Shining Spirit

1. It used to be a pile of rocks
2. It didn’t make itself
3.  Somebody had a dream
4. The dream became the design
5. The design shaped the stone
6.  The hand of the artist placed each stone
with precision and patience
7.  Behold, the Mosaic
And it is good
No, make that beautiful

MAY YOUR DAY BE WONDER-FILLED.
LOOK FOR BEAUTY.   LIVE IN THE MOMENT.
BE GLAD.

Serene
Perfectly manicured
Graceful
Sorry, but this isn’t life.
Life is strength and pain, laughter and tears, joy and sadness,
births and deaths, success and failure, health and sickness,
and more.
That’s a far cry from serene and perfectly manicured.
But in spite of everything that happens on this
roller coaster ride, Grace is present.
Grace as Presence
Grace as Love
Grace as Gift
Sufficient Grace that invites our hearts to sing
At least to hum
Come on, you can do it

I can’t decide whether to write about life’s pieces joined together, or
the need for perserverance, or patience, or how much I dislike
jig-saw puzzles.  But during this Covid captivity, these puzzles have
saved my sanity.  And, quite to my surprise, I like putting them together.

Why are we hestitant to try new and different things?
Jig-saw puzzles, possibilities, the way we regard people.
I think it’s because I’m lazy.  Lazy.
It’s hard work to put the puzzle together,
It’s hard to put the pieces of life together
because that takes courage, open-mindedness, and
the release of long held certainties.

Just so you know, there are two more birds waiting
to appear in the puzzle.  Beautiful colors.
But they won’t come to life unless I put the pieces
together…and that will take patience,
perserverance, and the willingness to carefully
study each piece to see its uniqueness and
its value in the overall picture.

Would that we could regard every human being
with the same patience, value and importance in the
great picture of life.
But, isn’t that the way we have agreed to live?
Isn’t that who we are?
Isn’t that The Way?

Isn’t Welcome a nice word!
Welcome to my home…
Welcome to my heart…
Welcome into my world…
Welcome to The Way that makes sense
and paints the world in the brilliant colors of hope.
Welcome without hesitation, merit, reputation
to the Presence who knows your heart
and loves you anyway.
Welcome to your real home, the place from
which you came and the place to which
you will return.
Isn’t Welcome a nice word!

If I were to tell you that the photograph was taken during the
Bighorn blaze in the Catalinas, would the colors be less beautiful?
Nature seems to be neutral to feeling or emotion.  It is the
interpretation that ascribes beauty or ugliness.
It is how one sees.  As the song lyric suggests:
“Everything is beautiful in its own way…”
So, how do you see the world around you?
Is it filled with turmoil, tragedy, terror?
Even with its scars, is not the inherent beauty
our sign of hope?
Do not surrender hope that is grounded in beauty
that is the gift of Creation.
Don’t let life take away your Life.

Now, this is a big test for St. Francis.  History says he loved
all the animals, but he probably never met a large
green rabbit, or a multi-color lizard, or even a
rusty bullfrog.  Just run-of-the-mill antelopes and
aardvarks, and an occasional wombat.

If he had met these three beautifully different,
unique creatures he would have cared for them
as part of the grand creation of life.  Size doesn’t matter.
Color doesn’t mean anything.  A place in the animal
social order?  No, Francis saw each one as lovely
as the other.  Some of us look at the three and think they’re weird.
He thought they were beautiful.
Do you have to be a saint to love all sacred beings?