Shining Spirit

Do you remember the classic Christian hymn “Count Your Many Blessings?” Name them one by one, and I wish I could do that…name you one by one…and say “thank you” personally for your interest and visits to Shining Spirit over the years. Eleven years by my count. Eight hundred forty-eight posts, but who’s counting. Yes, there were some “dry” periods in those years when posts were less frequent, but I’ve given up trying to out-guess or out-smart the Spirit. What is….is.

So, today is simply a word of thanks to you and for you. Thank you for reading the words, for taking a look at all those photos of flying birds, sunrises and sunsets, and colorful flowers. Thank you for your comments and your prayers. They mean a lot.

So, let’s press on. The Spirit seems to have more to say. And I haven’t run out of flying birds, sunrises and sunsets, or colorful flowers yet. Accept the blessing of this day so that you, in turn, may be a blessing.

When nature waves hello today, wave back.
When you feel the breeze, hear the bird’s song,
hold the living earth in your hands,
catch the fragrance of life,
in that moment when you see with your heart,
remember everything is a gift,
and a gift requires a response.
Thank you!
The Spirit speaks in many ways.
Listen.

Resolution For This Day: I will not stick my nose into somebody else’s business. No matter how interesting, how exciting, how juicy it is, I will not do it. Not everyone needs my advice. Not everyone appreciates my advice, for reasons I will never understand. I will not pass along unfounded stories, that is, gossip. I will neither give it nor receive it. I will mind my own business, even if it is rather boring at times.

I will respect my neighbor and assume the best about him or her. I will do unto you as I hope you will do unto me. And I will go to bed tonight pleased and thankful for my resolution and my accomplishments .

It’s going to be a long day.

To You I lift up my spirit,
You, who are enthroned in every heart!
For, as the young child holds tightly
the hand of its parent,
As those in the throes of disease
look to one who brings comfort,
So our spirits seek the Heart of love,
that we might find mercy
and forgiveness.

Have mercy on us, Compassionate One,
have mercy, that we might turn from our
blind and ignorant ways.
Too long our souls have been veiled by fear;
have mercy; lead us to the 
path of wholeness.

This beautiful prayer is Nan Merrill's recasting of the traditional wording of Psalm 123 into more contemporary language.  It is found in a wonderful book, "Psalms for Praying", which contains all 150 Psalms recast in the same way.  It is an excellent book for use in prayer devotions.  The book was published by Continuum in 1996.   I commend it to you for your daily devotions.

Surrounded by wire fencing,
crowded by a thorny desert plant,
they still bloom!
It takes courage, sometimes,
to be strong in the face
of adversaries.
Choose to bloom,
the world
needs it.
"Consider the lilies of the field..."

A little pictorial interpretation: you are looking at the underside of an upside down duck diving for food in a local lake. Ah, the stuff of theological insight and food for thought. Let me state the conclusion and then work backwards. Conclusion: Life is not always pretty. Comes as no surprise, does it? I have met some people who devote their lives to not being embarrassed. And, of course, the harder they work at their life’s meaning, the more often they are embarrassed. There is something to be said for living your life within the parameters of good and bad, yes and no, right and wrong; that is, with some sense of balance, not punishing yourself for falling short of perfection. Win some, lose some.

A healthy spiritual life, according to Dr. Me, is one that exists somewhere between absolutes. It is living creatively and gratefully in the present moment, even if that moment is not one you’d write home about. We all succeed and we all fail, there are good days and bad days, highs and lows, joys and sadness and we pitch our tents somewhere in the middle of that. It is then, as we live authentically in this moment, that we pray our gratitude for insights gained, spiritual roots deepened, wisdom developed. Life is a great teacher, created and gifted to us, so that we can eventually find our way home to God.

So, let today be what it is. Enjoy it, learn from it, contribute something good to it, and then tonight be thankful for every moment. Sort out the best, let go of the worst. “And in all things, give thanks…”
Who knows…as you take the day and make it meaningful, you might get your picture taken and appear on somebody’s website.

