Category: Main blog

This is from Father Richard Rohr’s blog. We are so blessed to inhabit these miraculous bodies that carry us through our lives. As I grow older I remember that this body can’t be taken for granted, and so this poetry is particularly poignant.

Blessing the Body

Because of the way most Christians have understood the doctrine of original sin, the physical body has borne the brunt of our guilt and shame. Its needs, desires, and frailties were often labeled “sinful,” and therefore were repressed instead of affirmed and channeled in healthy and life-giving ways. In honor of the Original Goodness of our bodies, we invite you to spend time with this blessing by Jan Richardson, a writer, poet, artist, and ordained minister in the United Methodist Church.

BLESSING THE BODY

This blessing takes
one look at you
and all it can say is
holy.

Holy hands.
Holy face.
Holy feet.
Holy everything
in between.

Holy even in pain.
Holy even when weary.
In brokenness, holy.
In shame, holy still.

Holy in delight.
Holy in distress.
Holy when being born.
Holy when we lay it down
at the hour of our death.

So, friend,
open your eyes
(holy eyes).
For one moment
see what this blessing sees,
this blessing that knows
how you have been formed
and knit together
in wonder and
in love.

Welcome this blessing
that folds its hands
in prayer
when it meets you;
receive this blessing
that wants to kneel
in reverence
before you—
you who are
temple,
sanctuary,
home for God
in this world.

Experience a version of this practice through video and sound.

“Blessing the Body” © Jan Richardson from Circle of Grace: A Book of Blessings for the Seasons. Used by permission. janrichardson.com.

Once again with gratitude to FB and specifically dear Emma who posted this today.

“Don’t pretend that earth is not one family.
Don’t pretend we never hung from the same branch.
Don’t pretend we don’t ripen on each other’s breath.
Don’t pretend we didn’t come here to forgive.”

************

My Ancestry DNA results came in.
Just as I suspected, my great great grandfather
was a monarch butterfly.

Much of who I am is still wriggling under a stone.
I am part larva, but part hummingbird too.

There is dinosaur tar in my bone marrow.

My golden hair sprang out of a meadow in Palestine.

Genghis Khan is my fourth cousin,
but I didn’t get his dimples.

My loins are loaded with banyan seeds from Sri Lanka,
but I descended from Ravanna, not Ram.

My uncle is a mastodon.

There are traces of white people in my saliva.

3.7 billion years ago I swirled in golden dust,
dreaming of a planet overgrown with lingams and yonis.

More recently, say 60,000 B.C.
I walked on hairy paws across a land bridge
joining Sweden to Botswana.

I am the bastard of the sun and moon.

I can no longer hide my heritage of raindrops and cougar scat.

I am made of your grandmother’s tears.

You conquered rival tribesmen of your own color,
chained them together, marched them naked to the coast,
and sold them to colonials from Savannah.

I was that brother you sold, I was the slave trader,
I was the chain.

Admit it, you have wings, vast and golden,
like mine, like mine.

You have sweat, black and salty,
like mine, like mine.

You have secrets silently singing in your blood,
like mine, like mine.

Don’t pretend that earth is not one family.
Don’t pretend we never hung from the same branch.
Don’t pretend we don’t ripen on each other’s breath.
Don’t pretend we didn’t come here to forgive.

• Fred lamotte

Saw this in my FB feed today. For all of the suffering and confusion and misinformation that FB is culpable in, if used well there is much to be grateful for. I guess it’s up to us to use it well! This poetry truly opened my heart today.

“The worst thing we ever did
was put God in the sky
out of reach
pulling the divinity
from the leaf,
sifting out the holy from our bones,
insisting God isn’t bursting dazzlement
through everything we’ve made
a hard commitment to see as ordinary,
stripping the sacred from everywhere
to put in a cloud man elsewhere,
prying closeness from your heart.
The worst thing we ever did
was take the dance and the song
out of prayer
made it sit up straight
and cross its legs
removed it of rejoicing
wiped clean its hip sway,
its questions,
its ecstatic yowl,
its tears.
The worst thing we ever did is pretend
God isn’t the easiest thing
in this Universe
available to every soul
in every breath”
~ Chelan Harkin, in poetry book ‘Susceptible to Light’

My dear friend Salim sent this and I found the story very timely and germane to conversations I’ve had recently about recognizing our place as stewards on this earth and the best teachers (as well as the worst!). With permission, it is copied below.

This story is by George Price – here is more information about him:

George Price (descendant of the Assonet band of the Wampanoag tribal nation of Massachusetts) has been living on his five-acre organic, polyculture farm on the Flathead Indian Reservation since the summer of 1985. He retired from a 33-year teaching career in May of 2018: 10 years at Two Eagle River School, 3 years at Salish Kootenai College, and 20 years at the University of Montana, teaching Native American Studies, American History, and African American Studies. Dr. Price has also served on several boards and committees from the 1990s to the present, including the Flathead Reservation Human Rights Coalition, Indian People’s Action, the Missoula Martin Luther King Jr. Day Committee, AVOICE, the CSKT Climate Change Advisory Committee, and the Montana Indigenous Food Sovereignty Initiative. Now that he is retired, he is devoting the remainder of his life to Earth/Water protecting, organic farming, food sovereignty, writing, and replacing industrial capitalism with local, eco-harmonious, life-supporting, cooperative, alternative societal and economic structures

.

