By Wayne Muller
There is a Tibetan parable that says if we put a tablespoon of salt in a glass of water and drink it, the water will taste terrible and bitter. But if we were to stir that same tablespoon of salt into an enormous, clear blue mountain lake, the water in the lake would remain sweet; we would not taste the salt at all.
The problem, the Tibetans say, is not the salt we are given. The real problem is how spacious is the container into which that salt is poured.
The question is not, never, ever, whether or not we will be given challenges and limitations. We will. The question is, how will we hold them, how will we be changed, how will they shape us, what will we bring to the healing of them, what, if anything, will be born in its place?
Pass the Salt, Please
By Ozan Varol
Mother Nature is a great teacher. Trees don’t try to produce fruit year round in an absurd attempt to be more productive. They lie dormant through the fall and the winter, shedding their leaves and conserving resources. Without that period of dormancy, they couldn’t bloom in the spring.
Humans also have seasons. The artist Corita Kent, during one of her own dormant periods, would sit idle and watch a maple tree grow outside her window. “I feel that great new things are happening very quietly inside of me,” she said. “And I know these things have a way, like the maple tree, of finally bursting out in some form.”
Being idle isn’t the same thing as being lazy.
A vacuum isn’t something to be automatically filled.
As the saying goes, it’s the silence in between the notes that makes the music.
So if you’re in between projects or jobs—or even romantic relationships—resist the tendency to immediately fill the void with the next thing.
Great new things are happening quietly inside of you.
Give them the time they need to bloom in all their glory.
Time to Bloom
“For nothing is fixed, forever and forever, it is not fixed; the earth is always shifting, the light is always changing, the sea does not cease to grind down rock. Generations do not cease to be born, and we are responsible to them because we are the only witnesses they have. The sea rises, the light fails, lovers cling to each other and children cling to us. The moment we cease to hold each other, the moment we break faith with one another, the sea engulfs us and the light goes out.” — James Baldwin
Blowin in the Wind
Pack Up Your Sorrows
For Nothing
There is only a shortage of awareness…
The root of suffering is the deprivation of love. Now in reality, there’s no such thing as the deprivation of love, but there is the deprivation of the capacity to experience the love that is never missing. James Finley
There is nothing more truly artistic than to love people. Vincent Van Gogh
By its very design, the physical heart is made to give and to receive. It takes blood in from the body through one side and then pumps it out from the other, circulating it throughout the body. A healthy and open heart center does the same thing with love. It sends love out into the world and receives it in equal measure; it keeps love in circulation. Marci Shimoff
Your True Self is who you are, and always have been, created in the image and likeness of God who is love (1 John 4:8, 16). Love is both who you are and who you are still becoming, like a sunflower seed that becomes its own sunflower.
Most of human history has called the True Self your “soul” or your participation in the eternal life of God. All you can do is nurture your True Self, which is saying quite a lot. It is love becoming love in this unique form called “me.” Richard Rohr
Let’s Get Together – The Youngbloods
Love is but the song we sing,
And fear’s the way we die
You can make the mountains ring
Or make the angels cry
Know the dove is on the wing
And you need not know why
C’mon people now,
Smile on your brother
Ev’rybody get together
Try and love one another right now
Some will come and some will go
We shall surely pass
When the one that left us here
Returns for us at last
We are but a moments sunlight
Fading in the grass
C’mon people now,
Smile on your brother
Ev’rybody get together
Try and love one another right now
If you hear the song I sing,
You must understand
You hold the key to love and fear
All in your trembling hand
Just one key unlocks them both
It’s there at your command
C’mon people now,
Smile on your brother
Ev’rybody get together
Try and love one another right now
Right now
Right now!
No Shortage of This…Love
I am proud of my Oracle Community…and of those who serve it via the Oracle Community Center! Thank you for your giving-ness to others…not only during this Thanksgiving season, but also throughout the entirety of this past year! Your giving hands and servant’s heart will surely grow a harvest of blessings for all who dwell here. DEBreen
The whole universe story has come into being because God is a hidden treasure who longs to be known. If it takes a whole village to raise a child, it takes a whole cosmos to bear forth the depths of divine love. Cynthia Bourgeault
What if there were a way of radical grace and truth through a post-Christian landscape? It could lead us to prioritize the breaking of bread with people, the breaking of cynicism to give thanks, the daily gift of being broken and given to the people around us. What if the body of Christ recaptured its vision? Recaptured its vision as the only collective in the WORLD that exists for its NON-MEMBERS!
What if the body of Christ became a community that lives its calling to such offensive grace that it looks like we’re soft on truth, routinely accused of being gluttons and drunkards because the King of our kingdom lived around addicts, prostitutes, and shady tax collectors, the broken-down, the busted-up, and the religiously disdained. And He never once explained Himself, only continually gave of Himself.
