...and live

Lord make me an instrument of Your peace,

where there is hatred, let me sow love;

where there is injury, pardon;

where there is doubt, faith;

where there is darkness, light;

where there is sadness, joy.

O Divine  Master, grant that I may not

so much seek to be consoled as to console;

to be understood as to understand;

to be loved as to love,

For it is in giving that we receive,

IT is in pardoning that we are pardoned,

and it is in dying that we are born to

eternal life.

     - Saint Francis of Assisi

 

At the end of our life, our questions are very simple:  Did I

live fully?  Did I love well?

                   - Jack Kornfield

Could it really be this simple?

There is a song that I hear on occasion that always points me in the right direction ...

and it springs forth when I really need it.

It is on my mind tonight ... guess I must need it,

and I want to share it with you!!  

Enjoy .... the link below

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qlv8oBzIgbY

cate

The laughter and the tears

To those of us whose lives have been hidden from

society, from those we love, from ourselves, we join in

solidarity.

     To those of us who have resisted isolation and stood

up to fear, we give heartfelt affirmation.

     In honor of those of us who have courageously,

joyfully, burst into the fullness of our identities, we

offer gratitude and blessing.

                             -Molly Fumia

  

Give me a sense of humor,

Give me the grace to see a joke,

To get some pleasure out of life

And pass it on to other folk.

               - anonymous

The readings today speak of some vital elements of living life on life’s terms with authenticity.

It is so important to join in solidarity with others rather than living  a divided life, and to stand together in courage and faith rather than folding into fear and isolation.Those of us who travel the road to happy destiny shoulder to shoulder certainly know the truth of this.  Most of us have experienced times in the journey where we  have stumbled, and it is those journeying beside us who have held us up until we are back on our feet.  And so, the journey continues ....

A sense of  humor ... life can so often be share with laughter and/or with tears.  Our fellowship has an amazing capacity to share life giving laughter that is heart felt and contagious!   Life can be shared through a sense of humor.

  I am just returning from a wonderful quiet week of retreat in a hermitage in a wooded area on the grounds of a Franciscan Motherhouse. Now, the rule book says that visitors are “discouraged”, it does not say they are not allowed. Soooo, during the day I received the gift of two visiting friends and we shared our spiritual journeys through tales and tears ... and then our number grew to six and we shared spiritual journeys through gales of laughter so hearty it led to tears.
  The laughter and the tears, they blessed us, each and everyONE!!!

The Spiritual Journey is the most intimate  of all journeys.  How blessed are we
 who are able to share and receive these wonders with others; 

the ineffable laughter and the tears.

In Joy ~  Cate

May all be well

May people be well, may they be well,

Male, female, male, female,

Goats, cattle, boys and girls;

May they multiply themselves

Bad luck go away from us ..

                        -An elder of the Kithuri Clan,

                          The Meru of Kenya

Ah, the simple clean wisdom of those persons who live closer to the earth
than we do. I remember reading many books about pioneers and wagon trains
and settlers of the early days of our country. They were so necessarily reliant
upon the earth and its many changing moods and seasons.  This simple
prayer of the Kithuri elder pretty much covered it all, so simple and pure.... 
all about survival of the community.

The prayer to Kai carries the wisdom of balance.  So often the darkness
is perceived in such negative terms, yet, without the darkness we can not
see the light....all has its place in the whole, and all calls for respect. 

I want to be closer to the earth, there is so much wisdom there, so much
centering! As I retreat this week, I walk on the earth and I sit on my
hermit-porch watching and listening as the breeze flows through the lacy
branches of the trees.  And, I breathe, and breathe, and every breath
brings me closer to awareness of unity with the One, with ALL!      

Kai, Be with us.

Violence, destruction, receive our homage.

Help us bring darkness into the light,

To lift out the pain, the anger,

Where it can be seen for what it is -

The balance-wheel for our vulnerable, aching love.

Within the act of creation,Crude power that forges a balance

Between hate and love.

Help us to be the always hopeful

Gardeners of the spirit

Who knows that without darkness

Nothing comes to birth

As without light

Nothing flowers.

Bear the roots in mind,

You, the dark one, Kali,

Awesome power.

