“I hung hope out with the laundry,

clothes-pinned tenderly

beside a pillowcase and two sheets.

I could tell she needed air,

a sweet puff of wind.

She needed to get warm again

basking in the sun.

After a few hours,

I came out with my basket

and took her down.

We both felt refreshed.

She said,”don’t put me
in the closet

with the sheets.

Spread me on your
table.

Let your guests spill
wine and

crumbs of bread.

Wash me gently, put me
back in the

sun.

Lay me across your
bed,

so I may warm you in
the night.

that I might comfort
their dreams.

Whatever you do,”she
said,

“include me.

It is the only way
that I can live.”

~Ingrid
Goff-Maidoff

This poem was read at a memorial service I attended on Saturday. In addition to the service I also presided at a wedding and attended the graduation party of a young man I have known since he was a small boy. So many life transitions all held in one day. I felt blessed to be a part of each of these.

As I reread the poem that had also been printed on the memorial program, I thought of how it was an appropriate message for all three life events. For the young couple beginning their married life together, I pray that they remember to keep hope fully alive between them, that they place it at the center of their breakfast table and start their day fed by it. For the man who shared with us the stories of his wife, gone too soon, too young, may he grip the hem of hope with all his might and let it wrap him in powerful arms. For the young man fulfilling one goal of graduating high school, I wish that he be grounded in a hope that is planted in gentle heart, a hope that will carry him through the 'what's next' that awaits him.

Keeping hope alive takes intention and dedication. Too often we fall head long into our days without remembering to take it out of the closet that is full of haphazard stacks of mismatched sheets. Too often we forget to place hope firmly in the center of our desk, our table, our front yard, our heart. Hope's very life depends on our invitation to be included in all we do.

On this Monday, the beginning of another week, let us all make room at the center for the hope. Let us give her air and warmth and a place to grow and live. God knows we all need her.

"The children play
in the stream that runs to the sea-
splashing, kicking, dancing,
boys calling, "Watch this!" as they climb the dune
and race down.
"Look – my hair is a kite," the little girl laughs,
"It's blowing in the breeze."
I sit on the warm sand with dry towels,
breathe in the sun, the sand, the salt,
and the pure joy of children at play,
all given as gift
all to be enjoyed."
~Roberta Porter

Yesterday morning as I was heading out to my car to go into the
office, I looked across the street where one of our young neighbors
stood in his front yard. He was surveying the street dressed in a
t-shirt, still wearing his pajama bottoms. He was looking up and down
the sidewalk, rubbing his eyes, no doubt looking for the first sign of
all his friends, now fresh to the aimlessness of summer.

I
stopped for a moment to take in the sight of him. Someplace deep inside
me a memory flickered of how summer felt when I was a child. The
endlessness of days. The sheer possibility of each day and what it
might hold. The gift of walking unhurriedly with a friend,reading a
book on the porch when it rained, staying in my pajamas until it was
time to shift to my bathing suit. A wave of longing and nostalgia swept
over me.In the office, a colleague and I stood talking about
some projects we were working on. As the details and responsibilities
began to mount, she said:"So much for a relaxed, laid back summer!" We
silently agreed and went on our way.

It seems to me it is rare
these days that there is the full enjoyment of what the song
called 'the lazy, hazy, crazy, days of summer.' For the most part we
just keep on schlogging through without allowing ourselves to take in
the fullness of this gift of more light, warmth, and what should be a
vacation mode. For the most part summer is a mind set more than even an
actual suspension of work ethic. Opening ourselves to moving slower,
lingering, allowing the heat of the sun to fill us, savoring the color
and light that will, too quickly, be gone. For those of us who live in
a four-season world, the gift of summer should not be squandered.

It
is Friday. The weekend awaits. Here in Minnesota it promises to be a
beautiful few days. Perhaps the invitation is to remember what it was
like to play outside until the mosquitoes became too fierce. Perhaps
the invitation is to stay in your pajamas until you switch to your swimsuit or biking shorts. It might be time to eat Popsicles for
lunch and sit and stare into the middle distance until the next good
thing comes to mind.

Summer officially begins in less than two
weeks. It is time to begin to practice how to engage in the aimless
enjoyment that is summer's gift.

" We all have an appointment with life and the time is now." Thich Nhat Hahn

I was leafing through a notebook in which I had jotted down thoughts and ideas from a recent conference I had attended. At some point the speaker spoke these words of Thich Nhat Hahn, the wise Buddhist priest, who walks so easily in his Buddhist world while gently holding his Christian brothers and sisters. It is rare for me to come across his words and not be stopped in my tracks at their beautiful simplicity.

We have an appointment with life and the time is now. We know this. We can say it to ourselves over and over and yet, if you are like me, we so quickly forget. Stuff piles up, lists get too long, dramas evolve, and before we know it, we are speeding down the road at 100 miles an hour having missed our appointment with now. We allow all kinds of infringements on the most precious gift we are being given with each breath…..now. This moment. This amazing and beautiful space of time and place, of presence and being.

The Scottish theologian and poet George MacLeod said: "God is now." Can it be that when we barge full speed ahead that we not only miss our appointment with our lives but we also miss an appointment with the Holy? It is something to consider. In the presence of this very moment, everything that has ever been and everything that is yet to be lives in eternity and we who are living, breathing, with hearts beating are held in between both, carried on the Breath of God. What a glorious realization!

Here I am. Still in my pajamas, sitting at my computer working on all manner of things, riding on the Breath of God…..now. Of all the appointments I may keep today, none is more important than this one.

