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Apr 5

Gardener of Souls, Lilies Spring to New Life

And the Glory by Ann Weems
“The silence breaks into morning.
That One Star lights the world.
The lily springs to life and
not even Solomon …
Let it begin with singing
and never end!
Oh, angels, quit your lamenting!
Oh, pilgrims,
upon your knees in tearful prayer,
rise up
and take your hearts
and run!
We who were no people
are named anew
God’s eople,
for he who was no more
is forevermore.”

“To love means loving the unlovable. To forgive means pardoning the unpardonable. Faith means believing the unbelievable. Hope means hoping when everything seems hopeless.”― G.K. Chesterton

Desert to garden.
Good Friday Cross to Sunday empty tomb.
The Gardener meets Mary, a woman, who walked all the way through.
Saved by love.
To this very day.
To receive and give.
With grace and joy.
To pass it on.
As it was given.
Unconditionally and overflowing.
Again and again.
Love prevails, carries through, on, forward.
Happy Easter.
Cast light.

“This is an invitation,
a choice,
a threshold, a gate.

This is your life
calling to you
from a place
you could never
have dreamed,
but now that you
have glimpsed its edge,
you cannot imagine
choosing any other way.

So let the tears come
as anointing,
as consecration,
and then
let them go.

Let this blessing
gather itself around you.

Let it give you
what you will need
for this journey.

You will not remember
the words—
they do not matter.

All you need to remember
is how it sounded
when you stood
in the place of death
and heard the living
call your name.”
—Jan Richardson, Circle of Grace: A Book of Blessings for the Seasons

Apr 4

Grace. Love. Light

“As high over the mountains the eagle spreads its wings, may your perspective be larger than the view from the foothills. When the way is flat and dull in times of gray endurance, may your imagination continue to evoke horizons.” – John O’Donohue

“Grace doesn’t add up
it sits with betrayers,
washes the feet of backstabbers,
breaks bread with the disloyal,
and shares a cup with double-dealers.

Blessed are you when guarantees slip,
as love shows becomes costly,
asking for everything and promising nothing.

May you see beauty in this sacrifice,
love that begs us to keep loving,
even as hearts are broken.

Blessed are you, remembering,
when forgetting feels easier,
that in this undoing,
the world is being remade.” – Kate Bowler

Hope. Grace. Love.
Horizons. Tomorrow. Light.
Redemption. Resurrection. Easter.

“In vain we search the heavens high above, The God of love is kneeling at our feet. Though we betray him, though it is the night, He meets us here and loves us into light.”― Malcolm Guite, Sounding the Seasons

Apr 3

Radical Love

“Don’t forget: hold somebody’s hand through the dark.”― Joy Harjo, Conflict Resolution for Holy Beings: Poems

“Eat, drink, remember:
“Is it I?”
And on that darkest of days, each of us must stand
beneath the tree
and watch the dying
if we are to be there
when the stone is rolled away.
The only road to Easter morning
is through the unrelenting shadows of that Friday.
Only then will the alleluias be sung;
only then will the dancing begin.” – Ann Weems

Just another day.
For some.
For others.
Radical stunning love.
Still pouring out.
Whether we receive or not.
Relentless.

“Still
For Good Friday

This day
let all stand still
in silence,
in sorrow.

Sun and moon
be still.

Earth
be still.

Still
the waters.

Still
the wind.

Let the ground
gape in stunned
lamentation.

Let it weep
as it receives
what it thinks
it will not
give up.

Let it groan
as it gathers
the One
who was thought
forever stilled.

Time
be still.

Watch
and wait.

Still.”

—Jan Richardson, Circle of Grace: A Book of Blessings for the Seasons

Apr 2

Root in Love, Bloom in Kindness

“Remember finally, that the ashes on your forehead are created from the burnt palms of last Palm Sunday. New beginnings invariably come from old false things that are allowed to die.” – Richard Rohr

“We seldom notice how each day is a holy place
Where the eucharist of the ordinary happens,
Transforming our broken fragments
Into an eternal continuity that keeps us.

Somewhere in us a dignity presides
That is more gracious than the smallness
That fuels us with fear and force,
A dignity that trusts the form a day takes.

So at the end of this day, we give thanks
For being betrothed to the unknown
And for the secret work
Through which the mind of the day
And wisdom of the soul become one.” – John O’Donohue

Opening a door
Yielding in traffic
Sitting with a friend
Greeting a stranger
An encouraging word
Last suppers that we didn’t know would be last
A $20 to a soul on a corner
Playing hopscotch with a child
Asking, listening
Washing feet
Eucharist of the ordinary
Holy places
Without counting or conditions
Love

“In the humility of the washing of the feet, we find the greatest heights of love.”— Pope Francis

Apr 1

Irreverent Defiance of Despair

“Curiosity lights our way to compassion.”― Shannan Martin, Start with Hello

“Here, in this unfinishable life,
we bring our burdens (so heavy)
to hands strong enough to carry them.
Blessed are you,
walking the path of courage:
finding improbable ways to love,
offering creative acts of mercy,
and practicing irreverent defiance of despair.
Blessed are you, who create
beauty in this world.
May you carry this quiet revolution into
a world aching for signs of hope.
Blessed are we, trusting that somehow,
even now, today could be a sign
of good things to come.” – Kate Bowler

Step out of the noise, distraction, clamoring
Of judgment, complaint, busy, comparison, counting, keeping score, opinion, advice, criticism, pessimism
Take a detour, go off path, cut a new trail
Into kindness, compassion, showing up, staying, listening, serving, holding a hand
Quiet revolution
Look for the helpers
And when others look for “the helpers,” be one of them
Signs of hope
Acts of love
Create some beauty in your slice of the world today
Cast light.