What if the body of Christ became a community that will not dish out condemnation but courage, that will lean in and listen long and love large. What if the body of Christ defines success as showing up and bending down, serving well over debating well, serving after the lights go off because there’s a light in us? Ann Voskamp ~ The Way of Abundance
God wants creation to become fully conscious that it is imbued with divine love and living in that love. This final outcome is what Teilhard called “the Omega Point” and St. Paul called the Pleroma. Louis Savary and Patricia Berne
I am running, consuming breath, consuming wind, yet I am renewed!
For the love of living whisks me into mystery; into possibility;
So onward as pursued and pursurer I pleasure…Love!
And the mystery I perceive when I run?
There is no end…Love…there is no end!
Love Bears Witness
I’m still on an emotional ‘high’ after finishing my first marathon (Marine Corps Marathon) on Sunday, October 28, 2018. The following words from these others capture perfectly the waves of emotion I am riding to the shores since crossing that line.
“there’s something about the marathon. whether you’re running against the clock, against your previous self, in memory of someone you love, to celebrate or fight against cancer, to prove to yourself what you can do—it’s all about love.” CarlySheree 2018 NYC Marathon finisher
The day will come when, after harnessing space, winds, the tide and gravitation, we shall harness for God the energies of love. And, on that day, for the second time in the history of the world, [humanity] will have discovered fire. Teilhard de Chardin (1881-1955)
Love [people] even in [their] sin, for that is the semblance of Divine Love and is the highest love on earth. Love all God’s creation, the whole and every grain of sand in it. Love every leaf, every ray of God’s light. Love the animals, love the plants, love everything. If you love everything, you will perceive the divine mystery in things. Once you have perceived it, you will begin to comprehend it better every day. And you will come at last to love the whole world with an all-embracing love. Fyodor Dostoyevsky, The Brothers Karamazov
“When you don’t challenge yourself, you miss out on so much.”
Denise Sauriol ~ Chicago-based running coach (the marathon whisperer)
“People sometimes sneer at those who run every day, claiming they’ll go to any length to live longer. But don’t think that’s the reason most people run. Most runners run not because they want to live longer, but because they want to live life to the fullest. If you’re going to while away the years, it’s far better to live them with clear goals and fully alive then in a fog, and I believe running helps you to do that. Exerting yourself to the fullest within your individual limits: that’s the essence of running, and a metaphor for life — and for me, for writing as whole. I believe many runners would agree”.
What I Talk About When I Talk About Running
“What do I want my one life to really be about? What you most want is what you most love. And what you love is what you’ll ultimately have for all eternity”. Ann Voskamp
“They say a good love is one that sits you down, gives you a drink of water, and pats you on top of the head. But I say a good love is one that casts you into the wind, sets you ablaze, makes you burn through the skies and ignite the night like a phoenix; the kind that cuts you loose like a wildfire and you can’t stop running simply because you keep on burning everything that you touch! I say that’s a good love; one that burns and flies, and you run with it!”
Catch me if you can…Love!
I am running, yet you pursure me..Love!
For the love of living does chase me down with relentless passion.
This one and only life I have been given, it demands to be fully liven!
So to the full I will live it, I will love it! I will run it!
And with overflowing gratitude will I give it.
I am running, consuming breath, consuming wind, yet I am renewed!
For the love of living whisks me into mystery; into possibility;
So onward as pursued and pursurer I pleasure…Love!
And the mystery I perceive when I run?
There is no end…Love…there is no end!
DEBreen
Love Wins
Do Not Ever Be Afraid Of Ashes
What seems like Ashes in your life
Can be the actual fertilizer
that grows your life.
Souls grow most in soil
Made rich by Ashes.Fire makes a fertilizer for growth, and
Ashes can be the best soil for
The best soul growth — period.That flame of
the Unexpected,
the Unwanted,
the Unnerving,
that can make
Kindling of your life,
that disaster that burns up
Your people
and burns down
Your dreams?What you can’t explain in your life
Could be explained as gift.The Way of Abundance ~ Ann Voskamp
Authentic God experience always “burns” you, yet it does not destroy you (Exodus 3:2-3), just as the burning bush revealed to Moses. But most of us are not prepared for such burning, nor even told to expect it. By definition, authentic God experience is always “too much”! It consoles our True Self only after it has devastated our false self. —Richard Rohr
From Ashes to Growth
There’s a lot of happiness in this world that depends on being brave enough to keep working when it’d be easier to quit. Nothing good gets started without getting to work —and nothing great gets finished without staying at the work.
The Way of Abundance ~ Ann Voskamp
Endurance is not just the ability to bear a difficult thing, but to turn it into glory.
William Barclay
Think...Feel...Be....BodyWise! 