people to me and I counted as friends people from each region. Of course, I was always aware of the bigotry and ethnic differences that bubbled just below the surface, but I always hoped that the peace this rich country enjoyed would continue indefinitely. Obviously that didn't happen. When Yugoslavian President Josip Broz Tito died, different political factions jockeyed for position and the inevitable happened - civil war. Suddenly my friends were pitted against each other. Serbian brother wouldn't talk to Croatian sister-in-law. Bosnian mother disowned Serbian son-in-law and so it went. Meanwhile, all I could do was stay glued to the TV back in the US and sink deeper in a sense of hopelessness. Finally, one night I began channeling these deep feelings into a wordless melody. Then little by little I added words....Can you hear....? Can you feel......? I started with these feelings - sensations that the children struggling to live in this difficult time might be feeling. Serbian, Croatian, and Bosnian children all felt the same feelings of confusion and sadness and it was for them that I was writing this song.

He told Meridian Magazine: "Those children didn't hate anybody," he said. "They didn't care about who owned the land, or who had the power or the money. These are adult neuroses. They just wanted to have a mom and dad and a place to play."

Matthew 18: 1-5. At that time the disciples came to Jesus and asked, “Who, then, is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?” He called a little child to him, and placed the child among them. And he said: “Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Therefore, whoever takes the lowly position of this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. And whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me.

Jesus, help me to feel the sun again upon my face! For when darkness clears, I know you're near, bringing peace again." Shalom my Friends, Peggy

Thanks Plead the Fifth for your lovely rendition! and  Wikipedia for the background info.

Thursday, August 18, 2011

In Silence (excerpt) Thomas Merton

Be still.

Listen to the stones of the wall.
Be silent, they try
To speak your

Name.
Listen
To the living walls.
Who are you?
Who
Are you? Whose
Silence are you?
Who (be quiet)
Are you (as these stones
Are quiet). Do not
Think of what you are
Still less of
What you may one day be.
Rather
Be what you are (but who?) be
The unthinkable one
You do not know.

-Thomas Merton
Art dynamicorange.com
 
Be still and know... "The quieter you become, the more you can hear." ~ Baba Ramdas.  As we grow in contemplativeness, our inner senses quicken. We realize that we can fully appreciate our reality through intuition, empathy, quiet reflection and the attention of our soul. Benedict of Nursia said, "Listen with the ear of your heart." The inner senses perceive all the essences of those stimuli that prompt the outer senses. Inflections in sound, shades of light and dark, subtle energies of people and of creation speak the language of the inner Self. We see beauty here and truth is a beacon of light, a solid stone wall of assurance. Be still and know....who are you? You do know. Be still.
 
Peace to you and all the world within you! Peggy

Sunday, August 7, 2011

A Journey, like Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening

Whose woods these are I think I know.
His house is in the village though;
He will not see me stopping here
To watch his woods fill up with snow.

My little horse must think it queer
To stop without a farmhouse near
Between the woods and frozen lake
The darkest evening of the year.

He gives his harness bells a shake
To ask if there is some mistake.
The only other sound’s the sweep
Of easy wind and downy flake.

The woods are lovely, dark and deep.
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.
 
By Robert Frost 1874–1963
 
Steeped in the sultry dog days of summer, this poem comes to my mind. Its cools me with its imagery of snow falling gently and piling on the branches of the firs, but in a deeper sense, it implies to me a journey. Its a journey with which I am quite familiar. Its a journey that sometimes seems to end, but is really destined to continue...like life. And sometimes it continues whether I am ready for it or not.
 
The road of my life is lined with woods of mystery, quietness, unknowing, peace, places and people I stop and attend, just as the sleigh driver attends on this snowy evening. I become a part of the 'snowy evening' simply by being there. My spirit feels a sense of belonging to the woods, to the scenery, to the people and places I encounter on the way. And I could rest in the comfort of that belonging for.....
 
But like the horse, Life is impatient. Life may allow me to linger for a year, or for moments, but the journey continues, and Life shakes the harness bells to awaken my complacency and remind me to move on. The stops I make to be attentive, the relationships I forge along the journey, will hold me and teach me, but for a time. The sleigh treads of my time with friends and family will soon be covered by the "sweep of easy wind and downy flake." Life does not wait. Lingering is a luxury. Being in the scene is a gift.
 