Well, I’ve seen it all. I’ve suspected for a while that Doves are not the smartest birds in the air. This nest warmer is in for a big surprise if the owner of that bike decides to go for a ride. No, that’s not my bike. I am now officially “bike-less”, but that’s another story for another time. Is there a life lesson from this strange picture? How about…life can be rather precarious, sometimes because of our own poor choices, sometimes because of nature’s rhythms, often in ways we cannot anticipate or understand. We worry about crossing bridges that are still in the future or those bridges we burned on the way to here. Sometimes we create our own precarious moments…like mother Dove who sits on a very unstable nest.

But in the unknown, and in the shaky moments, we press on with an inner assurance that while we can shape decisions and outcomes by our actions and choices, there is an Ultimate One whose dream is for every element of creation to live in harmony with the other parts, for there to be peaceful contentment in the human village, and for justice and mercy to be the standards by which we live our days. Mama Dove may have made a poor decision, by our human standards and knowledge, but, whether she knows it or not, she is loved as much as I am by the Architect of All Things, the God incarnate in Jesus of Nazareth. And even when the house falls (or the nest) we are able to fly again because of that Force that lifts us.

Say a prayer today for Mama Bird, for all of us flapping our wings in work or play, and for those no longer able to fly on their own. We are loved deeply by the same Sustaining Source.

In case you haven’t noticed, there are some lovely wildflowers blooming along parts of Oracle Road. They’re scattered in patches, but the blue and yellow and pink colors certainly add to the joy (!) of driving on Oracle. Recently my wife and I pulled into the parking lot of a storage company on that same road, drove around to the back of the building, and slipped the car into a narrow parking spot. Getting out of the car, we glanced over a metal railing, down into a rocky ravine, a naturally wild piece of ground, and saw this. And more.

Now, this is not the most spectacular sight among the flowers growing along Oracle Road, but it stopped us for a “thought minute.” Look at this beautiful spot, we said at the same moment. It is unseen by drivers going up and down Oracle Road, completely out of sight. It is wild and unkept. It’s a “nowhere” place. And yet, it blooms. It’s as if the colorful wildflowers were saying: It doesn’t matter where we are. We are flowers and we are going to be flowers; we are going to bloom. What you see in the photograph is just one wild plant among many in that narrow, insignificant slice of earth. We counted five different kinds of plants, all doing what they are meant to do…bloom. And they did that very well in an anonymous place, without the intention of being admired. Anyone else pulling into that back parking lot and seeing us taking pictures down into a obscure ravine might have thought: “Poor senior citizens. They’ve lost it.” What they wouldn’t know is…we found it.

Lots of implications from this brief experience. Name a few for yourself. And while you’re doing that, don’t forget to bloom today. You were made for that.

A quick word of explanation: I’m having fun writing short responses to traditional life Proverbs, like “A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush” or “Don’t cry over spilt milk”. There are dozens of them. Like this one, a response to “As you sow, so shall you reap.”

I don’t understand; perhaps you can explain.
Why am I treated with such disdain?
Why do people go out of their way
to ridicule me; O, the things they say.
I’m a very straightforward, honest guy.
I speak the truth; I never lie.
I pull no punches; a fact is a fact.
But you should see the way people act
when I lay it all out, when it’s plain to see
that they are not nearly as smart or as wise as me.
And yet they get angry and call me names
when all I’m doing is trying to explain
why my way is right and the world is insane.

Well, friend, since you asked let me explain it this way:
You offend your neighbors when they hear you say
that you know it all; your way is right,
they think you’re trying to pick a fight.
You see “what you give is what you get”
and I’ll speak the truth: from where I sit,
you’re reaping exactly what you sow
and maybe you need to let people know
that you’re not an arrogant know-it-all
after all.

The old proverb is true, just so you know:
you do, indeed, reap what you sow.

In your meditation today, be particularly
grateful for all things that teach us
about grace and beauty.
What have you encountered recently
that causes you to pause in praise?
What have you experienced that 
demonstrates the creative genius of
the many forms of life?
Look for one thing today that
invites you to stop and admire
the craftsmanship of God.
May you be overwhelmed
with too many choices!