Category Archives: Uncategorized

Katie’s Child

Poetry, Uncategorized

I saw my grandchild
move in deep silence
as it stretched below
my daughter’s heart.

I contemplate this child
whose history is ahead of mine…
whose influence has arrived
and helps me see… again.

This child,
the incarnation
of love from two,
from four,
from eight
pulls us close to what we know
but cannot see.

And having stretched
it waits
a holy waiting
to see the mystery
it has heard.

So we wait with this child,
we wait as the last robins fly
and as the wind plants gold,
we wait to see God breathe,
the mystery and to hear.

It was autumn and I had been sitting outside by the lake and the yellow birch leaves  would fall every time a breeze came through. We traveled to be with my daughter about six weeks before she was due to deliver her first baby, and I watched the magic of the baby stretch and of my daughter becoming a mother – both holy things.

 

Prayer

Poetry, Uncategorized

Walking prayer,
is heard by God…
feet giving voice…
padding slowly
as pilgrims
travel
in journey
to Him

Silent
centering prayer,
so still
to mirror
what is real,
to collect that
self, which shows
Him clearer

Welcome prayer,
embracing
the stories,
each chapter,
and each word
of this tale
…this yet unfinished
book of life

Breath prayer,
that intimate
resuscitation
with just a word
or two.
Oh, Breath of Life,
bring life to me.

Examination,
at days end
to find
a grateful
expression
of recognition;
the Covering
that has kept me.

Painting
or poem,
heart to hand,
a creative prayer
meant to share,
a gift to be given
and prayed again.

 

This poem has left out so many ways to connect with God!  But, how grateful I am that there are so many ways to connect and be present with the Lord.

Second Half

Poetry, Uncategorized

IMG_8503I saw
this butterfly
emerge from her cocoon…
so vulnerable,
she held on to what
had held her…
long enough to
see a different self.
then slowly strengthened
she let go
to trust the gift
of who she is
and the Wind
who gives her flight.

There is an important pause between transitions or on a threshold that are necessary pauses.  Periods of waiting before the next step.  That time between the times, between the seasons where we look around and see that there is something new and valuable, and that we are ready to let go.  

(Above photo taken by Timothy Herbert….my son.)

 

What Does That Even Mean?

Spiritual Direction, Uncategorized

I have a quote that whispers in my ear every couple of months and has done so for the past 5 years. It isn’t that it inspires me or reassures me, but that it always ALWAYS challenges me to scrutinize my core beliefs. Do you know how irritating that is? I want to know what I believe, I want to be firm in my beliefs, I want to understand. But, the more I think about these words descriptions of what I want, the less I think they apply to my faith.

I think there are very few things that are extremely rock solid when it comes to the Christian faith. 1: God is love. 2: God is extremely complicated. 3: God is unlike anything that I can describe. And if you look at a majority of the denominations within this belief system, I think those are pretty common themes that aren’t spoken of very often. Why? Part of me thinks it reminds us of just how little control we actually have, but another part says it is because we have hard time accepting that which we cannot define. Both are probably applicable.

So when it comes to my faith, I want to be like a tree, planted by the stream, a reference to Psalms 1:3 that has always provided a beautiful picture of  what I thought I was called to be. A tree. Firm. Solid. Strong. But the more I gaze at this portrait, the less I look at the tree and the more my eyes turn to the moving water. Each time I step into the Mississippi, it is always the same river… but the water is new each time.

And this, this is where listening is so vital to faith. God is never changing, but never ending. We assume that he reveals himself the same way to the same person without changing, but would it really be changing if he simply showed another facet of his divine nature? Have we figured it out? Have we limited God? Or are we willing to sit and listen. If I plant myself by that moving stream, will I learn more about myself or about the water that tickles my toes? The answer? I think probably both.

Oh! What was the quote?

“The glory of God is man fully alive.” ~St. Irenaeus

Honestly, what does that even mean?

The Stairs

Poetry, Uncategorized

Is it the same
the traveling up
as the journey down?
The burden’s heavy either way.

The load seems weighty
as I march up.
But with sudden lumbering
the burden shifts
and the path once clear
is now unseen,
This step in faith
as I descend
from glory heights
to furnace room.

This path’s dug deep
the tread worn thin
so familiar this routine
of go between.
To take one load and then return…
what consequence would fare
to never use the stair?

 

My friends, Beth and her husband, were doing some remodeling and redid the staircase to their basement.  She sent me pictures of the progress and some of the old steps that had become very deeply worn through the years of use.  It made me think of my grandmother who always did her wash in her basement.  I thought about the loads of laundry she must have done in her many years and began to think about carrying laundry up and down stairs.  For some reason this made me think about the ups and downs in our  journey through life.  I wonder if we can live mature lives if we live only within our mountaintop experiences?  It seems we have to be able to appreciate it all, the upper floors and the basements.  What would it cost us to live without one or the other?  Who would we really be without our basements or without our upper floors?

(Above photo from my friend, Elizabeth Degallier.  Thank you, Beth.)