Good morning, Holy One.
Thank you.
For the morning.
For the quiet.
For the hope of a new day.
For the beating of your heart deep within mine.
For your call, like the pull of the ocean current, unseen, irresistible.
For life – full of fragile beauty.
Thank you. Continue reading
Woe to you, lawmakers. You seek easy answers to hard problems and produce sound bites which trivialize our turmoil, placing blame and responsibility on anyone but yourselves.
Woe to you, self-righteous do-gooders, who give to charity but neglect your own children, who see money as the way to buy righteousness and avoid responsibility. Continue reading
Blessed are you when you quiet your soul, for then you will hear me whisper.
Blessed are you when you discover who you are, behind the mask, beneath the denial, still held in love. Continue reading
And so I sit, a small golem-like creature in the dark cavern of myself, hiding from you, even as I long for connection. I shiver in my hidey-hole – cold and alone, peaking out from the crevice and then quickly withdrawing, lest I be seen.
My fingers are as cold as the stone they touch. My heart has lost its beat, my eyes, grown large, are still afraid to see. I huddle in my corner, closing my eyes and holding my hands over my ears, until I can stand it no more. Continue reading
I enter the warehouse where the shelves are filled with boxes and bundles. I have a long list in my hands and as I walk down the rows of shelves I take a box here and there and place them in a shopping cart.
Yet, these are just boxes: brown cardboard, wrapped with tape or string, or bundles wrapped in brown paper. I cannot see what is inside of them, nor does my list reveal the contents. I am just selecting numbered boxes from the shelves and stacking them in my cart and moving on. Continue reading
The push and pull of the day are already upon me. Lists are forming in my head. Shoulds and oughtas scream at me from corners in my mind where they dropped, exhausted, at the end of the day yesterday. I rouse myself and steel my resolve to go forward, but there is sorrow and despair in my step.
Where is the joy of encountering life? Where is the abundance? That is what you promised, isn’t it – not overwhelming life, but abundant life. A small tear trickles down the corner of my cheek, burning my eyes and the inside of my nose, carrying its silent resignation to spiritless despair. Continue reading
I pause at the edge of the day,
Like the sun upon the horizon,
Peeking over the edge of the earth,
Expecting to see something beautiful. Continue reading
Life is found in relationship.
Even an introvert knows that.
And a good relationship gives birth to another
… and another and another.
This week I watched a tapestry unfold
The individual threads – each one unique –
Delighted in their interconnections;
Each enriching the other.
Friends and family, together.
Stories told and embellished.
Old memories unfolding into new ones
Held together with the kind of laughter
That needs no excuse to blossom.
Perhaps the biggest gift
Was watching the youngest generation
Inviting all the others to dance in sweet abandon.
It is a lovely promise of the years to come –
Love expanding to embrace – and to grace – the world.
[Tim and Anne Banks – 50 year anniversary celebration – August 7, 2015]
That moment where exertion and rest
where stimulation and ease
find their center point –
balance held within a sigh.
Beer at the end of a long hike.
Quiet with your toes in the water.
A moment’s peace. A grateful heart.
[Tim calls this ‘vacation nirvana.’]
Quiet Hope 