… watching for the brushstrokes of God
Still, what I want in my life
is to be willing
to be dazzled —
to cast aside the weight of facts
and maybe even
to float a little
above this difficult world.
I want to believe I am looking
into the white fire of a great mystery.
I want to believe that the imperfections are nothing —
that the light is everything — that it is more than the sum
of each flawed blossom rising and fading. And I do. Mary Oliver
What does it take to be dazzled?
“Imitate the habit of twilight,
Taking time to open the well of color
That fostered the brightness of day.
Draw alongside the silence of stone
Until its calmness can claim you.” John O’Donahue
How do you open the well of color?
In this digital world of ours, as we move from one meeting to another without leaving the room, we have lost the spaciousness of travel, the in-between spaces that open up to reflection and deep breath, of noticing the leaves on the trees and watching the sun rise through the morning fog…the spaces where we are held by God, the creator and sustainer.
How do you create moments to catch your breath?
“Let him who cannot be alone beware of community…Let him who is not in community be aware of being alone…Each by itself has profound pitfalls and perils. One who wants fellowship without solitude plunges into the void of words and feelings, and one who seeks solitude without fellowship perishes in the abyss of vanity, self-infatuation, and despair.” Dietrich Bonhoeffer
How do you seek solitude and community?
What has happened to our ability to dwell in unknowing, to live inside a question and coexist with the tensions of uncertainty? Sue Monk Kidd
How do you live with uncertainty and unknowing?
When we are at peace, we find the freedom to be most fully who we are, even in the worst of times. We let go of what is nonessential and embrace what is essential. We empty ourselves so that God may more fully work within us. Cardinal Joseph Bernadin
Like the trees in the beauty of this season, what do you let go and what do you embrace?
With the Eyes of the Heart 