Precious AND FREE!

Posted on February 19, 2010 by a moment with god — Leave a comment

Hereford Cathedral Chained Library

Good Morning, God.

I’ve been in this library — I even took a photo myself — but it was predigital and lost to me. This photo gives me the feeling that the books are CHAINED like prisoners.

When I was there — it was clear that these books were so precious, so valued, that the were chained to the shelves to keep them safe.

Two different ways of seeing the same reality. I suppose women kept in a harem could be looked from either point of view. Prisoners or Protected?

We are all of us chained, God. Chained to our culture – family viewpoints, community viewpoints, country viewpoints and values. And since this has been the way it is from our birth — we don’t notice. It takes a trip abroad or having a friend with different viewpoints to let us see that we aren’t totally free from our upbringing. But seeing isn’t becoming unchained, is it.

As I look at this photo — and imagine people in the place of the books — I am utterly convinced that YOU want us FREE! No one values us more than YOU DO. WE ARE PRECIOUS TO YOU! PRECIOUS AND FREE. Gosh, if only we had as much compassion for ourselves as You have for us!

You don’t want us to suffer from guilt — YOU LONG TO FORGIVE US! We just have to ask You — and humbly accept. You LONG to give us LIFE and LIFE ABUNDANT.

Help us, here, God. Please Help US ALL!!!!

Posted in asking for and accepting forgiveness, compassion to care for myself

Opportunities for God’s Grace

Posted on February 18, 2010 by a moment with god — 1 Comment

Oscar Romero
Bishop and Martyr
1917–1980

Ah God, now here is a man after Your own Heart. He was the archbishop of San Salvador — who spoke out for the poor and oppressed — and was assassinated while offering mass on March 24, 1980.

The poster is for sale ($5) on Orbis Books and came to me via maryknollsocietymail.org. Here is a short reflection by him.

A Reflection by Oscar Romero
We accomplish in our lifetime only a tiny fraction of the magnificent enterprise that is God’s work. Nothing we do is complete, which is another way of saying that the Kingdom always lies beyond us. We cannot do everything and there is a sense of liberation in realizing that. This enables us to do something and to do it very well. It may be incomplete, but it is an opportunity for the Lord’s grace to enter and do the rest.

We may never see the end results, but that is the difference between “master” builder and the worker. We are the workers, not the master builder; the ministers, not the Messiah. We are prophets of a future that is not our own.
Archbishop Oscar Romero

Lent does seem like a really good time, God, to look at how You have filled and activated some of Your more remarkable children. We are ALL CALLED AND ENABLED TO DO SOMETHING! I like to think that it isn’t about doing something BIG — it isn’t even about SUCCEEDING. It is about RESPONDING to YOUR SPIRIT as our brother, Oscar, did. Thank You, God for allowing us to be a tiny part of Your “Magnificent Enterprise.”

Pondering Lent – Choosing the Hard

Posted on February 17, 2010 by a moment with god — 1 Comment

A tall cactus "family" at Kapiolani Community College

Good Morning God, IT’S ASH WEDNESDAY! The start of Lent. The season in which we try to enter into to a closer relationship with you.

Traditionally, we do this by giving up something. My husband (lovingly referred to as Pope Kit by a friend) really gets into the GIVE IT UP mindset. I think it must be the Scots heritage out of New England. Let’s see, no alcohol, no caffeine, no sugar containing desserts — and I accompany him on this journey. Although, I did “strike back” this year by pointing out HE should also give up the morning TV business news (cacophony!) Much to my DELIGHT he agreed.

But, I personally don’t hold with the minor deprivation theory . . . is this suffering along with Jesus . . . I don’t think so, God. I mean, wanting to become closer to YOU ought to involve OBEYING with ABANDON! Wild GIVING! Outrageous FORGIVING! That would certainly turn Lent on its head.

Giving up chocolate (although, I am) seems to be one end of a continuum that ends with Thomas Becket and his hair shirt . . . self flaggellation and stuff like that at the far end. Voluntary suffering seems somehow to miss the goal of being remade.

Ah, but the voluntary embracing of HARD . . . now that makes sense to me as a useful exercise. So, perhaps, if I look at it that way — it won’t seem so much like embracing cacti!

Please, God, help me TRUST YOU enough to OBEY YOU. And for me what is REALLY HARD, isn’t the chocolate — it is SETTING ASIDE A DAY OF REST. Funny, isn’t it, how addicted our world is to BUSY! Or maybe sad is a better word. Help us ALL, O God, PLEASE.

Posted in busy, cacti, choosing HARD, pondering the purpose of Lent

Data and DELIGHT

Posted on February 16, 2010 by a moment with god — Leave a comment

Solar Dynamics Observator (SDO) Image from Space Daily

Look what I found, God. Here am I — so in love with Sunsets and Sunrises — and here is this geosynchronous satellite focused on our sun non stop for at least five years. Tons — well terabytes — of data will flood in to The Max-Planck Institute in Germany.

