Through Stained Glass: Advent Word a Day 12 - Splendor

“Speak Little. Learn the words of eternity.
Go beyond your tangled thoughts and
find the splendor of paradise.”
― Rumi

Splendor.

Pomp and circumstance – expectation

Quiet and dark – conversation

At times, I see where I miss the mark – where I need to return to a new page, a blank screen. What if splendor isn’t in the flashy. What if it is in the ordinary?

Advent is the season we prepare for the birth of Jesus. In Jesus, the love of the Holy One is revealed to the world – as God has done before. There was no news coverage of that birth, no parades, no silver, and gold. [Those gifts came later; celestial coverage led the way...]

Ordinary darkness.

Ordinary parents.

What if splendor is the Holy in the ordinary?

What if splendor is reciprocity – celebration … not competition or domination?

The way our Christian story goes – the Christ wasn’t born in *majesty* as we know it. Nor was the Christ clothed in imperial garments.

The splendor of the Holy Three – the Community of Love – is … freedom , interdependence, mutuality.

Advent for Christians is about the descent of the Divine – illuminating what already is – goodness initiated from darkness – interconnectedness.

Splendor – standing on the earth, walking the same trail as other siblings in nature, hearing in the silence – in the beginning, was an intimacy that held [and continues to hold] all things together – even now.

Through Stained Glass: Advent Word a Day 9 - Everlasting

“I lie down in fields of goldenrod, and everlasting. Who could find me?” Mary Oliver

 

Everlasting

It took me a while, but I now know God’s love is everlasting. 

For a long time, Divine Love felt more like a threat [if you don’t eat all your vegetables, I’m sending you to your room]. 

Divine Love is now — soft at the edges; tender to the touch; flowing with life. 

Lady Julian of Norwich says it is the “glorious mingling” of body and soul, matter and spirit.

The everlasting love of the Holy One is what makes all things — one. 

It is what draws us in — nurtures us — conspires with us.

It is embodiment. Yes, what hums throughout time and the universes is the wisdom of Love. It is that love that makes what’s everlasting real. 

And what’s real?

This moment. And that one. The trees and the birds who reside in them. Your partner sitting in the chair across from you and my dog asleep at my feet. 

Maybe this doesn’t sense. At times the everlasting doesn’t either. Yet, what has always been — and will always be — is what’s happening right now. 

What is happening right now?

The Everlasting Love of the Holy Three! 

I stood before this tree last September and wept. It was as if I was fully present to this rooted one. All of who I am stood before all of who they were. Nothing else mattered — because there wasn’t anything else but the ‘glorious mingling’ between us. Even now tears fill my eyes as I give thanks for this tiny tree and wonder if they are covered in snow up there in Alaska.

Everlasting — is ever present. Ever embodying. Never ending.

Dust to dust, after all. 

Through Stained Glass: Advent Word a Day 6 - Fulfil

“Each of us is a completely unique creature and that, if we are ever to give any gift to the world, it will have to come out of our own experience and fulfillment of our own potentialities, not someone else’s.”
― Joseph Campbell

Fulfil

Or

Fulfill

Tell me about your dreams.

Tell me about your fears.

Tell me about your hopes.

Tell me about your despair.

Listen to your heart.

Listen to your mind.

Listen to your spirit.

Listen to your body.

What smell takes you back to your childhood?

What song makes you weep?

What fruit brings delight to your mouth?

What person do you miss hugging the most?

What sight makes you look up in adoration?

From the beginning, let your life speak.

At the end, sing the song you know.

Between them – your story is unfolding – becoming!

Happiness is better shared – in the sharing – a sensual serenity.

Fulfill your life by being yourself.

Embody your desires.

Incarnate your love.

Bring to the world – all of who you are.

Abolish only that which no longer makes sense.

Liberate the ‘yes’ trapped by someone else’s ‘no.’

Let your ‘no’ be what transforms you.

You’re the fulfillment of Love, too.

It’s never too late to begin again.

It’s the right time to begin again.

“Start close in,” as David Whyte says.

Follow your voice toward fulfillment.

Through Stained Glass: Advent Word a Day 4 - Path

“No one saves us but ourselves. No one can and no one may. We ourselves must walk the path.”
― Gautama Buddha

 Path

Tails. Runs. Paths.

All gateways to divinity.

Thresholds.

During sabbatical I sauntered down many paths. Miles worth. Main paths are okay. But, pathways that lead [safely] off the trail – there’s where mystery meanders.

Tracks in the mud along riverbanks and creek beds – many paths leading to one watering hole – but never the same stream.

Paths opening to canyons – terrain that speaks of indifference, impermanence, and emptiness.

Paths are invitations. To the more-than-human world – our plant kin, our slithering siblings, our Mother the Mountain.

It’s like what David Whyte says about the window latch and how it grants us freedom. Paths are thresholds – the dream ladder to divinity.

Your path is beautiful, too. It may not be my path. Or their path.

Tell me about your path. Give me the nitty-gritty details – it’s rocky, it’s smooth, it’s muddy, it’s new.

I’ll tell you about mine. How it switches back, always towards home.

Paths are alluring. They are what lead us into that Great Conversation.