Bright sun shining day!
In northwest Montana, Spring comes slowly – a gradual awakening, full of fits and starts. Beautiful warmth in the daytime, back to freezing at night. Comfortable transition. Exciting anticipation. The earth waking up, baby critters on the way, red buds on shrubs by the river, cottonwoods showing bright yellow…
Yes! Here Comes The Sun, and I say, “It’s all right!”
Peter Gomes, a Harvard theologian, writes:
“There is in Celtic mythology the notion of ‘thin places’ in the universe where the visible and the invisible world come into their closest proximity. To seek such places is the vocation of the wise and the good — and for those that find them, the clearest communication between the temporal and eternal. Mountains and rivers are particularly favored as thin places marking invariably as they do, the horizontal and perpendicular frontiers. But perhaps the ultimate of these thin places in the human condition are the experiences people are likely to have as they encounter suffering, joy, and mystery.”
Mountains and Rivers and
Mysteries as the clearest communicators between the temporal and the eternal – yes, for me, absorbed in those sacred places in nature and contemplating the Great Mystery, the visible and invisible are almost merged. The veil is thin and the feeling is of a wondrous oneness.
What a lovely way to start the new morning – Dan Fogelberg……..
(the photography in the video accompanying the song is just stunning, click below to hear the song and/or just look at the photos – it’s such an inspiring collection of images)
“To The Morning” (Lyrics, Dan Fogelberg)
Watching the sun…watching it come
Watching it come up over the rooftops
Cloudy and warm…maybe a storm
You can never quite tell from the morning
(Chorus)
And it’s going to be a day
There is really no way to say no to the morning
Yes it’s going to be a day
There is really nothing left to say but come on morning
Waiting for mail
Maybe a tale from an old friend or even a lover
Sometimes there’s none
But we have fun thinking of all who might have written
(Chorus)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=RxClQ_pInzc
And maybe there are seasons
And maybe they change
And maybe to love is not so strange
The sounds of the day
Now they hurry away
Now they are gone until tomorrow
When day will break and you will wake
And you will rake your hands across your eyes and realize
That it’s going to be a day
There is really no way to say no to the morning
Yes it’s going to be a day
There is really nothing left to say but come on morning
And maybe there are seasons and maybe they change
And maybe to love is not so strange
There is so much wonder and mystery in the world… and so much we can never know. We desperately want the “knowing” of answers to life’s big questions and work toward that end with studying and learning. Because we are seekers, the continuing unknowns and mysteries can be unnerving – all those big questions are pressing to be solved.
I believe though that there can be calm in the face of the unknown. Peace even within the space of all that can’t be understood. Safety in what comes next. Trust in the process of life’s unfolding. Where there is connection and a oneness it is enough. There can be sanctuary in the midst of the mystery.
As the Lakota say, “When you see Mystery, call it Mystery”.
The more these words are contemplated, the more they seem to be the most respectful and honoring of the possible ways to celebrate the enormity of all that can’t be known or named or understood. It is all just too big to be contained in human constraints. Feeble attempts to find words for these wonders make them small and limited. Better to let the power remain unnamed; call it mystery and feel the awe.
There is peace in the surrender to not knowing. Not knowing and still trusting. Loving without explaining. Feelings without words. Falling into the wonder…
“Once again I accept that life is uncertain and that the goal is not to become more certain about anything but to relax more into the mystery of not knowing what will come next.”
-Elizabeth Lesser
“Great Mystery, teach me how to trust my heart, my mind, my intuition, my inner knowing, the senses of my body, the blessings of my spirit. Teach me to trust these things so that I may enter my sacred space and love beyond my fear, and thus walk in balance with the passing of each glorious sun.”
― American Indian Lakota Prayer
“Life is an unanswered question, but let’s still believe in the dignity and importance of the question”
― Tennessee Williams
Enjoy the Ride!
The video was made by the safety council in Perth. It speaks eloquently of slowing down, breathing deeply and taking time for life’s exquisite moments.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=rRwfwyaHXDk
Living in the woods, our little town proves itself a nearby haven of good food, community, gatherings, parades, celebrations, galleries, farmer’s markets, the Depot, and even night life! It is a sweet, rustic, western, town that provides a warm, lively, hub of activity for locals and visitors alike. For me, the simple life is tremendously enhanced by this small town, so full of unique personality.
