Advent I, 2013

Solar eclipse over SanFrancisco bay, 2012

Advent I, 2013

Wrap me in the now of Love

for it is a touching time

when nearness is felt

absolutely, entirely—

and my yes echoes

from star to star:

I will touch, I will open,

I will receive, I will share.

Your life fills the heavens,

spins the planets,

and sings my dreams home

to sunrise and more!

Augh, live in me, find hearth in me,

though I am hopeless to contain you!

You, the largeness of my love,

and depth of my breathing.

 

Kimberly M. King, rscj

c. MperiodPress

 

Real time

I came across this quotation the other day and I have not been able to shake it from my mind. Some of its power comes from timing. I read it on the anniversary of a sad and difficult event in my life. Just about a year ago now, I was with a family member I love at the end of a driveway and I said goodbye. Though imminent death was not a part of it, It was in many ways a final goodbye, a letting go, a wrenching sigh.

Some of why I nod in silent agreement while reading this is my own experience of covenant with God...My own lived assurance that "Nothing can separate you from my love." Nothing. Nothing...so walk on. Nothing...so walk with your head up. Nothing...so Live. Nothing...so speak what truth there is to speak. Nothing...so Love beautifully and let yourself be loved. Nothing...so Love even though the honor to do so is sometimes difficult and tragic and renders each breath an ache, at least for a while.

And some of why I like this so much is the pure simplicity of it. It is Real. Real like hurt is real...but real too like friends are real. Friends that welcome my company and who offer me theirs. Friends who hug and hold and bless and send. Friends who teach me by the truth they speak and who allow me the privilege of sharing truth with them as well.

Real like the heart is real...like the heart is real and sacred. Real like the Heart where what is most gloriously divine and most completely human meet.

Do not be afraid... There is tragedy and there is beauty... I have known both...and learned over time to allow myself to walk with both... Because it is the walk that I don't want to miss...the journey...ever deeper, ever onward, never alone.

And I have learned that sometimes it's just fine to stop for coffee along the way.

 

 

 

The Long Way Round

Longest way round is the shortest way home.

~~James Joyce in Ulysses~~

I read this quotation somewhere a number of days ago and it has stayed with me...I played around with it while thinking too of the mathematical principle of the shortest distance between two objects being a straight line.  They seem to be saying contradictory things, but I am not sure that is the case.

To take the long way around is to allow for freedom.  It is to allow for freedom and a good wander, mistakes and the startle of beauty, mystery and faith and adventure and love.  The long way around allows time to stop and "see into the life of things," as Wordsworth puts it.

I think the long way around also provides for grace.

Within the last month or so, I have been given multiple opportunities to accept different kinds of grace.  I heard from the mother of a former student that "she reads like she does because of you."  The father of another student spoke to me about how I had been the face of God for his family.  I unexpectedly received a book of poetry in the mail from a friend.  I also can say that a moment of tears and frustration became a moment of grace in sharing story and conversation with a friend because of it...in realizing where I still need to grow.  Another former student re-initiated conversation after a stretch of being out of touch and we had a talk that spoke of essential things...the things of Life and well-being, hope and strength.

I also saw her...

None of this would happen, I don't think, by taking the path of least resistance or the way of shortest distance.  These are things, events, graces, brought about by a lifetime of accumulated experiences. And happen by being in particular places at particular times...at the invitation and call of God.

I'm pretty sure grace is the long way round and I know that home is God.  It's a direct connect.