My promise was made before I arrived. The covenant I keep, the sacred trajectory of my purpose and plan IS the mystery of my life, and my journey must continue. After all, in some way my microcosm life expands into God's cosmic "woods" of eternal mystery. There is only me to make this journey. Me... and God. And I have miles to go before I sleep.
 
May the cool image of these quiet woods refresh you. May you realize the sacred and mysterious gift of your life, as it comes to you in scenes and relationships along the way. May you always be mindful to stop doing and "Be" in the moment, for that peace is your joy. May you  be still enough to discern the sleigh bells of Divine providence quietly urging you further into the woods of life, closer to your promise, into the waiting arms of God who has called you.
 
Peace, Peggy
Photo:writersharnkirkclifton.blogspot.com

Wednesday, July 27, 2011

Deep Truth

Our birth is but a sleep and a forgetting
The soul that rises with us, our Life's Star
Hath had elsewhere its setting
And cometh from afar:
Not in entire forgetfulness.
And not in utter nakedness,
But trailing clouds of glory do we come
From God, who is our home:
Heaven lies about us in our infancy!
Shades of the prison-house begin to close
upon the growing boy,
But he beholds the light, and whence it flows,
He sees it in his joy.

William Wordsworth, Intimations of Immortality from Recollections of Early Childhood

Deep within each of us is absolute truth. Not just relative truth, the truth that we have developed as a result of living and learning as humans being, but deep truth of the universe. Divine truth. God truth. Eternal truth arrives with us at birth and quietly, patiently urges us to awaken to it by gradually opening the windows of our souls to the sacredness of life and to our belonging to Life. When we see beauty, when we feel love and joy, even in our greatest despair, truth whispers of a different reality. Truth holds us in the arms of God, who is both source and substance of truth and life, expansive and mysterious. Truth assures us of who we are and to whom we belong. Truth encourages us to embrace our humanity with reverence for each one, most especially, one's Self, the True Self, not the false self, who would have us live separate and desolate from our life-Source. But the True, The Real, the Divine Seed in each individual that remembers her Life as a gift of Holy Awakening...a "Life Star" in the words of Wordsworth. The True Self is as a droplet of pure goodness, only individuated in the mind of embodiment, but deeply and truly, a member of the vast eternal ocean of life; mists of humanity, sea foam of creation, undercurrent of the Spirit realm, the ocean of life embodies all of us in It's sacred and holy becoming.

You are not alone. No man is an island. We are made to love each other, for this is how humans weave their lattice of connectedness. From heaven you came and heaven has never left you! Heaven is the sea within which your life ebbs and flows. It is the universe that holds earth and all her sisters and brothers suspended in cosmic synergy. What a gift is our Divine Truth! One that we would never behold, were we not formed as individuals and freed to find it amidst the relative. Here is another beautiful poem that describes the same.

Go to the Limits of Your Longing - Rainer Maria Rilke


God speaks to each of us as he makes us,
then walks with us silently out of the night.
These are the words we dimly hear:
You, sent out beyond your recall,
go to the limits of your longing.

Embody me.
Flare up like a flame
and make big shadows I can move in.


Let everything happen to you: beauty and terror.
Just keep going. No feeling is final.
Don’t let yourself lose me.


Nearby is the country they call life.
You will know it by its seriousness.

Give me your hand.

God is with you. The entire Old and New Testament can be summed up in these 4 words. Divine Truth is everywhere, in all of life, IS life. Everything is sacred  and you, human, are capable of understanding this and behaving in such a way as to maintain and cooperate with the Holy.
May today you awaken to the light of your Deep Truth. May it break through the prison walls of your mundane existence and fill you with the Joy of Knowing that God is with you always... as you. "The eye (I) with which we see God, is the same eye (I) with which God sees us [Meister Eckhart]. When you find God within you you will find your Self within God. You are One. You, the droplet, God the ocean. We are One. Everything is Sacred.

Let this be the Peace that passes understanding. Let this be the knowing. Let this be the Truth, Peggy

Thursday, July 21, 2011

Ongoing Persepctives on Being and Doing

"It is familiarity with life that makes time speed quickly. When every day is a step into the unknown, as for children, the days are long with the gathering of experience."

George Gissing, Papers of Henry Ryecroft

George Robert Gissing (1857 – 1903) was an English novelist who published twenty-three novels. From his early naturalistic works, he developed into one of the most accomplished realists of the late-Victorian era.

