life: acoustic & amplified
poetry, quotes & thoughts about life
Archive for the category “Trust”
on our way
You are on your way from Jerusalem to Jericho,
going out from the heart of your religion into your daily life.
Along the way you are assaulted.
Whatever your religion has given you is taken.
You are stripped of a good way to present yourself.
You are robbed of your worthiness, whatever is to your credit.
The priest who would receive your sacrifice is not interested.
The Levite who would assure your righteousness does not.
You have no power, no treasure, nothing to offer,
nothing with which to prove or defend yourself.
You are utterly dependent, and deeply alone.
There is no reason to love you.
And your enemy draws near and bends over you.
Your fear, what you reject and despise, looms.
And heals you.
The one you distance makes you a neighbor.
The one you judge shows you mercy.
The one you refuse to love loves you.
We are loved without reason.
We are saved, not successful.
Only the one dependent on mercy can show us mercy.
Only the vulnerable can teach us trust.
We need the poor, to learn to receive.
We need the guilty, to learn to be forgiven.
We need the alien, to see ourselves, and all souls.
Without them, how destitute we are
on the road from Jerusalem to Jericho,
poor and naked, lost in the land of grace,
love draining out of us, ravenously sucking on our egos,
shivering in the rags of our self-sufficiency.
I don’t know about trusting the Lord
what the mother in the projects knows.
I don’t understand forgiveness like the prisoner.
I need to learn humility from the prostitute.
I will truly get mercy only side by side
with those who have no other hope.
The Samaritan I fear and despise
is my teacher, my master,
my savior,
my Christ.
________________
Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
http://www.unfoldinglight.net
Remember that not getting what you want is sometimes a wonderful stroke of luck. – The Dalai Lama
To get the most success out of life have no agenda other than to give whatever you can in the present moment. A smile, a laugh, a quarter, a helping hand, an introduction or just your listening ear is more powerful than you can imagine. Beneath every gift is the knowing that the Universe is abundant and that you lose nothing by giving away what you have. Others will feel comfortable in your presence and all good things will find you – WITHOUT seeking them.
– Jackson Kiddard
some things are hard to spell
How do you spell
the sound you make
when you have an orgasm?
Now you see the difficulty of poetry.
Take a scale and calibrate it
to exacting standards, and tell me
which weighs more: Mozart’s requiem
or your feelings when your mother died?
Now you see the problem with art.
Tell me: what did God mean
in creating the sea?
You see, don’t you,
the temptation of prayer,
and its pure and holy uselessness?
People say, “Father, Son and Holy Ghost”
as if that explains something.
The Spirit said to me:
“Understanding is a pair of sunglasses.”
What then can we do,
but pray without ceasing,
and write poetry until our eyes close?
What can we do but lay down our shovels
and come home?
What can we do but touch
the children we love as if for the first time,
and lay our hands and eyes tenderly,
like newborns, upon this world,
until all that we know of the world
disappears into the world,
and God escapes our imagining,
until we are raised from the tomb of certainty
into the glorious rainbow light of awe?
Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
http://www.unfoldinglight.net
your own particular fire
Something immense within,
a seed bursting its case,
a mother with child,
the only passenger
in the little boat
of your life,
a whole world’s worth
of divine love
pent up in you,
vast, given, swelling
with heat and beauty,
your own particular fire—
let it out
or it will sear you!
Let it out
__________________
Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
http://www.unfoldinglight.net
I am not here to change the world. I am changing the world because I am here. -Lisa Wilson
When we hold firm our cups of life, fully acknowledging their sorrows and joys, we will also be able to lift our cups in human solidarity. Lifting our cups means that we are not ashamed of what we are living, and this gesture encourages others to befriend their truths as we are trying to befriend ours. By lifting up our cups and saying to each other, “To life” or “To your health,” we proclaim that we are willing to look truthfully at our lives together. Thus, we can become a community of people encouraging one another to fully drink the cups that have been given to us in the conviction that they will lead us to true fulfillment.
– Henri Nouwen
http://www.henrinouwen.org
the power of choosing creative forces
As my sufferings mounted I soon realized that there were two ways in which I could respond to my situation – either to react with bitterness or seek to transform the suffering into a creative force. I decided to follow the latter course.
– Martin Luther King Jr.
extreme faith-living
It’s a fascinating way to live
living on the very edge of faith
stepping out on the spot directed
when there doesn’t even seem to be a rope
trusting in a net
or wings
or something
walking on water
without care
to what others believe
or even what my fearful mind has to say
I walk on the bridge of the faithful
reaching for the strawberries
growing in the mountain cliff
after all, I’ve gotten this far on miracles alone
why should I waste time on worry at this point?
God is always faithful
AL 4/16/13
winter. spring. winter
Tomorrow is the first day of Spring, but there’s six inches of snow in the yard and it’s still coming down. In the woods where days ago there were pools there are now piles of snow. We are ready for spring to come, but it comes in fits and starts. As a little girl once said, “I’ve figured out the seasons. It goes summer, autumn, winter, spring, winter, spring, winter, spring.” Of course all the seasons do that. This is just the Vernal version of Indian Winter. We notice it most in spring because we long so deeply for renewal.
Sunday is Palm Sunday, and as Jesus enters Jerusalem we’ll celebrate him as a king, shouting praise. But before the service is over we’ll be shouting, “Crucify him!” Winter, spring, winter…. We are saved, but we are still working out our salvation. We are one with God and with all Creation, but we trust our oneness only in fits and starts. We who are made new still long for renewal. We believe; God help our unbelief.
Neither we nor the Church nor society are “getting better every day.” Some days we get worse. But Jesus understands. He knows his disciples will deny him, but says, “Listen! Satan has demanded to sift all of you like wheat, but I have prayed for you that your own faith may not fail; and you, when once you have turned back, strengthen your sisters and brothers” (Lk. 22.31-32).
Neither our inner nor our outer lives are one smooth, simple arc like a hit baseball. The path is rough and winding. We rise and fall, dip and swing, lurch and stop and lurch again. Stuff happens. But through it all, Jesus walks with us and prays for us. The Spirit bears us on. Spring is in us still, working its life-giving magic, producing renewal. It just doesn’t come all at once, forever. The Beloved breathes in us, and even in our failures and desolations we are becoming more fully the beloved people God creates us to be. Under the snow the crocuses keep pushing up; the buds still swell on the trees.
Even when spring reverts to winter in your soul, shovel the snow, but keep the faith. We are being transformed, from one degree of glory to another. We are being re-created. The world is turning, and our inconsistencies can’t stop it. The Spirit is living and growing in you. Wait for the Lord.
__________________
Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
http://www.unfoldinglight.net
life: acoustic & amplified 