One purpose is to forecast solar flares and thus be able to protect equipment and people in space and power grids here on earth.

Solar flares are THAT powerful! And they seem to vary as part of an eleven year cycle. I think they are at the low end of activity now. I find it interesting that our sun has cycles too. And as for our human cycles — I found this graph in Wikipedia:

All of us are affected by our own multiplicity of cycles and now I find my mind edging back wanting to actually read the article on Chronobiology. Perhaps, later. There is so much to learn in this amazing world. Thank You, God, for making us Learners.

My simple enjoyment of sunrises seems to pale in the face of such massive scientific inquiry. But actually, even this small peek at what we are learning about the sun increases my appreciation — deepens my awe — for the sun, and the universe we live in. Data and Delight can walk hand in hand.

Posted in cyclical nature of the universe, so much to learn

Meticulous? Me? Don’t laugh!

Posted on February 15, 2010 by a moment with god — Leave a comment

Jade vine at the Oahu Country Club

Good Morning, God. I sort of failed to keep my Sabbath Day, yesterday. I had made ONE exception — to stop by Arcadia after church and find the last name and phone number of a person so I could confirm a computer lesson today. But when I got there the right side computer wasn’t letting folks get into their gmail. Total DISTRESS! I could have waited until today. But it felt like a case of my neighbors ox falling into a well — or whatever it was Jesus said to the pharisees — so I made an appointment with the Genius Bar for that afternoon and they FINALLY were able to fix it.

So maybe only a Silver Star for yesterday. But, I didn’t say “Oh well, I might as well do all the other work that is waiting”! I let it wait! And I got a GIFT of WANTING and WELCOMING a new virtue from You. The virtue of being METICULOUS.

You might have noticed, God, that up until now, I dismissed even the idea of being METICULOUS. It wasn’t until yesterday morning, when I HEARD myself saying cheerfully “I don’t have the gift of being meticulous” that I realized THAT IS EXACTLY WHAT I NEED TO BE.

Maybe that is why I am listening to the book The Checklist Manifesto by Atul Gawande. I need a few checklists! But more than that, I need the humility to be willing to redefine who I am and what I can do.

Yes, God, I want to embrace humble — formerly scorned — gifts. And as I look up at the photo of the Jade vine, I can see — just off to the right of the vine in bloom — a very small beginning vine. Perhaps that is me? I like to think of myself as in FULL bloom. But, Smile, perhaps I am still JUST BEGINNING! Thank YOU!

Posted in being a beginner, blooming, both / and, Meticulousness

Happy Valentine’s Day

Posted on February 14, 2010 by a moment with god — Leave a comment

Crab Claw Haliconia at KCC's Farmers' Market

So good, God, all this focus on love . . . hearts and flowers — especially red flowers and, of course chocolate.

Yesterday the Farmers’ market was filled with red flowers — great armfuls coming in and going out.

It was a lovely morning and I indulged myself with my regular coconut full of thirst quenching liquid. . . better than water, not sweet or even flavored — just the essence of nourishing. I read that they used it as plasma during World War II. That would seem to make it perfect for us, God.

fresh coconut at the Farmers' Market

After I’d finished the drink I took the coconut back to have it cut in half and the coconut meat scooped out so I could eat it. I looked up to see two young women taking my photo. Then they asked me in their language what it was. I think that is what they asked. I told them the name, the cost, and offered them a taste. They both accepted and ate a small piece. We parted smiling. And I thought — or maybe realized more fully — that sharing is such a gift. I shared a moment in time — a little bit of fresh coconut — and a small connection that felt very close to sacred.

Yes, God, we are social beings. We are meant to be connected — designed to share. You Designed us to love and care for one another — THAT is what gives meaning to our lives. I think it was Viktor Frankl who explained that when our need for Meaning isn’t met — that is when we try to make do with Power or Pleasure. But they do not quench our thirst for meaning! They may distract, momentarily. But, it is meaningful moments that — -like coconut water — satisfy, nourish us, and help us grow.

Thank YOU, God, for giving us this marvelous gift of BEING. . . and of being together.

Posted in connecting, connections, sacred space, simple joys of daily life, small meaningful moments

The Jesters of Diversions and Distractions

Posted on February 13, 2010 by a moment with god — Leave a comment

Court Jester -- my cartoon

Yesterday, God, the same friend who took the side that You don’t waive Your rules — send me a post from InwardOutward.org.

The one she sent was from 2/10 with the last line reading: Jesus’ truth is greater than all the opinions about him put together.

I went to the site and LOVED the one for 2/12 — a poem by Denise Levertov.

In it she talks about how problems jostle for her attention — “along with a host of diversions, my courtiers, wearing their colored clothes, caps and bells”. I immediately smiled at the idea of all our Diversions and Problems as being our Court Jesters — there to distract us from YOU. She goes on:

And then once more
the quiet mystery is present to me
the throng’s clamor recedes:
the mystery that there is anything,
anything at all,
let alone cosmos, joy, memory, everything,
rather than void: and that
O Lord, Creator, Hallowed one,
You still, hour by hour sustain it.

