A saint’s cell and solitude and silence

Posted on May 4, 2010 by a moment with god — Leave a comment

St. Kevin's cell at Glendalough, Ireland circa 600s

Another lovely day, God!

Thank YOU! This morning we went back in time – back to the 600s in Glendalough. St. Kevin had gone off to be holy and ended up founding a monastery back in the 600s. I felt like I was back there too. Not so much at the site of the monastery but very much so at the site of St. Kevin’s cell. It was so quiet and so green and so peaceful there.

Ah, solitude is one of the Disciplines, isn’t it God.

Solitude and silence do make both Time and Space for You, God.

Thank You for this trip. Thank You for saints of by-gone years. Thank You for wanting a closer, clearer connection with each on of us. The label saint throws us off, God. It makes an ALL or NOTHING dichotomy out of what I feel is a natural Both And. We are both of this World and AND of Your Kingdom of Love and Light and Laughter!

And now, God, being still IN this world — I am taking my dear body off to bed! SLEEP (for me, anyway) could be considered another one of the Disciplines by which we come closer to You. Surely I get out of sorts and full of static when I am tired or just not fully rested. So thank You for this time of travel in which I have rested and I have realized the sleep deficit in which I was living!

How Simple are the keystones of Right Living. Live within (well within) our limits — so that, when need be — we have the ability to give. And now, Good Night!

Posted in an invitation to abundant life, authority over my life, Balancing and adjustments, both / and, breathing in Your Spirit, compassion to care for myself, connecting, sacred space, solitude and silence

Soap bubbles, tulips and facing forward

Posted on May 3, 2010 by a moment with god — Leave a comment

Child and giant bubble on Grafton St in Dublin

Thank You, God, for a Glorious Day!

Really, a perfect day! The first half spent in bed — doing nothing much — a half day OFF!

Then, when Kit came back from the group walking tour, I bestirred myself and off we went on a long walk to St. Stephen’s Square, then on to the National Gallery followed by a walk through Merrion’s Square. Glorious beds of tulips to bedazzle the eye!
I don’t think I’ve ever seen so many tulips together like that.

Then we returned through Grafton St. and that is when I got the photo of the child with arms up — enchanted by the giant soap bubble.

Oh, God, Thank You for the splendiferous WONDERMENT of childhood! Children are enchanted by the simplest of things. Soap bubbles. I remember how much fun I had blowing bubbles. Ah! But these GIANT glycerin bubbles — they took me right back to that primal state of delight. How much better to catch and freeze a child expressing what I felt.

Is it the Japanese, God, who say: That which is most fleeting, is most beautiful. Or is it that beauty by its very nature can only be grasped briefly? Probably, both.

Thank You, God, for the the GIFT of the ephemeral — for beauty that explodes in our senses — and then ebbs away. Forgive us for trying to hold on to things — to go back, to attempt to recapture, to repeat.

Help us — help me — to be always ready for Your Oncoming Gifts.

Ah, God, there is the essential mistake of regret. It keeps us facing backwards! How can we be on the lookout for Your Next Gift if we are looking backwards?

Another plea for Help, God. Help me to keep my eyes and heart open and focused on what You want me to see. Hmmm. You might want to EXPAND both my heart and my vision.

Posted in appreciation, beauty, clapping our hands in joy, Expand my Heart, God's gifts, JOY, simple joys of daily life, stopping to see, taking time to focus, thankfulness, the gift of nothing to do

Gardeners, The Book of Kells and InterConnections

Posted on May 2, 2010 by a moment with god — 1 Comment

Flowers in St. Stephen's Square in Dublin

Good Day, God!

I’m back to admiring the flowers, God. In fact, I think we ought to put the gardeners in charge of things. Now there’s a thought!

Wouldn’t it be wonderful if we turned our world back into a garden — if our primary concern was caring for the earth — caring for the creatures — caring for the people.

Ah, now THAT would be a paradigm shift! What if we valued a person’s ability to care for his plot of land or her plot of land — and didn’t notice if she was wearing diamonds or Dior.

Now that I have given a minute or two to thinking about this I realize that I should have specified ORGANIC gardening.

Another thought that popped up is — would that mean NO iPods and iPads and laptops? Ouch! Easy for me to dis diamonds and declare them of no importance. But what if these organic gardeners wanted to ban my technological delights? What then? Pouf! there went my latest attempt at a Utopia!

an image from the Book of Kells - image from Regent.edu publication

So, I am smiling, God, at this complex world — free and messy and oh so interconnected. I thought about that this afternoon while I was walking through the Book of Kells exhibit at Trinity College. The way those artists interwove the illustrations was fascinating. They did a really good job of making the universe’s interconnections VISIBLE.

