Shining Spirit

Have you noticed the lovely flower crowns atop our Saguaro neighbors
all over town? Striking!
But when I see them my mind revisits the first words of the
Sursum Corda, the beginning statement of the
traditional communion rite in many Christian churches.
The priest calls out to the congregation:
“Lift up your hearts” and the
people reply: “We lift them up to the Lord.”
Our tall, stately cactus friends are lifting an offering of
beauty to the universe, a gift to creation, their way
of saying “above the confusion of life in this world,
there is beauty and we lift it high for all to see.”

Would that we might follow their lead.

It’s just an ordinary sandy path until the shadows come.

Shadows are often thought to be mysterious, even sinister,
but shadows painted onto a canvas or included in
a photograph add depth and dimension and
character.  In the hot Sonoran desert, shadows
are very welcome.
Could it be that the shadows that slip into our lives
might also offer a richness that would not be there
otherwise?
The shadow of doubt inspires honest questions.
The shadow of mistake reminds us to be more careful
or thoughtful or diligent.
Even the shadow that provides cool relaxation
reminds us to be thankful and appreciative.

Shadows are friends to those who recognize that
life is a mixture of many things, and who accept
the reality of life’s oneness.

This is not communion with nature,
this is communion with the Source of
all nature.

This is not looking at something beautiful,
this is looking through the objects and
seeing Inherent Beauty.

This is not taking a hike,
this is experiencing a mystical moment
that will never be repeated in
exactly the same way.

“How glorious is your dwelling place,
O Loving Creator of the universe.”

Memorial Day

Remember

Be Grateful

Make a difference

Do what is right and honorable

Sometimes looking back over my shoulder puts life in
perspective. Sometimes I need to stand above the moment
in order to make sense of things that happen in my life.
It’s called seeing the bigger picture.
Today, focus big!
Let your mind and your heart be panoramic.
Life is too much a string of individual moments tenuously
connected on a fragile thread.
Do you think you could have seen this perspective
standing on the corner of Broadway and Alvernon?
In prayer, in meditation, in spiritual reflection we can be caught up
in the arms of a benevolent, Loving Creation whose desire is
for each of us to stand for a moment in awe and exclaim:
“Oh, my Lord!”
May you find your mountaintop moment as this day unfolds.

Even a wall can offer a lesson about life.  No, not that wall…this wall.
The most obvious thing is the diversity in appearance.
The stones weigh different amounts, they point in dissimilar
directions, angles vary, etc.
But the thing they all share in common is the substance
that holds them together.  They are bound together
by the very same concrete.  It guarantees their
stability, strength, and defines them as a wall.
Pretty simple application.  All living things are defined,
described, and given a common purpose by the
flow of Spirit that holds life together.
Without the connectedness of Spirit,
creation falls apart.
Today, acknowledge your part in this great mural of life.
Give thanks.  Be glad in the adhesive of creation.

Seems like everybody carries a heavy load these days.
This little guy isn’t excluded, although I don’t see a
mask.  His load is many times his size, but
nothing stopped him as he crossed the sidewalk in
front of me.

What his tiny ant mind doesn’t know is that the design
of creation is so perfect that each living thing has
what it needs to survive…if it is smart enough to
use it wisely.  Not only survive, but prosper.

The life you will live today, all the hours ahead of you,
are not of our making.  The soft morning sun is shining
through huge white oleander flowers just outside my
magic window, not of my doing, not even at my
request.  It is gift.

Be grateful today.  Use the hours with a thankful heart.
Even if the load gets heavy.

I sat talking of things past, with old friends who knew me then,
and for just a moment, a flicker of time-light,
those memories lived again.

Blessed are we by friendships that never fade;
a never ending stream, water of life,
to nurture lives left living, in the
dry lands of a lonely mind.

God bless those who stand beside us, who accept us
as we are, who love us for no other cause
but that we share a common star.

Steven Charleston
Hope As Old As Fire
Red Moon Publications

Except for the few perfect people I know,
(who will be named below)
most of us are beautiful and prickly at
the same time.  That is, I have a trigger that,
when pulled, reveals the B-me or the P-me.
Example:  When the TV hums in the background
all day, never leaving a News channel, it doesn’t take
long for P-me to appear.  But, when I sit at the computer
and the words fall onto the page, and it all makes sense,
and after reading six times I can find no more typos,
B-me smiles.  It is good.
I guess the issue for me is the “trigger(s)”, the thing or
person that pushes the P or B button in me.
It is so easy to blame something or someone else.
Flip Wilson’s old line:  “The Devil made me do it!”
But blaming someone or something else is a copout.
Like it or not, I choose how I will respond in any given
moment or situation.  I am responsible for my own
behavior, my responses, not you.
You see, I know this, but P-me won’t  go away.
It’s so confusing and frustrating.
My friend Paul wrote me a letter the other day, and
in it he said:  “Wretched man that I am! Who will
rescue me from this (curse within myself)?”
And the next line in the letter surprised and
encouraged me:  “Thanks be to God through
Jesus Christ our Lord.”
Paul and I and many others live with this
“curse” but we also live with the spiritual
incarnation of God.  It’s the curse or the Christ.
Which one do I allow to prevail in my comings and goings?
P-me and B-me will continue to share the same address,
but the God-in-me will become the first responder.
That’s my choice.  I hope for the good sense and
the wisdom to remember, plus the courage to
respond from my greater self.
“Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ my Lord.”

Why are there stars in the nighttime sky?
When people are happy, why do they cry?
Will I always be caught if I tell a lie?
And what’s so great about blueberry pie?
Why is it hard to say goodbye?
I don’t have a clue, do you?

There are lots of questions that simply defy
attempts to answer the troublesome “why”?
I live in an era of “me”, “mine”, and “my”.
No matter how deftly or wisely I try
my efforts all end in a shrug and a sigh.
I don’t have a clue, do you?

I try so hard but I get nowhere.
I fully believe that life isn’t fair.
If I step outside to get some fresh air
a bumblebee will nest in my hair!
I wonder if the universe cares?
I don’t have a clue, do you?

Good people suffer, bad people win,
and there’s no way we can start all over again.
What can we do except to pretend
that the universe is a faithful friend?
That I am absolved of something called sin?
I don’t have a clue, do you?

My hope is not beyond the sky.
I cast my lot with a man who tried
to banish the law of “an eye for an eye”.
He was willing to stand and bravely defy
our voracious needs to gratify
the darkness that lives within.

I don’t have a clue, do you
about why his ways appeal as they do?
I simply acknowledge his path to be true
and offer his friendship and presence to you.
But…maybe, in fact, I do have a clue.
Maybe his way is an opening to
the chance to discover the real me, real you.
I think I’ve found the mysterious clue…do you?