           - May Sartan

                                                                                                                      cate

I vow to offer joy to one person in the morning

   and to help to relieve the grief of one

   person in the afternoon.

I vow to live simply and sanely, content with just a

   few possessions.

and to keep my body healthy.

I vow to let go of all worries and anxiety

    in order to be light and free.

                         -Thich Nhat  Hanh

 

 

I have appreciated the pure wisdom and Spirit that shines through the words of Thich Nhat Hanh

for many years.  He has a simple and direct way of  opening me to see things through a different

window. 

I look at his list of morning vows and realize how different this is from my own ... my vows tend to linger more towards specific things to be done, or others to be avoided ... all in a more Santa Claus good-bad list sort of manner. It seems there are so many things to be accomplished, and so many things to let go of .... it is those items that fill my list prayers as  look toward each day. 

But, look at this simple list of his ... bringing joy to one person, relieving the grief of another....

living simply and sanely; light and free.  Those are such genuine gifts to take into every day,

bringing my presence in this world to a place of growing service!!

This kind of spiritual focus can help to refine my Spirit and grow me towards a path of enlightenment, and place where I can be all those I encounter.

I believe I have found a new morning prayer!

 

 

 

Everyone has a spirit that can be refined, a body that

can be trained in some manner, a suitable path to

follow.  You are here for no other purpose than to realize

your inner divinity and manifest your innate enlightenment.

Foster peace in your own life and apply the Art

of peace to all you encounter.

                                           - Morihei  Ueshiba

Peace to all you encounter

Everyone has a spirit that can be refined, a body that

can be trained in some manner, a suitable path to

follow.  You are here for no other purpose than to realize

your inner divinity and manifest your innate enlightenment.

Foster peace in your own life and apply the Art

of peace to all you encounter.

                                           - Morihei  Ueshiba

Hmmmm...apply the art of peace to all you encounter ... pretty easy for those who are easy to deal with and fun to encounter.  It is a much bigger challenge within those encounters where my buttons keep getting pushed or someone repeatedly throws me under the bus!  What a great practice this is to utilize during these days of lent!!  Imagine how this world could be if we ALL adopted this practice during these weeks of lent .... I think we would discover world peace.

Let there be peace on earth ...... cate

The food of your life

For each of us food is the source of sustenance, the

basis of life; and when we offer this gift to one another,

we are not only nourishing each other’s bodies, we are

feeding one another’s spirit. So  receive – and give -  the

food of your life as the powerful gift it is.

           -Daphne Rose Kingma

During the celebration of 100 years of our congregation in the USA when I was a member of the SSCM's, our motto for the year was "We are Bread".  Bread represents the sharing of life in so many situations ... breaking bread together, the loaves and the fishes, communion;sharing our truest nourishment, our greatest gift ~ the healing power of love.  When that is the bread that is shared, the truly nourished soul becomes visible here on earth....and the eternal now moment becomes visible to the naked eye as the breeze travels through a beam of the moon.

Today I am open to receive and to give .... the true bread of life!        Cate

The rainbow within

As a child

     I was told and believed

                 that was a treasure

                     buried beneath every rainbow.

I believed it so much that

       I have been unsuccessfully

            chasing rainbows

                   most of my life.

I wonder why

     no one ever told me

         that the rainbow

     and the treasure

          were both

               within me.

             - Gerald  G. Jampolsky, M.D.

This reminds me of the story about the fish looking everywhere for the sea ...

looking and looking and looking everywhere for what was already all around her,

she just didn't recognize it.  Or, like Dorothy who journeys all through OZ looking for what she too already had within. 

I wonder why we don't teach our children that God is within each and everyONE ... that they do not need to journey the world to find what they already have!  Imagine how people might learn to treasure and love themselves and take good care of themselves if they grew up knowing that the treasure they were seeking was already closer than their very breath.  And, imagine too how differently they might treat others!!

The AABB reminds us of this wonderful truth when it says (p.55):

We found the Great Reality deep down within us. In the last analysis it is only there that He may be found. 

When I forget this,

it helps so much to simply pause and take a deep breath ....

and another ...

until I connect with truth once more!!

Namaste'

Cate