Everything really is connected to everything else. What we think and do matters. I fear it matters FAR MORE than I want to know.

Yes, I know, You have told me this before. I am resisting knowing — I am resisting because KNOWING would mean CHANGING.

Gosh, God. It might mean going jogging tomorrow with Kit. It might mean catching myself when I snivel about it being cold. It might mean turning down food that is put in front of me.

It all sounds a lot like growing up. Which — as You just pointed out to me — it is never too late to do!

Posted in A God given diversity, connections, growing toward up, Venturing out of the shallows?, web of life

Famine Ships and Doing More

Posted on May 1, 2010 by a moment with god — Leave a comment

Hearing the story of a woman in the late 1840's leaving Ireland in a famine ship

Good Gracious, God!

How hard it is to “hear” the story of the Irish Famine from a real live human being! We are not designed to do numbers. One million dead — or was it two million dead — they are just numbers. It has no reality. But, put a fellow human being in front of us and have her tell her story — then it becomes REAL.

Today we were on a replica of a famine ship. It was a sailing ship used to transport cargo that was outfitted for transporting people. Steerage was what it was called. That meant four people to a bunk 6 feet by 6 feet and the bunks were upper and lower. There were rules about how many people were allowed based on the ships tonage. But young people were counted as a half and children weren’t counted at all. There were maybe 150 to 300 people in a small area. The food was biscuits — hard tack — and raw oatmeal which they could try to cook on deck.

a replica of a real famine ship, the Dunbrody

These were the lucky ones. They left. Some had the passage paid for by their landlords. Some had family in America.

Well, I tell You, God. I feel convicted.

Because, it isn’t just the Irish — way back then. People needing help are all around us. “Needing Help” — that is a bit of a euphemism isn’t it, God. There are people starving. People dying of preventable diseases. People without hope turning to drink or drugs. Sigh.

I remember the end of Schindler’s List — with Oscar Schindler crying out: I could have done MORE! I could have done so much MORE!

Well, yes, God. I CAN DO MORE!

Oh, GOD! Please turn our hearts TOWARD YOU! Let doing Your Will be a JOY to us — light a flame in our hearts!

Posted in being a Slow Learner, being together in a compassionate presence, connecting, decision making, Haves and Have Nots, Having the Heart of a Have Not?, Heal Us Now

Pansies and People and Time

Posted on April 30, 2010 by a moment with god — 1 Comment

pansies in Kilkenney

Good Night, God,

Another day of sight SEEING! And thank You for a lovely day. We saw a castle in Cahir — a castle belonging to the Butler family for over 800 years. That’s a long time.Then we stopped in Kilkenney and we could have seen another castle. But as Kit said, we were “castled out.”

Can it be, God, that I am losing my taste for castles? I think so. They are fortified because people WANT to attack them. Castles were built by invaders and I was going to say that the conquered people had no love lost for the invading family living in the castle. But then I thought, hmmm, JOBS? Did the local folks see castles as the stimulus package of that time and place? But, enough of castles!

I started with the pansies, God, because they are fleeting — they last for a season — then are gone. They are at the other end from the castles which were built to LAST. The idea is coming to me that maybe we have it upside down, God. Maybe the best things we do are the most fleeting? Can it be that a smile, a kind work, an attentive ear are more important than building a castle?

Our tour director was telling us of all the years of talking together — of working out compromises — that it has taken to build peace in Northern Ireland. War is so simple compared to creating peace.

And that brings me, God, to my last thought for the evening. People are what I will remember from this trip — even more than the flowers — and far more than the castles.

This woman, Geradine Martin, hosted our home visit. She was a very good camogie player (that is what they call hurling when it’s played by women. Hurling – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia . It is wonderful how interesting a thing can be when described with enthusiasm and joy! So, now I know about Camogie — but what I really know, is how essential our fellow humans are to our well being — better even than flowers! Thank You, God for flowers and people and even for the fact that You have put us in TIME.

Posted in people as gifts, the joy of sharing, time

The Lusitania and Sinking My Old Mental Maps

Posted on April 29, 2010 by a moment with god — Leave a comment

A memorial to the Lusitania in Cobh, County Cork, Ireland

Good Day, God!

Oh sigh, O DRAT! It is alway discomfiting, God, to have to rewrite history as I learned it. The Lusitania was sort of a sailing Pearl Harbor, circa 1915.