I loved her poem and went online to buy it (The Stream and the Sapphire) and to subscribe to InwardOutward.org. Then I searched and searched for an image of a jester . . . finally being reduced to drawing one myself. I WANTED an image of my distractions — my mind full of Martha usefulness. Perhaps, God, the jester image seems disrespectful of worthy activities — and some of mine ARE worthy.

But I see it as an image symbolizing PERSPECTIVE! Thank you God, that YOU STILL — hour by hour — SUSTAIN Creation!

Posted in busy, Perspective, putting down daily diversions

Adrift on the Sea of TIME

Posted on February 12, 2010 by a moment with god — 1 Comment

Seagull on ice off of Chile

Here I sit in Hawaii, God, warm enough to be going swimming this morning. Meanwhile, WINTER has the World in an icy grip.

Friends back East are praying their power stays on as neighbors without power have come to stay with them.

So, people laugh at “Global Warming” even as we see photos of polar bears on ice flows. That is an image much too sad to be staring at while I sit pondering Life with You. We are small creatures — wondrously made — but TIME is so HARD for us.

Yes, I know, it isn’t just TIME that is hard for us. And HARD doesn’t mean we just dismiss it. The polar ice IS melting. The oceans ARE warming. And even just a degree or two warmer means BIGGER STORMS. I think of the photo of the damaged container ship that was caught in Big Storm crossing the Pacific and had to dock in Honolulu.

I guess what I mean, God, is that envisioning AHEAD — seeing ahead — and then ADJUSTING OUR COURSE — that is HARD. Are we Adrift? Rudderless? Or distracted? Or all of the above?

Do I hear You say relax? Please, God, help me Relax and in so far as I can — DO JUSTICE, LOVE MERCY and WALK HUMBLY with You — and with all those who love mercy.

That’s a good word, God. Micah 6:8 still rings true. So then help me gather my focus back to now. . . and me . . . and help me let my PRAISES RING FORTH! You have given us LIFE! You have put love into our very being and nature. Let us join with YOU in LOVING and LIVING OUT LOVE MORE FULLY. THANK YOU!

Posted in Life is hard., Life isn't supposed to be easy., living by every word that comes from God, LOVE, mindfulness, perspectives, time

Hello, Dolly — an Image of God?

Posted on February 11, 2010 by a moment with god — Leave a comment

Carol Channing as Dolly in "Hello Dolly"

In a class after church we were discussing You, God. In my group most people thought You were bound by the natural laws that You have created.

How SAD that would be!

I prefer thinking of you as a “Hello Dolly” sort of Being!

My very favorite line in Hello Dolly is when Dolly hands out her card and says: I meddle! She then launches into a song about how she pulls a little here and pushes a little there . . . Ah! What a wonderful JOY FILLED musical! There should be MORE Dollies in this world.

In my experience, You LOVE to interact. Love to be ASKED. Long to be allowed in — to comfort and to rearrange our hearts – and our bodies too.

As for breaking Your own laws — well just my passing awareness of quantum physics makes me realize things work very differently when they are really small. Maybe Your “Laws” are designed for Your Participation? Afterall, when I had to write a Fining Policy for the UH Libraries at Manoa, I made sure I gave myself the power to “adjust” the rules. Now, God, would YOU do LESS?

When I pray with friends — it feels as if we are sitting together — in YOUR HEART. Something happens inside me. Something good. Even if I never know what it is or how it works. Please, God. Come and Meddle in my life!

Posted in processing on deeper levels, sacred space, the essential nature of hope, the JOY of praying together, Trusting God

The Eiffel Tower and A Matter of Scale

Posted on February 10, 2010 by a moment with god — Leave a comment

Eiffel Tower

Good Morning, God. I can still remember how surprised I was by the Eiffel Tower. I was so familiar with the image that I discounted it as “touristy.” But as I approached it I was blown away by its size. I didn’t have the scale right!

I suspect that is one of the things we have “wrong” in our “understanding” of YOU. Our minds just can’t do the order of magnitude adjustments needed — yes, I am overlooking the qualitative surprises as beyond contemplation. Just the SIZE question staggering. Kit and I were touring Duke University when I happened upon the photo taken from the Hubble Space Craft of what I thought at first were stars. But, as I peered at it — I could see that the little dots of light were GALAXIES. Oh my. Moments like that plunge me into a state of AWE.

Early Galaxies as seen by the Hubble Space Telescope: Photo by NASA

God, with AWE comes the thought that maybe YOU are TOO BIG to CARE! But, I HEAR — TOO BIG NOT TO CARE!

Even so I sense that CARE is too SMALL a word for what You do. For it feels to me as if You WANT us to invite You IN — to extend, balance and renew us. Those words are close but there is so much MORE. We are being invited to “TAKE PART” in LIFE. Ah my . . . AN ABUNDANT LIFE . . . in more ways than we can imagine.

Posted in a matter of scale, an invitation to abundant life