Barbara's Catch of the Day |
 |
| Barbara and Ian share a moment at Coe Summer Reading Camp. | |
Ed Note: |
|
For the Week beginning: Sunday, December 14
For this Third Week of Advent, I send my own Advent musings. Enjoy, Barbara Schlachter
Sunday
First Light
The earth is covered in wintery white.
It is winter, after all.
And it is Advent, the time for the Dark Night of the Soul.
So now we have the Dark White of the Snow.
Let me remember those who do not have houses or coats or boots, heat or light or food—
All necessary to face the cold and the dark—
Or loved ones to share it with, perhaps the hardest void of all.
Let our love be like the summer’s bees in heat: industrious, fierce,
producing sweet honey for all, the only food that never spoils,
like the treasures in heaven.
Monday
Mel asked me, “What do you want for Christmas?”
“Peace on earth,” I replied.
Not likely.
So I will have to content myself with lesser things:
Peace in my heart, peace in my family.
These, too, are pearls, and I would be thankful.
If enough hearts and enough families had peace
there would be pearls enough to drape around our Mother
and then there would be Peace on Earth.
Tuesday
It matters not what we call you—God, Lord, Source, Holy One,
even Goddess, Kali or Shiva.
You are more than any name.
You are more than all your names piled together.
What matters is that we call upon you.
And if we forget, you call to us.
You are not too big to start the conversation.
Even when we are too proud to cry out like the lost children we are.
Abba! Amma! Come, Maranatha, come!
Wednesday
When we failed to understand your sacred nature
You came as one of us—to teach, to lead, to show by example
how you love and how we are to live.
Still, we did not understand.
Now you are coming again as consciousness, as awareness that
you indwell in every heart, in every breath.
Some of us understand now.
Some of us are listening and celebrating,
Opening to what is already here and helping others to do the same—that is our task and our joy.
Thursday
Plant seeds on the snow above the frozen ground.
Plant seeds in a mind, on a body, for a heart that is hardened.
As the warmth of sun melts the snow,
As the seeds descend through newly frost free soil,
So there is the chance for the human heart,
Once hard, to become tender and to receive the seeds of love.
To have a harvest by grace, and wonder where it all came from.
So keep planting seeds of love and compassion
In large handfuls, anywhere, everywhere,
No counting, no calculating, just the joy.
Friday
Come my people.
Let’s do lunch.
Let’s all open ourselves and our world to feed each other.
We women will share our moon.
You men will share your sun.
We will all enjoy pieces of moon and sun, delicious food of the gods.
Don’t stop with sharing an apple.
Eat of the cosmos.
Give what you thought belonged to your kind alone.
Receive what you thought you had to take.
All capacity for knowing and being and doing is available to every woman, every man.
Then we shall be as God—or as God intended us, full of the divine nature.
Saturday
An Advent Blessing
May the Great God who guided the holy couple to Bethlehem,
May the Great God who led the holy family to refuge in Egypt,
May the Great God who kept Jesus safe until he gave up his life
Guide you and lead you and keep you safe in every step of your lives
This season of Advent
and in every season and in every place
that your foot shall walk this earth.
Amen.
You are here: The Word --> Barbara's Catch of the Day