Great Britain was in what was know as the Great War and doing badly. Their best hope was to have America join in. But, America was not interested. What to do?

How about lure the Germans (under Kaiser Wilhelm) in to sinking a commercial ship with Americans on board — the Lusitania? Now, that deed would serve as a rallying point to drum up American public opinion on the side of England! Sure enough, the Germans sank the Lusitania and American lives were lost. Propaganda mills turned and America entered the war in 1917

It turns out that the ship had a lot of ammunition in it. Enough ammunition that just ONE torpedo caused a big explosion. And the ship sank in 18 minutes. I suppose you could call it a Sacrificial Lamb — staked out for the U Boat wolves by Churchill. People in charge seem to do that, God. And I don’t want to know that.

Indeed, what really bothered me was the memory of having “learned” about this in college — and having “forgotten” it — so I wouldn’t have had to change my mental map of who were the “good guys” and who were the “bad guys”. Oh, how we RESIST changing those good / bad maps of childhood.

Please, help me God to seek Your Help in seeing clearly — seeing with compassion — myself, those around me, and out into the larger world — seeing and then remapping my inner world.

Posted in accepting my need for help, asking for help for myself, becoming the change I wish to see, being together in a compassionate presence, choosing HARD, courage to see myself, growing toward up, perspectives, processing on deeper levels, systematic rebuilding required

Border Collies, Diversity and Me

Posted on April 28, 2010 by a moment with god — 1 Comment

Hugh, a sheep farmer in County Kerry, Ireland and his dogs

Good Day, God

What a TREAT it was today to hear this sheep farmer talk about his dogs. First, it was clear how much he loved and valued his two dogs — second, it was magical to see them working together — and third, we had Mother Dog behaviors to watch.

The Mother Dog, Sally, is the one chained up by the fence. The farmer, Hugh, chained her up because she kept “cleaning up” the mistakes her daughter, Rose, made. Rose is still being trained and if she missed a command, Sally would be right there fixing it. As Hugh said, it was like a mother teaching her daughter how to do the dishes by keeping on doing them.

These are Border Collies, God, so I bet Sally would have been “cleaning up after” Rose even if she hadn’t been the Mother. Boy! Are these dogs obsessive, or WHAT! But then, perhaps, “hard workers” would be a better descriptive phrase — or maybe these dogs just have VERY HIGH ENERGY? Hugh said that after a month on the mountain they are so tired from running all day long that when he gives a command he can see the dogs eying each other as if to say, “Isn’t it your turn?” So, maybe their eagerness is related to their energy level.

I felt for Rose. She slunk close to the ground when Hugh yelled a repeat of a command she hadn’t understood. She felt awful. Here she is with her paws on Hugh’s leg, asking for reassurance. He made it clear that you praised the dogs for what you wanted more of. I could have stood there all day listening to him tell dog stories.

Now, God, it comes to me. You could have made all of us people to be like Border Collies — hard working with high energy. That’s what I would have done. But You didn’t do that. And, after thinking about it, I’m glad You didn’t make us all alike.

THANK YOU GOD that we are so very varied. But we need help in dealing with this immense diversity! Ah, God. We need minds to match Your Reality!

Or is it that we need to OPEN our minds to Your Reality?

Posted in A God given diversity, appreciation, interspecies contact, small meaningful moments

The Dingle Peninsula and Possibilities

Posted on April 27, 2010 by a moment with god — Leave a comment

it looks like a door to me -- at the end of the Dingle Peninsula

Thanks be to Thee O God!

Really, I am thankful! Thankful to finally be on a trip without being sick — thankful that Kit did well in the Boston Marathon — thankful to be here in Ireland.

And, with just a bit of a smile on my face, I am thankful for my imagination — thankful I was raised on Science Fiction and alternative worlds. Because, God, it is so much fun to look at this perfect rectangle — a door shaped rectangle — in this cliff and imagine what and who could have caused it.

Now, God, it’s not that I am thinking it was Giants that did it — we haven’t been that long in Ireland! Still, WHAT FUN to let my mind ponder what other than plain old geology might have caused it.

Options! How important it is, God, to have options! To be aware of having been given the ability to generate options. . . create new possibilities. I remember in the movie Dumbo the mouse giving Dumbo the “Magic Feather” and sure enough, Dumbo could fly with it. Magic? Or is it the Power of the Placebo?

Or it is just Opening the Door to a new Possibility? Ah God. I look at History and I think THERE IS SO MUCH EITHER / OR THINKING! It seems as if the world divides up into the equivalent of Left Hemisphere Thinking OR Right Hemisphere Thinking. Both are useful and important — but one or the other gets us sadly out of balance.

