Each day has a certain weave to it that gives it its own personality, its own set of threads in a tapestry that is unique to that block on the calendar, that turn of sun and moon. Some days we are aware of that weave. Most often this seems to happen when tragedy strikes. We are able to mark the ‘before’ and ‘after’ and see the day in the brilliance and shadow of itself. But there are days when the threads that weave into the tapestry of a day are so rich, so beautiful that even the most distracted person wakes up to the gifts that are being offered in the unfolding. Sunday was just such a day for me.
I began the morning, as I do nearly every Sunday, in worship with a community of people I have been blessed to travel with for many years. We celebrated the baptism, the folding into the community of faith, of a sweet new woman-child. In this particular community, the theme of baptism is woven throughout the entire service. It becomes a reminder, even a reaffirmation for those who notice, of each of our births,the ways we are intricately connected through water….its presence in our bodies,the eternal need we have for it, the tributaries we become to one another on life’s journey. In a refrain we sing as the baby is adored and passed through the community, we declare:”Welcome to this spinning world!” We say it for ourselves and believe it to have been on the lips of the Holy when we each made our own entrance into this precious life.
Later in the morning, in another worship service, we read aloud Psalm 104 as the psalmist declares the beauty and wonder of Creation. We spent some time together reflecting on how we had seen the movement of God in earth and sky. Listening to people’s own psalm language emerge and seeing the looks on their faces when they made those connections of seeing the Sacred in their everyday lives was such a gift. I left that place bathed in their words.
In the late afternoon, my husband and the Big Black Dog and I headed out for a walk along some trails in our neighborhood. We were anticipating the colder temperatures that were to arrive and were working to squeeze as much enjoyment out of the waning November weather as we could. Leaving the paved walking trail that runs through the woods, we stepped onto the soft, gentle ground made so by the fallen pine needles that blanketed the earth, sending up their rich, pungent, piney smell. We seemed to adopt the quiet walk the needles demanded. Suddenly, overhead we saw what seemed a huge, flying presence. Stopping, settling ourselves for what we might see, we raised our silent heads toward the tops of a tree. An enormous owl looked back at us. We stood and sat, respectively, looking at one another…..owl and humans, even dog, awake and aware to their fellow earth travelers. It was breath-taking!
But this day was not yet finished offering up its riches. Driving home from our owl encounter, someplace in the midst of conversation about dinner yet to be prepared,our eyes were jerked into over-drive. The trees ahead of us were shining! Their branches were red as if on fire. An enormous paintbrush had taken the now bare, drab branches and painted them with brilliance. The Sun’s setting was creating what is called Aspen Glow on the landscape around us. Amidst the “Wow!” and the “Look!” of our human voices, I seemed to hear a “You’re welcome.”sounding forth. We were like Moses standing in the presence of a bush that burned but was not consumed. We were in the presence of the great ‘I Am’.
Some days the tapestry that is woven of our daily walk is muted, even mundane yet serviceable. Other days, God shows up in that show-offy way that brought us peacocks and birds of paradise and giraffes. When this happens it is best to make note of it which is what I have tried to do by writing this. It is my meager human attempt at documenting the beauty offered me on one particular day, in one tiny life.
Whatever the tapestry of your day, may your eyes, my our eyes, be open to it and may our hearts be overflowing with gratitude.