*****************************************************************************

Drop That Fish!!

 This morning, while I was working in the garden, I was given the opportunity to witness some inter-species interaction that I had never seen before. Right up above my head and not very high in the sky, a bald eagle was chasing an osprey that had a fish in his talons, circling, zig-zagging and reversing directions. The two birds showed incredible flying skills and were moving very fast. Several times the eagle got within inches of the osprey but never tried to attack him, with talons, beak or wings. I don’t remember hearing them vocalize at all during the whole time I watched them, but a few times I heard the sounds of their wings. 

I watched this for about five minutes and my neck was sore when it was over from looking almost straight up in the air for so long. It was clear to me, early on, that what I was watching was not some sort of alleged “vicious struggle for survival.” It was a friendly contest. It was clearly a game. I think they call it, “Drop the Fish!” After about five minutes (I do not know how long the game had already been going before I looked up from my work and first saw them) the eagle stopped the chase, as if to say, “OK, you win this time, my friend.” The osprey went towards the trees on the hills and the eagle went the opposite way, back towards the Jocko river. 

Many of the old, first stories (a.k.a., “oral traditions” in academic speak) of Indigenous peoples revolve around games and contests between the people of different species. These stories often explain how certain phenomena came to be, and instill many important moral and ethical lessons in the children as they listen to them every year, throughout their lives. The playful spirit and comradery between the different peoples (or “species,” as westerners are taught to call them) stands in sharp contrast to the preferred myths of colonialist western industrial technophile anthropocentric society. The colonialists prefer to project their own values, norms and perceptions onto other species of the natural world, thereby portraying the natural world as a place in constant, vicious, predatory “struggle to survive,” in an attempt to normalize their own behavior and justify their alienation from nature. 

So, a good question to ask ourselves is why do we give credence to the stories told by a culture that has done more harm to the natural world than any other human culture in all of history and obviously has no clue as to how to live in harmony with our local, inter-connected ecosystems, does not understand the languages or hear the messages of the natural world, or know what humans were meant to be or how we fit within inter-connected Life? 

(Note: I did not take the photo below. Just found it on Google images. My cameras were in the house at the time of this wonderful sighting.) 

 — George Price  

I heard this song last night and was just blown away and thrilled by the lyrics, especially “pull and rest, rest and pull…” – this is such a great and important reminder about how we stay resilient and do the work. It’s called “Like Molly Brown” and an article about it said,

“The most lyrically distinctive and upbeat track on the album is Like Molly Brown. The lyrics celebrate strong, resilient women. There is a verse each about Molly Brown. Rosa Parks, Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Lucretia Mott that summarise some of the activities that made them famous.  The central image and refrain is of Molly Brown rowing a boat at the scene of the Titanic’s sinking. The fast pick and strum on the mandolin blends with the violin’s melody to give the song a forward moving dynamic.”

Enjoy!

I truly enjoyed this weekly teaching from Tovah Zev and Ted Falcon. They host “The Anokhi Community.” https://anokhiinstitute.kartra.com/page/membership

From their web page:
“The purpose of authentic spirituality is to awaken to the true Potential of Being human. It’s not to change who we are or become something other than we are. It is to Realize Who we are.”
“Anokhi is a Hebrew word meaning, “I AM.”
“The intention of the Anokhi Community is to provide spiritual guidance in a safe and sacred space for your own journey of Remembering, of Awakening, an opportunity to come Home to your own I AM-ness.”

Weekly Teaching for the Week of October 24 – 30
Toward a Meaningful Personal Legacy

We know that we best prepare for our death by creating greater aliveness right now. In this month’s exploration of Death and Dying, we have considered not only the ways the ego fears death, but the ways this same ego fears living fully. The sense of separateness that is specific to the ego keeps us from appreciating the wonders unfolding in each moment. In our limited and mistaken ego identity, we experience and defend our story of separateness rather than breathe into the joy of our participation with all the incredible expressions of Life of which we are a part.

Because the ego is aware of its vulnerability, it seeks ways to create the illusion of security. Because the ego fears for its own survival, it seeks ways to expand its power and its influence. One of the ways the ego does this is through seeking a personal legacy – something that gives the appearance that our ego identity will continue after our death.

This desire for an ego-satisfying personal legacy, for leaving behind something that will show that our lives had meaning and purpose, gets confused with our desire to truly make a positive difference in our lives. When our pursuit of legacy comes from an ego desire for personal recognition, imagining that our ego identity should endure, we perpetuate the belief in separation that is the hallmark of this limited ego identity.

At the same time, we surely can live in ways that contribute more fully to the common good. We can live in ways that reflect meaningful connections to others and to all life. We can create meaning and beauty that can support others not only when we are alive but after we have died.