A little background on The Private Papers of Henry Ryecroft, by George Gissing (from the preface):

"Ryecroft was a struggling man, beset by poverty and other circumstances very unpropitious to mental work. Many forms of literature had he tried; in none had he been conspicuously successful; yet now and then he had managed to earn a little more money than his actual needs demanded, Little by little Ryecroft had subdued himself to a modestly industrious routine. He did a great deal of mere hack-work; he reviewed, he translated, he wrote articles; at long intervals a volume appeared under his name. There were times, I have no doubt, when bitterness took hold upon him; not seldom he suffered in health, and probably as much from moral as from physical over- strain; but, on the whole, he earned his living very much as other men do, taking the day's toil as a matter of course, and rarely grumbling over it. Time went on; things happened; but Ryecroft was still laborious and poor. In moments of depression he spoke of his declining energies, and evidently suffered under a haunting fear of the future.

At the age of fifty, just when his health had begun to fail and his energies to show abatement, Ryecroft had the rare good fortune to find himself suddenly released from toil…On the death of an acquaintance, the wayworn man of letters learnt with astonishment that there was bequeathed to him a life annuity of three hundred pounds. He established himself in a cottage near Exeter, where he rambled in lanes and meadows, amid the stillness of the rural night. We hoped it would all last for many a year; it seemed, indeed, as though Ryecroft had only need of rest and calm to become a hale man. But already, though he did not know it, he was suffering from a disease of the heart, which cut short his life after little more than a lustrum of quiet contentment. It had always been his wish to die suddenly; he dreaded the thought of illness, chiefly because
of the trouble it gave to others. On a summer evening, after a long walk in very hot weather, he lay down upon the sofa in his study, and there—as his calm face declared--passed from slumber into the great silence.

Here was a man who, having his desire, and that a very modest one, not only felt satisfied, but enjoyed great
happiness. He talked of many different things, saying exactly what he thought; he spoke of himself, and told the truth as far as mortal can tell it."

Children know how to "be." Every moment is a new experience for them and they revel in exploring objects and circumstances that adults find mundane. The truth is, adults have cast aside the present without realizing the infinite potential of what can be learned from it. Everyday our busy-ness, like blinders, keeps us moving past perfect opportunities and moments of awe that lay, rich and full, waiting for our attention. Some of us don't even take all our vacation days. We watch TV and listen to radio or MP3 24/7. We run from one event to the next, from one goal to a new goal. Doing, doing, doing... and Sacred Life, God, Beauty are lost in the fray. We wonder why we are so short of time and bereft of Spirit.

"I tell you the truth, unless you turn from your error and become like little children, you will never get into the Kingdom of Heaven." Matt 18:3

May the wise words of George Gissing, the simple story of Henry Ryecroft remind you that a contented heart will take you, as a sail, through winds of strife and change and lead you to calm waters of abundance. May you understand that a peaceful mind will hold fast the reigns of integrity in the most trying times. May you rest in the knowing that wisdom comes only through  a life of mindful moments in which a presence of self  can be realized and integrated into a reality of acceptance, and that the purest joy is found in the wondrous gift of the ever expanding Moment of Now. In the words of Robert Mulholland, "Let your 'being' determine your 'doing.'

Peace, Peggy
Photo: channels.com

Saturday, July 9, 2011

Meditation - Take a Moment


In the Old Testament hāgâ (Hebrew: הגה), means to sigh or murmur, but also to meditate. When the Hebrew Bible was translated into Greek, hāgâ became the Greek melete. The Latin Bible then translated hāgâ/melete into meditatio. The use of the term meditatio as part of a formal, stepwise process of meditation goes back to the 12th century monk Guigo II.

Meditative practices are common to all spiritual paths. To meditate is to stop "DOING" and to simply "BE" with yourself, with God, with peace. Being is essential to balanced living. It is through the refreshment we receive in being that we have energy and mindfulness in our doing.

Robert Mulholland, in his book, Invitation to a Journey says, "We need to live as though being determines our doing, rather than as though doing determines our being."

There are so many forms of meditation. Christian practices include lectio divina (slow, contemplative scripture reading), chant, centering prayer, labyrinth, Taize, breath prayers, praying the rosary (prayer beads), mandala coloring - all are ways of quieting the busy mind and resting in God, practicing presence.

I hope you will take a few minutes to watch this beautiful video, savor the quotations that you see within, and let your mind take a rest in the presence...in presence...be present...be.

