… watching for the brushstrokes of God
… So let us be marked
not for sorrow. …
but for claiming
what God can do
within the dust,
within the dirt,
within the stuff
of which the world
is made,
and the stars that blaze
in our bones,
and the galaxies that spiral
inside the smudge
we bear. ~ Jan Richardson
The Spirit of God breathes everywhere within you, just as in the beginning, filling light place and dark…green earth and dry…. God’s love grows, fullness upon fullness, where you crumble enough to give what is most dear. Your earth. ~ Joan Sauro, from Whole Earth Meditation
How do you give your dust?
Some say there is no hope,
but then I’ve always applauded the holy fools
who never seem to give up on
the scandalousness of our faith:
that we are loved by God……
that we can truly love one another.
I no longer pray for peace:
I pray for miracles. ~ Ann Weems
How foolish do you dare to be?
On the edge of war, one foot already in,
I no longer pray for peace:
I pray for miracles.
I pray that stone hearts will turn
to tenderheartedness,
and evil intentions will turn
to mercifulness, …
I pray that all the “God talk”
will take bones,
and stand up and shed
its cloak of faithlessness,
and walk again in its powerful truth….
I no longer pray for peace:
I pray for miracles. ~ Ann Weems
How far do your prayers go?
“The deep places in our lives — places of resistance and embrace — are reached only by stories, by images, metaphors and phrases that line out the world differently, apart from our fear and hurt.” ~ Walter Brueggemann
How do you find your way into those narratives?
“Today I am pulling on a green wool sweater
and walking across the park in a dusky snowfall.
The trees stand like twenty-seven prophets in a field,
each a station in a pilgrimage—silent, pondering.
…
I will walk home alone with the deep alone,
a disciple of shadows, in praise of the mysteries.” ~ Edward Hirsch
How do you walk with mystery?
With the Eyes of the Heart 