The legacy of the ego communicates the importance of that ego and cannot help but create comparison, competition, and separation.

So what would it look like to leave a non-ego legacy that would increase energies of Connection rather than separation?

Perhaps you know of the imperative when backpacking to “leave no trace behind.” Conscious campers are encouraged not only to return the area to how they found it, but to make it even better. There is no name attached to indicate who has done this. There is no name needed. There is simply the realization that Connection and Oneness has been increased – that we are leaving something to greet the next camper, and perhaps to inspire them in turn.​

It’s like an “Open Source” legacy, where we consciously make something better in order to provide for someone else. Any ego announcement would, in fact, detract from what we are leaving behind.

Most importantly, we can begin our own legacy right now as we consider what energies, vibrations, and acts in the world we would like to provide that can support us all. How can we act in our world to decrease the illusion of separateness and affirm our Oneness? How can we make things better right here where we are?

Journal Prompt:
I choose to leave a legacy by acting in ways that support greater Oneness and Connection by. . . .
I choose to leave a legacy with vibrations that contribute to the Common Good when I. . .

Waking Practice:
At every moment, we have an opportunity to leave a legacy. We have the opportunity to create environments that can support greater Connection and Oneness. In moments of pause and awareness this week, practice holding the vibrations supportive for all Life. Imagine that you are creating an environment which is welcoming to all.

It is a joy to journey in Community in this unfolding Adventure in Consciousness!

With much love and many blessings –

Tovah and Ted

In every conversation I have had recently, the overriding theme is exhaustion and overwhelm. I am convinced that as empaths many or maybe all of us are feeling the collective pain of the earth and all its beings more than ever right now. Add to that our own challenges in this era of pandemic and climate and political chaos and it’s no wonder we are feeling crushed under that weight.

I found this article from Yes! Magazine to be helpful and a good reminder:

“Could it be that the fragmentation of our relations has been a fundamental cause of our exhaustion?”

Source: The Pursuit of Rest Under Capitalism – YES! Magazine

From Richard Rohr’s blog:

Laying Hands on Mother Earth

Steven Charleston is a member of the Choctaw Nation and an Episcopal bishop. In his book Ladder to the Light, he offers practices drawn from the meeting point of his Christian faith and Native American spirituality. Here he adapts a practice known as “laying on of hands.”

In order to receive the exchange offered by Native American tradition, we must put down the idea that the earth is nothing more than a vast accumulation of natural resources. Instead, we must see the earth as a living presence. We must recognize the interrelatedness of all life and begin to actively engage in protecting and learning from all our relations. . . .

They call it a laying on of hands. In many faith traditions, when prayers of healing are offered, people place their hands on the patient. I have decided to do that for someone, and I am inviting you to join me. The patient is our Mother Earth. She is struggling to recover from the effects of toxic poisoning and exhaustion. I am going to intentionally lay my hand on her and say, “Thank you, Mother, for all you have given us. Be healed of all that harms you.” It is only a symbol, but symbols have power. Please share my invitation. If every person on our planet went outside to lay hands on the earth and ask for healing, it might inspire us all to act, to work, to give for the sake of our Mother.

Experience a version of this practice through video and sound.

Steven Charleston, Ladder to the Light: An Indigenous Elder’s Meditations on Hope and Courage (Broadleaf Books: 2021), 140–141. 

I heard Terry Tempest Williams read from this at the end of the Parliament of World Religions and I was deeply moved. She begs that we let it not be true, and it is both a call to action and a poignant reminder of what is at stake.

From the introduction to this web page: “…Terry Tempest Williams is featured in The New York Times reading her “obituary for the land” titled A Burning Testament. Her husband, the Western nature writer Brooke Williams, shared the piece in its entirety on social media. Given recent events, it could not be more poignant and we encourage you to read it now.”

https://mountainjournal.org/terry-tempest-williams-says-it-time-to-rally-for-nature-and-country

Thanks to Tarana for posting this today on Facebook. Right before I saw it there was an incredible post from a hiker on Hurricane Ridge in our Olympic Mountains with a picture of a phenomenon called Brocken Spectre – here’s their video: https://youtu.be/CWZ03O_a0Qw

*********

I am dust particles in sunlight.
I am the round sun.

To the bits of dust I say, Stay.
To the sun, Keep moving.

I am morning mist,
and the breathing of evening.
I am wind in the top of a grove,
and surf on the cliff.

Mast, rudder, helmsman, and keel,
I am also the coral reef they founder on.

I am a tree with a trained parrot in its branches.
Silence, thought, and voice.

The musical air coming through a flute,
a spark of stone, a flickering in metal.
Both candle and the moth crazy around it.
Rose, and the nightingale lost in the fragrance.

I am all orders of being, the circling galaxy,
the evolutionary intelligence, the lift, and the falling away.

What is, and what isn’t.

You who know, Jelaluddin,
You the one in all, say who I am.
Say I am you.

~Rumi