… watching for the brushstrokes of God
On retreat last week, we watched three bald eagles with their amazing wingspan soaring, gliding and reigning supreme – a mother and her two young ones, their heads still brown.
Soaring like eagles
Gliding above earth and sky
Vision far beyond
How do you capture beauty?
One day when Bashó and one of his 10 disciples, Kikaku, were going through a rice field, Kikaku composed a haiku on a red dragonfly that caught his fancy. He showed it to Basho
Take a pair of wings
From a dragonfly, you would
Make a pepper pod.
No, said Bashó. “that is not a haiku. You kill the dragonfly. If you want to compose a haiku and give life to it, you must say:
Add a pair of wings
To a pepper pod, you would
Make a dragonfly.
Kenneth Yasuda, The Japanese Haiku
Adding wings…giving life…A subtle shift changes the whole picture. What does it take in our thinking? In our world today?
Fishing out at sea
watching, waiting, sitting still
the beauty, not the catch
What activities draw us because of their restfulness?
Blue skies and white clouds
Beneath endless horizon
I watch dolphins play
Where do you notice the playfulness of God? How do you join God’s playfulness? What are your ways of being playful?
With the Eyes of the Heart 