Peace and Presence to you! Peggy

Wednesday, July 6, 2011

Deep Peace, a Gaelic Blessing


Deep Peace of the running wave to you

Deep Peace of the flowing air to you

Deep Peace of the quiet earth to you

Deep Peace of the shining stars to you

Deep Peace of the gentle night to you,

moon and stars pour their healing light on you

Deep Peace to you.

Wishing you serenity and peace deep, deep within...breathe in....may the sacred breath of the ancestors flow into you and fill you with the wisdom of being. Breathe out...may the earth lie warm under your feet, the sun shine radiance upon you, and the night cover you in a blanket of tranquility. Breathe... Deep peace my lovely friends! Peggy

Video - Ashana, from the album Beloved - on Youtube by mkolinm

Saturday, July 2, 2011

Guardian Angels

Angel of God,
my guardian dear,
to whom God's love commits me here,
ever this day,
be at my side
to light and guard,
to rule and guide.

I love this prayer. My my boys learned it when they were very young in Catholic grammar school and taught to me. It is so simple and succinct: light, guard, rule, guide. Perfect.

The word angel comes from the Hebrew mal-ak, translated to Greek, angelos, meaning messenger. St Thomas Aquinas pointed out that we can only define angels by what they do, not what they are. Traditional thought about angels is that they are agents or messengers of divine will. I think they are intuition, personified.

If you think about it, I am sure you can relate to times in your life when angels had a hand in the direction you took, or in calming your fear, or giving you hope.

I had a friend in high school, Leslie. We were only friends our senior year because we both moved to PA that year and only for that year. Leslie came from Kansas, where she had found the love of her life, John. She was bound and determined to return to KS after we graduated to marry John and live in the peaceful KS country on a farm. They would have 2 boys, she would say, and they'd wear overalls without shirts underneath and blissfully carry out the farm chores. This was Leslie's dream and she recounted it to me many times during that senior year.

When we graduated, Leslie's family left PA and mine stayed. However, in August that year  I decided to go to college, in Kansas, for completely ridiculous [spontaneous teen aged] reasons. I travelled to Emporia, KS, arriving a week early to take the ACT, so as to be officially admitted. The first semester of my freshman year was rather tough, being so far from home. But I was an Army kid and had moved alot, so I did not have trouble making new friends. By the spring I had met some great kids and I went on to complete my college in KS. I remain in KS today, 37 years later, living with my husband of 28 years, Paul, and two sons in the country on a farm.  Leslie's dream, my message. No plan on my part, but I know that I am here in KS for a reason, for many reasons, some of which have been revealed and others that are still to come.

I have met many angels. You have to be awake to your intuition to find them. Some come to you through other people or creatures. Often you realize them after you have lived through their messages, like my Leslie experience. But angels will also guide you proactively, intuitively, if you are aware of yourself. Angels are agents of truth, guides of the spiritual journey.They often speak from within, rather than from without, appealing to our inner wisdom and illuminating the great body of truth that each of us already holds, in part from having descended through so many generations. But angels also connect us to the divine eternal spirit within which we live, and move, and have our being.

As my meandering Spirit began to resolve, another angel led me to my dear friend and mentor, Sister Therese, a Benedictine Sister who nurtured my deep heart, my mystical being, with writings of Julian of Norwich, Teresa of Avila, St John of the Cross, and the desert fathers, among others. She taught me and prayed with me in a way that enlivened and refreshed my Spirit in the beauty and rich wonder of these writers of the interior life. She guided me to a program of spiritual direction and I savored every year of it until I graduated with my certificate. I remain reverently indebted to Sr Therese and to the Benedictine sisters of Mt St Scholastica, in Atchison Kansas, who continue to guide and love me with generous hospitality. Sr Therese spends a great deal of her time serving the city parish where we met, Guardian Angels Church.

Today, may your angels speak to you from within and from without. Listen! God's voice is eternally whispering to you on their wings: lighting your path, guarding your well-being, helping you to discern the truth, and in these ways, guiding you closer to your life in Christ, your most authentic and loving you!

Peace and the Angels be with you! Peggy
Artwork: http://www.angel-art-and-gifts.com/
Poem: Author Unknown

Thursday, June 23, 2011

Loving is Understanding

" Loving is not just caring deeply, it is above all, understanding. " - Francoise Sagan.
To love someone deeply is to prioritize understanding and confront those things that are misunderstood with gentle honesty; to listen for deep truth so that you may share the perspective of the other, see the world as they do ... see the things they see ... Loving relationship is about seeing the Potential or ' Perfection ' in them , and by reflecting that vision back , encouraging them to be a better version of themselves.

