Crocus-Minded by Jo Sorley

It takes courage to be crocus-minded.
God, I’d rather wait until June,
Like wise roses,
When the hazards of winter are safely behind,
and I’m expected, and everything’s ready for roses.
But crocuses?

Highly irregular.
Knifing through hard-frozen ground and snow,
and sticking their necks out,
because they believe in spring
and have something personal
and emphatic to say about it.

God, I am by nature rose-minded.
Even when I have studied the situation here
and know there are wrongs that need righting,
affirmations that need stating,
and know also that my speaking out may offend . . .

for it rocks the boat . . .
Well, I’d rather wait until June.
Maybe later things will work themselves out,
and we won’t have to make an issue of it.
God, forgive,  Wrongs don’t work themselves out.
Injustices and inequities and hurts don’t just dissolve.
Somebody has to stick her neck out,
Somebody who cares enough to think through
and work through hard ground,
because she believes and has something personal
and emphatic to say about it.
Me God?  Crocus-minded?
Could it be that there are things that need to be said,
and you want me to say them?         I pray for courage.

 I want to thank my colleague Rev. Karen Millard from Squamish United Church for posting this poem

An Irish Blessing (anon)

May God give you...
For every storm, a rainbow,
For every tear, a smile,
...For every care, a promise,
And a blessing in each trial.
For every problem life sends,
A faithful friend to share,
For every sigh, a sweet song,
And an answer for each prayer.

A LENTEN PSALM OF LONGING

In the midst of ambiguity, O God,

in the midst of the messiness 

         of our lives,

Choices that are not clear

lines that are not

solid, sharp, predictable,

In the daily challenge,

in the plunging into the chaos,

uncertainty, doubt,

In all this, O God,

we find you,

God of incarnation, of life

which is neither neat nor clear-cut.

Through our daring

to live into the questions

we encounter you,

God of the questions themselves.

Through our living in chaos,

we encounter you, God of chaos,

God in chaos,

God moving, stirring, bringing to birth

    a new creation.              (anonymous )

 

Yesterday was Ash Wednesday

Ash Wednesday marks the beginning of Lent. Its roots lie in the ancient Jewish festival of Yom Kippur, the day of Atonement. Atonement means "at-one-ment" If we are to be one with God, with creation, with each other, and one with ourselves, we must face honestly who we are and open ourselves to the supportive power of God and our faith community in the Lenten struggle for new life. So Ash Wednesday marks a turning away from all that takes away joy so that we might create space for the new life that is to come.

 

Let's give up negativity this Lent!! 

    Our longings 

               invite us to make room 

                             for what is to come!!!

 

Trusting in the melody of God

“It is not the nature of the task but the consecration that is the vital thing.”

 ~ Martin Buber

In a book from the 1940’s, The Reed of God, the author, Caryll Houselander, tells how painful it is to become a reed that carries the melody of God. The flute has to be carved and cut out, it has to have many openings for the breath to come through and for the music to be heard. So too in our lives. Our work will not always be pleasant and easy. There will be times of confusion  and frustration. We will not always want to do the things we are called to do. The pain and stress can be a means of hollowing out, of becoming more open to the music of God. These hollowing out experiences call for faith. Sometimes we simply have to trust in God’s melody and believe, in spite of few results and self doubt that we are each capable of being instruments of God’s dream. 

 

Sometimes that is the wonder of it all. That we can carry the melody of God even  when we feel we cannot carry a tune. Thanks be to the spirit that continually creates harmony out of our lives.

Untangled

If you read a recent front page story of the San Francisco Chronicle, you would have read about a female humpback whale who had become entangled in a spider web of crab traps and lines. She was weighted down by hundreds of pounds of traps that caused her to struggle to stay afloat. She also had hundreds of yards of line rope wrapped around her body, her tail, her torso, a line tugging in her mouth. 

A fisherman spotted her just east of the Farallon Islands (outside the Golden Gate) and radioed an environmental group for help. Within a few hours, the rescue team arrived and determined that she was so bad off, the only way to save her was to dive in and untangle her. They worked for hours with curved knives and eventually freed her. 

When she was free, the divers say she swam in what seemed like joyous circles. She then came back to each and every diver, one at a time, and nudged them, pushed them gently around as she was thanking them. Some said it was the most incredibly beautiful experience of their lives. The guy who cut the rope out of her mouth said her eyes were following him the whole time, and he will never be the same. 
  


May our spiritual nourishment of self and others help us get untangled from all that binds us from letting our light shine.

blessings for the new year,

Sally

Blessed is the season...

“Blessed is the season that engages the whole world in a conspiracy of love.”                

 The American essayist Hamilton Wright Mabie (1846–1916) wrote.

We have waited for this week of love to arrive and we are invited once again to find our place at the stable where love is born again.

The following story has been passed across cyberspace this season…  

A Nativity Scene was created in a church yard. During the night the folks came across this scene.



An abandoned dog was looking for a comfortable, protected place to sleep. He chose the manger as his comfort.  No one had the heart to send  him away so he was there all  night. 
  

This ‘shepherd’ dog found a way to rest awhile in the love. May it be so for us all.

Blessed is the season...