A few black and white photographs of Whitefish at night are in the gallery below (slideshow will load below).
“In the great cities we see so little of the world, we drift into our minority. In the little towns and villages there are no minorities; people are not numerous enough. You must see the world there, perforce. Every man is himself a class; every hour carries its new challenge. When you pass the inn at the end of the village you leave your favourite whimsy behind you; for you will meet no one who can share it. We listen to eloquent speaking, read books and write them, settle all the affairs of the universe…..
― W.B. Yeats, The Celtic Twilight: Faerie and Folklore
Oh, sweet Spring, welcome.
She brings her volatile mix of winds, snow, rain, gropple, melt, growth, buds, fawns, raven babies, and the bright greens of new grass in the meadow, aspens and larch.
Rebirth and sprouting and earth’s bounty are bubbling with heated passionate energy to be expressed.
Bring it! Bring it all!
“It was such a spring day as breathes into a man an ineffable yearning, a painful sweetness, a longing that makes him stand motionless, looking at the leaves or grass, and fling out his arms to embrace he knows not what.”
-John Galsworthy
“When spring came, even the false spring, there were no problems except where to be happiest. The only thing that could spoil a day was people and if you could keep from making engagements, each day had no limits. People were always the limiters of happiness except for the very few that were as good as spring itself.”
― Ernest Hemingway, A Moveable Feast
Spring’s sweetness is so close! We awaken again to this glorious season of rebirth.
Time again to nourish our true self.
This poem by John O’Donohue eloquently expresses the longings that come with the unfolding of Spring.
Now, I am Impatient….!
Once you start to awaken, no one can ever
claim you again for the old patterns.Now you realize how precious your time here is.
You are no longer willing to squander your essence on undertakings that do not nourish your true self; your patience grows thin with tired talk and dead language.
You see through the rosters of expectation which promise you safety and the confirmation of your outer identity.
Now you are impatient for growth,
willing to put yourself in the way of change.You want your work to become an expression of your gift.
You want your relationship to voyage beyond the pallid frontiers to where the danger of transformation dwells.You want your God to be wild
and to call you to where your destiny awaits.
-John O’Donohue
Living in San Francisco many years ago, I often spent time in Rev. Cecil Williams’ Glide Memorial Church to hear his inspiring message, and to get absorbed in the uplifting voices of the choir. What soaring voices they have! The choir’s immense talent and passion took me for an exhilarating ride on an uplifting wave of gratitude. Those moments brought patches of peace during a difficult time.
Rev. Williams starts his message very quietly, with the words; “listen, listen, listen”…..
long pause.
Just that reminder put me in a quiet, reflective, tuned in space.
There is so much to hear when we listen! The silence. Our inner voice. Guidance. The wind…
True silence is the rest of the mind; it is to the spirit what sleep is to the body, nourishment and refreshment.
~William Penn
With the same letters of the word LISTEN another word can be formed… SILENT. We must be silent to listen.
Listen to silence…
…listen to the guidance, listen to the breeze, listen to your heartbeat, listen to your heart’s song, listen to nature’s beauty, listen to peace unfolding.
“The breezes at dawn have secrets to tell you
Don’t go back to sleep!
You must ask for what you really want.
Don’t go back to sleep!
People are going back and forth
across the doorsill where the two worlds touch,
The door is round and open
Don’t go back to sleep!”-Rumi
Ah, the full moon pulling at the inner spaces with its questions and mystery.
Tugging the tides.
Illuminating the darkness.
Searching the soul.
Waking me from a sound sleep to come outside and feel the moonshine.
Now,
basking in the night’s light.
Here is profound simplicity infused with magic.
Here is wonder.
“This place of mine never is entered by humans for conversation. Only by the mute moon’s light shaft which slip in between the trees.”
-Saigyo
“
“The moon stays bright when it doesn’t avoid the night”
-Rumi
“Watching the moon, at midnight, solitary, mid-sky, I knew myself completely, no part left out.”
-Izumi Shikibu