Cross section of the brain from http://adhd-treatment-options.blogspot.com

We need (but may not want) more Corpus Callosum people in our world — or maybe we just need to identify them and get them positioned properly! By that I mean people who can access BOTH hemispheres — people who respect and can work with a wide variety of types.

Understanding? Are the key attributes to solving many problems simply Understanding and Respect?

Ah yes, and the ability to forgive — to forgive the past — to forgive ourselves — to forgive others — acknowledging we have made dreadful mistakes — confessing them and asking for forgiveness — making amends. Hmmm. Sounds like we need to run everyone through AA.

More smiles. Thank You God for a Grand Day!

Posted in Balancing and adjustments, Corpus Callosum People, Focus on what unites us, gratitude, Making Amends, Options, Possibilities, respect, thankfulness, the difficulty of doing Both And, Uncategorized, Understanding

Bright Blossoms, Dark History

Posted on April 26, 2010 by a moment with god — Leave a comment

a flowering tree in Sneem, County Kerry, Ireland

Good Day, God!

I really can’t bring myself to say Hi — which is strange, God, as I am sure most people would be appalled at my informality with You — Creator of EVERYTHING!

Today was a day of Grand Vistas — oceans and lakes and green green fields and brilliant yellow gorse — as we drove around the Ring of Kerry. But this is the image I wanted to share with You. Thank You, God, for the small and fleeting beauties of this earth — especially when they are seen against the ancient and enduring granite. Tis a comfort, as they say.

We passed by the place where Daniel O’Connell was born and I learned about him and his place in history. How could I not know about a man who inspired Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King? The Catholic Emancipator!

In 1828 Donald O’Connell couldn’t take his elected postion in the House of Commons unless he swore the Oath of Supremacy — saying that the “Queen’s Highness is the only supreme governor of this realm, and of all other of her Highness’s dominions and countries, as well in all spiritual or ecclesiastical things or causes . . .” He refused and because of his popularity (and the fear of revolution) the English actually changed the rule and he was able to serve in Parliment. Later, in 1846 he persuaded Parliment to repeal a law requiring special dress for Jews.

Sigh. How is it, God, that we do these things to one another?

Hmmm. How is it I can “feel” this wrong so strongly — while the starvation of over one million Irish just twenty years after this incident — seems by its very size to be denied entry into my psyche. One quarter of the country dead by starvation? How can that be? Good men doing nothing? Did people say it was an Act of God — and acquit themselves of any responsibility? So many “holocausts”, God.

Could we have a Make Over, God?

You say, of course! YOU are willing — now help me to be willing!

Posted in a matter of scale, appreciation, asking for and accepting forgiveness, becoming the change I wish to see, The difficulty of changing

An espaliered fruit tree and assorted thoughts

Posted on April 25, 2010 by a moment with god — Leave a comment

Espaliered fruit tree at Kylemoor Abbey gardens

Hello, God!

I’m giving up on the Time Based Greeting. Evening here — morning there and neither one (or both?) for You.

I have been pondering this photo ever since I took it. As I was taking it I thought — that wouldn’t be a bad life — espaliered against a south facing or east facing wall — protected from the wind and predators.

But, on the heels of that thought came — BUT FREE IS BETTER — then again, if one is cold, hungry, and in danger, free looks less attractive.

I don’t suppose, God, that fruit trees care much about free — I would think they are more concerned with being fruitful. Fruitful appeals to me, too. It appeals A LOT! Fruitful is right up there with USEFUL and HELPFUL as words I LIKE!

Our tour director was describing the Irish Economic Catastrophe — rather similar to ours where people assumed that house prices would continue going up and up and up. No Down! Forgetting about down — or denying DOWN can get you into a lot of trouble. The Irish government has gone so far as to offer a prize to the best plan for getting them OUT of the mess they are in.

Do You think, God, that we could ALL use a good strong wall to be espaliered against? At first I was thinking about the Benedictines (an order of Benedictine Nuns now owns the Abbey) with their rules and their balance of WORK and PRAYER. But, it is MORE than that, isn’t it God. We need YOU. We need to be helped and pruned to be more fruitful — as individuals and as nations.

I hope that the photo is a photo of a real fruit tree, not a flowering one. Ornamental is nice — but maybe we have put a little too much emphasis on ornamental — and not enough on fruitful? Help me, please, God, continue to ponder this.

Tagged with: pruned for growth
Posted in being planted, cyclical nature of the universe, pruned for fruitfulness