Humbled by a True Poet

I just discovered a blogger who says what I feel better than I even knew it.  Here are a couple of quotes that resonate with me.

“Coming from a full heart prayer is a place of union, rather than one of needing and taking; separateness. There is a connection that’s comfortable, familiar…real. In this flow, what used to be designated time for prayer/contemplation, becomes a never ending conversation. The word faith loses its usefulness, for it’s been replaced by trust. Unable to feel alone anymore, you’ve been embraced…with a love like no other.”

Another quote:

“From a heart that deeply cares, life is deeply experienced. Taken root is an understanding, that what looks like many is actually one. A silent acknowledgement of the connectedness existing within, without, above and below erases the illusion we are separate from anything. And it is from this …that what you give changes.”

These are from Sharon Brooks at http://www.arevivaloftheheart.com

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Life is a School

Life is a school where tests are not about passing or failing, but are a learning tool instead. Loneliness is a universal experience meant to fuel a lifelong quest for God. And the vulnerabilities of those we love open us to prayer. Then the joy of loving leads us from just crying “Help!” to celebrations of “Thanks” and “Praise.” Lack of money challenges us to learn to live by God’s priorities. Loss of health brings us to depend on Him. The old are freed from caring what others think; they see that only God’s opinion matters. And recess comes when once we admit we’ve passed our peak, we’re free to just be comic relief.

Home Is

“Home is not where you live, but where they understand you.” Christian Morgenstern

When I was younger, home was moments, usually alone in nature, once on a hill in a fresh snowfall under a million stars in overwhelming silence, another time camping out and being alone and awake in that moment when the earth holds its breath between the night sounds and the morning sounds. Home in those moments was simply the sense of oneness with everything, of being totally at home with the whole universe and its creator.
Now in my old age, sometimes my sense of being home comes when someone ‘gets’ something I write or I read something that beautifully describes something deep within me that I had not been able to express.
Other times it’s helping an old friend in the nursing home recapture good memories or rubbing another old friend’s brow after surgery or holding a friend’s hand when they are dying peacefully.
Sometimes it’s delighting in a young granddaughter with a thirst for knowledge, or a great-grandson discovering a love for playing the drums, or a grown grandson having the courage to go to Indonesia to teach, or a middle-aged son going to live in Cambodia to nurture orphans with HIV.  It’s a grown grandson that calls you on your birthday.
It’s your family rallying to help you in times of need. It’s their funny funny humor and infectious laughter when working and being together. It’s a son staying day in and day out at the hospital with you. It’s your husband having filled the house with bright yellow flowers when you come home from leading a workshop.

Home is having that connection of understanding, whichever way it flows. It’s knowing that your inner self is not alone.
The Morgenstern quote is from the blog http://poetry,photosandmusingsohmy.wordpress.com

Being the Persons God Loved Into Existence

God made us precisely to be imperfect, incomplete and insufficient human beings. It is our neediness and feelings of helplessness that keep us depending on God’s grace and mercy….To be a saint means to be myself…..the problem of sanctity is in fact the problem of finding out who I am…my true self….God leaves us free to be real or unreal.” Thomas Merton in New Seeds of Contemplation.
“In no way does God expect us to act perfectly. We are challenged instead to accept ourselves with all our assets and liabilities; to be perfectly the imperfect people we are. God never seemed to want another perfect being. Prayer gives us the courage to confront our illusions……to embrace our weaknesses as well as our strengths. Without condoning our destructive behaviors, we can recognize them as opportunities for humility, forgiveness, and mercy…..To be who we are, the persons God loved into existence, implies the acceptance of grace, self-honesty, healthy self love, and a keen sense of humor.” Sister Maria Edwards, Spiritual Director and Author
1 Corinthians 1:18 —“The message of the Cross is foolishness to the world, but to those being saved, it is the power of God. God chose what is weak and rejected, so no one might boast. Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord”.
Romans 5:3-5 “We also boast in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope and hope does not disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured into our heart through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us.”
“Hope is a series of small actions that transform the darkness into light…..Despair is an affliction of the memory. Hope depends on remembering what we have survived. Hope is the gift that rises from the grave of despair…..We can choose to persevere in hope through darkness.” Sister Joan Chisttister in Scarred by Struggle, Transformed by Hope.
“Faith is: a conviction that God can and hope that He will.” From Thomas(?) Greene in Bread for the Journey.
“But trusting and listening for what He is teaching, when he doesn’t.” Eileen Norman