The Priestess Is In

Holy Relaxation!

For some of us… and I’m often in this crowd… it is nearly impossible to give ourselves a quiet moment, hour, day.

And yet our souls flourish in that quiet. We’d never think of denying ourselves food or water, but quiet… that seems out of reach in today’s busy world.

Relaxation is different than procrastination. It’s different than indulging our (oh, so embarrassing) technological addictions. It doesn’t distract us. It fills us up.

Quiet, simple enjoyment — it’s good for what ails you… and what doesn’t!

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Staring into the Abyss

Sometimes it’s helpful to allow yourself to be stopped in your tracks by grandeur. To let it overwhelm you and to have to struggle with your sense of insignificance and your wonder that you are a part of it all.

And mostly… it’s important to dance in response. And laugh. What better way to show your gratitude?

Enjoy your day!

Fearing the Real Deal

When we skim along the top of life, never doing the work to engage our souls at some profound level, what do we miss?

I believe that Grace is abundant, as is Forgiveness. But I think they mark you when you encounter them, or allow yourself to encounter them. To become a vessel for that grace also marks and changes you. Having tasted them, I do not believe you turn back to “nice grace,” “nice forgiveness.”

I can’t help but believe that our lives could be richer and that Peace is far closer than we’d like to know… because knowing.. we’d start walking toward us. And radical Peace isn’t easy either. But it is Paradise.

Forgiveness

The book I talked about yesterday (Kingdom of Simplicity by Holly Payne) pushed me to spend some time with forgiveness.

Forgiveness, as it’s practiced in this community, (based on my reading and living here), is as much radical acceptance as it is radical forgiveness. It’s complicated. I always hold my reservations about whether a woman has to forgive a rapist or accept that it happen… but then a man kills 5 young girls and himself and the community heals by setting up a fund for the killer’s family.

That’s a lot to chew on. Their system isn’t perfect, there are power issues that aren’t well addressed… but how does/might/could a culture of community forgiveness change our living together? It seems worthy of our consideration…

and it’s another way to be in prayer…

Saying Please and Thank You

I just finished a novel on the Amish (The Kingdom of Simplicity by Holly Payne). One of the things the hero talks about is that they don’t use polite language. They don’t say “please” and “thank you.” I would argue that in fact that they do. They say those things to God, whom they understand to be the genesis of all. My suspicion is that they believe it would be disrespectful to God to give that thanks away.

I understand creation and the created to be a much larger part of the Divine rather than just the result of… and so please and thank you is prayer. Gratitude and longing are most visibly focused on creatures rather than creator — at least in my little world.

But few of us live a life that as slow, with as much time for observation and presence as the Plain folk… so, we might do well to use those words to anchor us in the presence. What if we used them not as punctuation on a sentence, but as the sentence? Would our lives change? Would other people’s?

Full, Empty, or Lifegiving?

I don’t like the is the glass half empty or full kinda questions. I confess they make me feel stumped… and somewhat stupified, if not downright lackwit. I’m terrible at games and rarely think creatively in the midst of them — unless I’m trying to connect people. Then I do better.

So it’s always surprising when I decide to write on something like the oh-so-important glass level question to work my way through to the fact that I think the water rather than the level is what matters. Once we realize it’s a precious resource we’re dealing with, all the questions change.

odd, eh?

a

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Nurturing Friendships

Relationship is at the core of my belief system. I am filled with wonder at the ways we connect and how connections deepen and change our lives. What touches me, what inspires me, what calls me is either the longing for connection or the actuality of it. From wriggling pup to august Divinity, it is the intimacy that ensnares me. If I don’t tend and nurture those relationships, I am not true to my belief system.

And… I seem to be writing one of my next poems… yep, this is how it starts!

Ah… you guys make me think! Thanks.

First “best day” of the summer

Summer offers us the opportunity to linger outside and enjoy the world’s gifts. Lingering is an art that requires practice. And summer is a season that demands enjoyment. The first fruits of the garden are beginning to appear. Pools are open. Flowers are flourishing. The kids are home from school. Even some businesses have decided to get in on the act and close early on Fridays.

So… take advantage.

It may be the the whole of my message in the course of this year is in the following sentence: Be present to what’s in your life. As the seasons keep turning there continues to be wonderful opportunities to linger in the bounty…

And best days? Every single one should be one! Well, ok, almost every single one! Because, this is the gift we’ve been given, afforded… whatever verb works for you. Here we are!

Hope it’s a great day!

Bravery Beyond

I’m not sure which particular news item was the spark for this, but I found myself reflecting on what causes us to move from audience to action. Starting small, in our own lives, leads us to greater involvement in our neighborhood/region/state/country.

Terri Peterson, who writes occasionally for this site, mused the other day on one of her own blogs about what it means that we know the names of people on sit-coms but not on our local school boards. What’s going to make a bigger difference in our lives, in the long run?

And once we know something, what stirs us to action? Have thoughts? Go over, like Sacred Village on FB. Say what works for you. Let’s get the conversation going and encourage one another.

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Living the good life

I understand, believe me I do, that our differing beliefs lead us to different conclusions about what happens at the end of what we know as life.

Having written that sentence, I’m a bit stymied about how to phrase the but… and i don’t know that it is a but. Maybe it’s just a different sentence altogether.

Life is meant to be lived to the fullest. Enjoyed. Cared for. And by living to the fullest, I don’t mean lived at someone else’s expense, or even at the expense of your own sense of self or spiritual well-being. I mean experienced, embraced. I mean using our passions to change the world into a paradise on earth. Not by your rules but by Love’s.