Seeing "the potential/ perfection" in another is seeing Christ in them. It is this (Christ) awareness that allows us to realize we are the same -each one of us filled with the potential for...anything! Potential beyond what we can even imagine! We are images of God! Spirit beings incarnate. And in this identity, we are not only individual sons and daughters of God, but ONE collective humanity, We are ONE sacred and inclusive life creation, intimately connected, and  interdependent with, all of life to the farthest reaches of the cosmos. In Christianity, LOVE is the vehicle by which we know this truth and the means by which we live this truth. Love is the way, the truth, the life. LOVE WINS!

Jesus (LOVE) said to him, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes (to awareness of their image of God identity, to their own divinity which unites them with God [All Divinity]) to the Father except through me. John 14:6.

May understanding come to your heart today through love. May you know yourself as divine, united with all Divinity, for this is how we bring each other into Christ who lives in all. We are one. Today, follow Jesus. Be the loving way, the loving truth, the loving life. Be Love. It is who you are!

Lovingly, Peggy

Photo:
Sri Mata Amritanandamayi or Amma, as she is lovingly called by millions of her devotees, is a humanitarian, living saint, and incarnation of the Divine Mother. This south Indian woman from the state of Kerala, has been leading a life of compassion, service and unconditional love for all regardless of religious, ethnic and racial background for over forty years. Amma's current message is of embracing the world -- literally. Not only has she hugged millions as part of her spiritual public programs, but she has also created a vast network of humanitarian programs in India and abroad.


Wednesday, June 15, 2011

The Wounded Listener - ongoing thoughts on communication

Communication is how we weave ourselves together, as friends, as families, as societies and as humans. To be able to convey ideas and feelings and have them gracefully received and affirmed is truly the path to peace for humanity. Mostly, people dont need to be right or wrong, they just want to be heard. They simply want to make contact. Gracious listening - attentiveness. What a different world we would live in if we would listen to each other and respond with sensitivity, if we would value the deep significance of communication.

Today may you be mindful of those who speak to you with voice or gaze or body language. May your heart be your listening ear and attune you to the cries of those around you who simply need your patience, your time, your gentle affirmation. Listen with all of your faculties, and you will find yourself rich.

Peace, Peggy

Photo: victoriasartvisions.com

Sunday, June 5, 2011

"As I recognize my holiness, so does the holiness of the world shine forth for everyone to see." ACIM

For Wisdom is quicker to move than any motion; she is so pure, she pervades and permeates all things. 25 She is a breath of the power of God, pure emanation of the glory of the Almighty; so nothing impure can find its way into her. 26 For she is a reflection of the eternal light, untarnished mirror of God's active power, and image of his goodness. 27 Although she is alone, she can do everything; herself unchanging, she renews the world, and, generation after generation, passing into holy souls, she makes them into God's friends and prophets…Wisdom Ch 7:24-27

Wisdom lives within each of us. She guides us to the truth of our spiritual nature, our essence, our transcendent potential. Wisdom is the Spirit breath of God within us. She is the Divine Feminine counterpart to the Divine Masculine, and yet there is no separation between the two. Scripture points us to our divine nature, our Imago Dei over and over again. Wisdom is the Spirit of Love and Goodness that each human being holds deep in the core of the True Self; the Self that is often shrouded by the false (ego-driven) self. While the false self is prompt to react in defense, the True Self is known by her quiet voice. And so it is that we must "be still" in order to hear Her. Jesus pointed us to Wisdom in all of His ways. He is our example of a human who understood the She lives within us and that Her benevolence and compassion can flow freely from us if we only identifiy with Her as our True nature. She is called Wisdom because She knows this truth.

We are knee deep in a river, searching for water. We are part of an invisible river, but we are so distracted by outer things and what we imagine they could mean to us that we lose contact with the source of our own Being. Kabir Edmond Helminski

May today you take the time to "be still" and know that you are the home of Truth and of Wisdom. Made in God's image, they reside within you. The river of sacred goodness is within you and when you recognize this, water for all will flow freely from you. Goodness flows from Goodness, Love from Love...Be open and receptive to this stream of life-giving water...

Peace be with you, Peggy

Thank you Leslie Hershberger, for your inspiration!
Artwork: The seven pillars of Wisdom from the St John's Bible