warm morning light
mws
spreading patterns across the wall
delicate shadows
delicate shadows…
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… when we glimpse it
Our religious experience begins and ends with the heart. It begins with the insight that our heart is restless. A world of things can never fully satisfy its restless quest. Only that nothing beyond all things that we call meaning gives us rest when we glimpse it. The quest of the human heart for meaning is the heartbeat of every religion.
Gratefulness, the Heart of PrayerWhen I returned from my bicycle ride to coffee this morning I caught a glimpse of the sunlight coming through my bedroom window. I knew it as a voice telling me there was a photo being offered. Did I want it? Just a glimpse is all it takes for us to see something that’s small and irrelevant at times and now has something simple to offer. I wanted it! Some would call it a spiritual experience. After looking at the quilt I rememberd it was a handmade quilt given to me by my friend, Judith, who died of cancer 17 years ago. Maybe she was behind that voice.
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How Well We Love
When all is said and done,
Steven Charleston, Spirit Wheel
The only true measure of our lives
Is how well we loved.
How well we gave love, received love, shared love,
Protected love, created love.
Nothing else will matter when our turn comes
To make the final journey—
Only the love we were will linger.
Only love will still speak our name
In the hearts of those we embraced.
We were made to love, you and I,
Made so by the author of love
Made in the image of love to be the love we are.We had a light dusting of silent snowfall during the night. However, along with the snow comes the cold temperatures, 23 degrees. I made my way to the coffee shop for an Old Town Mocha made by Winter. It was rather quiet in there this morning. People must have slept in. I drove around the CSU Oval on the way home and snapped this photo for the blog. Hope you have a wonderful Superbowl Sunday.
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Morning Shadows
long morning shadows
mws
stretching across fresh snow
those cold blue fingers -
Winter’s Shadows
Winter’s shadows and fresh snow This is a time (winter) when action becomes non-action, sound becomes silence. We see the essence in things, within ourself and within the world. It can be a time when we consider what is essential in our own life, and what needs to fall away, or we left behind. The ability to let go is a wisdom that belongs to Winter.
Llewellyn Vaughan-LeeIt was a frigid morning here in Colorado. My weather app said -7 degrees at 4:26 am. We received 3-4 inches of snow the past 24 hours and may get another inch later this evening. I took this image at Reservoir Ridge Natural Area about 9:45 am when we had warmed up to 2 degrees and the sun popped out. This arctic blast is a reminder that we are in the midst of winter and its gifts of silence, non-action, and repose. Winter is time for nature to slow down and rest before the onrush of rebirth and new birth of spring. And, how relevant that is in our lives, society and the world. Stay warm wherever you are!!
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Our Character As a People
I leave at O’dark-thirty tomorrow morning (4:05 am shuttle pickup) to spend a few days in Phoenix with my 95 year old dad and my sister and brother-in-law. We will celebrate Thanksgiving a week early and I will probably overeat. I’m not expecting to post anything until I get back on Sunday. We have had blue skies with scattered clouds but it’s been a cold, blustery day, which makes for a good day to stay inside and pack for the trip.
I love the shadows What the government will or will not do is finally beside the point. If people do not have the government they want, then they will have a government that they must either change or endure. Finally, all the issues that I have discussed here are neither political nor economic, but moral and spiritual. What is at issue is our character as a people.
Wendell Berry, The Hidden WoundThe above quote is near the end of Wendell Berry’s book, called The Hidden Wound. Even though the book was written in 1989 this quote seems to aptly apply to our situation today. I’m not a believer in looking to a government, a new legislation, or some leader to make our social, political or economic situations better, although they can help. For several years our real issues in our society, its government, and I will include the world, are really moral and spiritual. He’s right: What is at issue is our character as a people. What is sad to me is that people do not want, or even know how, to look internally at their character. Or, worse yet, many have no idea what character means. It’s much easier to point a finger elsewhere. Anyway, I will be off line for a few days.
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Happy Friday
“I wish it need not have happened in my time,” said Frodo.
The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring
“So do I,” said Gandalf, “and so do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.”A brisk 31 degrees this morning in Colorado. I met Jeff for coffee and conversation. When I got home I found out I had an issue with my website. After a chat session with Bluehost all seems to be working again. I find myself feeling overwhelmed with technology even after years working in engineering. I know some of that is immediate panic and a voice that says “I’m screwed now.” I don’t consider myself a techy person but prefer sharing stories of our lives with a friend, reading a book, journaling or enjoying the few moments with this nice buck I saw on my bicycle ride this morning. Each of those is about what I am doing with the time that has been given me while living in these times. Happy Friday!!
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Everyday Miracles
My dad’s wood carving of Madonna and child The intimacy our souls long for can happen only when we take off whatever stands between ourselves and union with the One. Our hunger for new cars and clothes, our reliance on other people’s opinions of us, our preconceptions about what it means to be spiritual, our attachment to habitual states of misery. Take it off. Peel it off and fling it off. Find your own subversive spirit and reclaim even the most challenging parts of your life as holy ground. Then everyday miracles will spring from beneath your bare feet to astonish you.
Mirabai StarrA rather cold morning here in Colorado with last night bringing a hard frost. The middle of next week will be cold with the possibility of our first snowfall of the season. That will curtail my bicycle rides to coffee. I am intrigued by Mirabai’s suggestion to find our own subversive spirit because I have been on that path for several years now, and enjoying it. I am learning to see those everyday miracles and sometimes capture an image of them. And, I like how Kathleen Dowling-Singh suggests it is a gift to pursue a spiritual path while still in the midst of life.