“Look for the helpers. You will always find people who are helping” – Fred Rogers

Mar 31

Sweet Defiant Hope

“how shall there be redemption and resurrection unless there has been a great sorrow? And isn’t struggle and rising the real work of our lives? Maybe in ten more years I will have another idea. Meanwhile I know this: evil is one part of our beautiful world. And though my writing pays it small attention, I am not blinkered; I, too, have been forced to stand close to it, and have felt the almost muscular agony of impotence before it, unable to interfere or assuage or do anything effective. Though I do—oh yes I do—believe the soul is improvable. Oh sweet and defiant hope!”― Mary Oliver, Winter Hours: Prose, Prose Poems, and Poems

“Life is short and the world is at least half terrible, and for every kind stranger, there is one who would break you, though I keep this from my children. I am trying to sell them the world. Any decent realtor, walking you through a real shithole, chirps on about good bones: This place could be beautiful, right? You could make this place beautiful.”― Maggie Smith, You Could Make This Place Beautiful

Sweet defiant hope.
Gritty tough joy.
Struggle and rising.
Scaffolding and anchors.
Good bones.
Redemption and resurrection.
Light breaking through, again and again.
Love, the question and the answer, the journey and the destination.
Our daily work…
To make this place beautiful.

“Stop calling your heart broken; your heart works just fine. If you are feeling–love, anger, gratitude, grief–it is because your heart is doing its work. Let it.”― Maggie Smith, Keep Moving: Notes on Loss, Creativity, and Change

Mar 30

Desert Bloom, Spring Hope

“Our Lord has written the promise of resurrection, not in books alone but in every leaf of springtime.” – Martin Luther

“May we anchor ourselves to the now.
Not allowing our minds skip to what-ifs
or what-will-happen-whens.
Blessed are you trying to put aside
the “everything is possible” mentality.
You who know that sheer effort
will not put these pieces back together.
You who have lost perfection,
and found rest in “good enough” instead.
One small step,
one deep breath,
at a time.” – Kate Bowler

Amidst dried leaves and pine needles, softening ground
First buds push to light
Bloom breaks through, small but mighty
Spring, newness, resurrection
Winter to spring
One step, one breath at a time
Desert bloom.

“For no miracle disturbed them so much as that of Lazarus.” – St. John Chrysostom

Mar 29

Perpetual Revival

“Each of us experiences the perpetual revival of the self. We constantly recast our connate emotional index by perceiving each encounter in life as a marvel, impedance, problem, disaster, or nothing at all. Living in the moment allows us to escape the lonely landscape of self-interest and be part of a larger world filled with beauty, reverence, and adoration.”― Kilroy J. Oldster, Dead Toad Scrolls

Volume low.
Brilliant color.
Light bright.
Anchor and attune.
In the ordinary and small.
Transformed by attention and reverence.

“Mind the little things.
Appreciate them.
Revere them, too.”― Shellen Lubin

Mar 28

First Temples

“Forests were the first temples of God and in forests men grasped their first idea of architecture.”― James C. Snyder, Introduction to Architecture

“As we live and as we are, Simplicity – with a capital “S” – is difficult to comprehend nowadays. We are no longer truly simple. We no longer live in simple terms or places. Life is a more complex struggle now. It is now valiant to be simple: a courageous thing to even want to be simple. It is a spiritual thing to comprehend what simplicity means.”― Frank Lloyd Wright, The Natural House

Architecture
Convergence of science and art
Trees to forest
Bricks to buildings
Scaffolding to structure
Convergence, bridges, connectors
Cathedrals of beauty, nature, life
Simplicity, awe, wonder.

“the systems of mutual connections and influences of which we are generally unaware, but which we discover by chance, as surprising coincidences or convergences of fate, all those bridges, nuts, bolts, welded joints and connectors” – Olga Tokarczuk

Mar 27

Gathering Counterweights

“When we take ourselves too seriously, we are at the risk of taking other things, including God, too lightly,”― James J. Martin, Between Heaven and Mirth

“This is not a ‘silver lining’ situation, where pain and injustice are minimized for the sake of flimsy optimism or playing nice. It’s not even about hoarding our favorite things. We are not guaranteed to have those things within our reach. The practice of gathering counterweights is about creating moments of sustenance from the raw materials of what we’re given. It is about holding everything in honest tension. Both/and. Our counterweights help us move forward and breathe through the heaviness.” – Shannan Martin

Goodness
Kindness
Generosity
Delight
Laughter
Flowers
A smile
Asking
Listening
Art
Music
Movement
Joy
Frolic
Counterweights
To gather and hold
A sense of imperfect yet palpable balance, ease
Atune, awake, off autopilot
Run the race, marathon not sprint
To fight the good fight
Of love, gratitude, peace
Precisely and on purpose
In the middle of the mess, chaos, noise, uncertainty
Long game, resilience, grit, grace
Make the world a little softer today for yourself and others
Cast light.

“What on earth can we do to make this sad and beautiful world a little softer for everyone?”― Shannan Martin, The Ministry of Ordinary Places: Waking Up to God’s Goodness Around You

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