First Things

 

Extend a rope
climb the obstacle

First thought to start a hundred

Ant rests on a pebble

A runner sits on a boulder

Sheep grazing

Fisherman and trout meditate the river
waiting for enlightenment

A grain of sand
in the mind of the universe

My soul inside the spirit of God
who feels my presence

Green, blue
a pool in the middle of a forest

I edge myself to solitude
emptying myself bare

Yucca adventures in a desert
a thought to start a sentence

Cairn point a way

An ant moves
The runner resumes running

I ease my way to clarity
inch by inch by inch.

 



Reading

“Benedict considers reading such an important part of the meal, in fact,that he insists that the person doing the reading be a good reader, someone who would inspire rather than irritate the souls of the listeners. The reading was to be a artistic event, an instructive experience, a moment of meditation.”
-Sr. Joan Chittister, The Rule of Benedict

alone in the desert

“The hardest world to leave, she knew, is the one within the heart.”-Belden Lane, The Solace of Fierce Landscapes: Exploring Desert and Mountain Spirituality

note: quoted by Richard Rohr in his Daily Meditations

meditation on suffering

I try every day to meditate on Richard Rohr’s daily meditations.

Holding the Pain
Tuesday, April 8, 2014
Don’t get rid of the pain until you’ve learned its lessons. When you hold the pain consciously and trust fully, you are in a very special liminal space. This is a great teaching moment where you have the possibility of breaking through to a deeper level of faith and consciousness. Hold the pain of being human until God transforms you through it. And then you will be an instrument of transformation for others.
As an example of holding the pain, picture Mary standing at the foot of the cross. Standing would not be the normal posture of a Jewish woman who is supposed to wail and lament and show pain externally. She’s holding the pain instead, as also symbolized in Michelangelo’s Pietà. Mary is in complete solidarity with the mystery of life and death. She’s trying to say, “There’s something deeper happening here. How can I absorb it just as Jesus is absorbing it, instead of returning it in kind?” Until you find a way to be a transformer, you will pass the pain onto others.
…

from: Richard Rohr’s Daily Meditation
Adapted from The Authority of Those Who Have Suffered (MP3 download)
Richard Rohr, OFM

Fr. Richard Rohr is a globally recognized ecumenical teacher bearing witness to the universal awakening within Christian mysticism and the Perennial Tradition. He is a Franciscan priest of the New Mexico Province and founder of the Center for Action and Contemplation (CAC) in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Fr. Richard’s teaching is grounded in the Franciscan alternative orthodoxy—practices of contemplation and lived kenosis (self-emptying), expressing itself in radical compassion, particularly for the socially marginalized.

link:https://cac.org

things you are trying to remember

immersed in life

between the thumbs

 

the who and what

the fastest, where

 

accomplishing one goal

chasing the next

 

you lost the space

between breaths

 

the liminal space to hold 

the sunset on your palms

 

one day, looking at the morning mist

you rubbed your eyes

 

you could not remember

the colors of roses, of camellias

 

afraid you also forgot

voices of your friends.

 

You have time

but do not wait too long

 

you may get stranded 

by the receding tide

 

and too exhausted 

to be frightened

 

You have time

to return to the roots of your narratives

 

to sip coffee, to listen

to the tribe’s ailments and pains

 

simply to be with friends

to drink and eat with friends

 

to share the hilarity

of oysters on a half-shell 

 

or in silence, gaze together

at the mountain or the sea.