Breathe with me?

"The success or failure of any historical age is the extent to which
those living at that time have fulfilled the special role that history
has imposed upon them."Thomas Berry, The Great Work:Our Way into the Future

Last week was quite a blur for me. Being involved in the many events that have surrounded our son's graduation from high school have kept me swimming in a sea of delightful details. In the midst of all of it, I was aware that one of the great voices of our time had passed on into eternity. Thomas Berry,writer,cultural historian,geologist and wisdom figure,died June 1st at the age of 94. His work and words has influenced so many to nurture the relationship between our faith traditions and the scientific world, a relationship that has often been under attack. One of his most famous quotes, "The Universe is a communion of subjects, not a collection of objects." shows his great love for the universe into which he was born, where he lived out his call to awe and wonder, and his dedication to passing on that message to the world. 

Two years ago I had the privilege to be present in a beautiful hall named in his honor on the grounds of the Whitbey Institute near Seattle. The space seemed to be hollowed out of an enormous tree, trees being a symbol often used in his work. This large tree hall was used for worship, lectures, concerts, dance, and the play of children. Its very architecture was about the relationship in which we are all involved, whether we notice it or not. Thomas Berry's work was to remind us of the scared nature of our reliance on all the relationships of our living. From atom to air, from soil to sun, from human to humus, we exist in an interdependence in the unfolding universe that is mostly invisible to us. Yet what is unseen, the Mystery, is what holds us together. Berry's words and wisdom are a great reminder.

So today, now that the blur has cleared for me a bit, I will celebrate the life of Thomas Berry by reminding myself of the invisible lines of connection that hold us all and keep us dancing in this amazing universe. His earthly work, his Great Work, may be finished but his invitation to us continues. I encourage you to seek out his writings if you have not done so as we carry into the future the gifts which he placed in our hands.

"The excitement of life is in the numinous experience wherein we are
given to each other in that larger celebration of existence in which
all things attain their highest expression, for the universe, by
definition, is a single gorgeous celebratory event. "

"God be with thee in every pass,
Jesus be with thee on every hill,
Spirit be with thee on every stream,
Headland and ridge and lawn;
Each sea and land, each moor and meadow,
Each lying down, each rising up,
In the trough of the waves, on the crest of the billows,
Each step of the journey thou goest."
~Carmina Gadelica

I had held off for some time in purchasing the book Carmina Gadelica. This large anthology of poems and prayers from the Gaelic oral tradition is the most comprehensive ever collected. The writings came from communities all over the Highlands and Islands of Scotland. The volume represents words shared or performed at evening gatherings, ceilidhs, and were passed down from generation to generation. They were compiled by Alexander Carmichael(1832-1912). I could hold off no longer and the book arrived in the mail this week.

The pages are filled with blessings for looms,baptisms,hunting, fishing, meals,sheep & cattle. It represents prayers spoken for the beginning and the ending of days. Sprinkled throughout are prayers for milking and the growing of gardens and their harvest. The poems are full of the lore of those who lived close to the land and saw the presence of the Sacred in the moving of, not only the seasons, the ocean and the sky, but the very movements of ordinary tasks of daily life. Each movement was blessed and honored for its holiness. The prayers also represent the pre-Christian understanding of the Holy One and the later layering on of their love of Christ brought to the beautiful, yet often desolate, landscape by the Roman church.

Most Westerners have learned to limit their blessing to Sundays and special days…..birthdays, anniversaries,weddings, funerals. We rarely think of blessing the path we wake up to take each morning or even less the work we are about to do that day. I had a friend once whose mother blessed him with holy water on the first day of school which, when he told the story, most people laughed and thought odd. And yet what parent wouldn't love to have the thought, or courage, to do something similar?

These ancient wise ones knew the gift of honoring the Sacred that walks with us in each step, that hovers in each breath. They prayed God's blessing on the animals that gave them milk, that became their food. They saw the sacredness of the wool that moved from sheep to warp and loom giving them warmth in cold, wet winters. As they rose and rekindled the fire that warmed their hearth, they asked God's blessing on their home and all that would transpire there that day. They claimed the Spirit's presence that travels with each of us in the moments, the days, the years of this pilgrim life.

The words may be ancient but the wisdom still rings true. Wherever your path takes you this day, may the blessing of God be with you at every pass.

My days have been so full that I have found little time to sit down and write. With our son's graduation, the celebration of Pentecost, family in town, and general end of the school year events, each days is bigger than the next. All these wonderful happenings can cause me to think about the next thing to do rather than the act of being fully present in the moment. In the moment is where the gift is, we all known this. And yet,  I often forget and want to project ahead to what needs to be done, what obligations I have, what in yet unknown. My mind tries to undone what has been done or do some future act rather than being exactly where I am.

At the graduation on Sunday evening, I tried to make myself be fully present to what was happening. I tried to send that same energy message to all those sitting in the strange get-up we use for these ceremonies. The mortarboard cap and gown is, I believe, one of the oddest outfits humans don, only outdone by some of the vestments of religious traditions. Asking people who have attained a certain goal to balance a little cap with a board on top is odd, don't you think? And yet who can help but have their heartstrings pull when they see someone they love standing in such attire?

Observing the high school students, many in dress clothes that were also foreign to them, I thought perhaps the mortarboard's role is to keep them fully present. In the excitement of the moment and all that led up to it, it would be so easy to be thinking about the 'after' rather than the moment. Perhaps balancing that little hat keeps your mind focused. In fact, the majority of the adult speeches were filled with wonderful advice was for the future. This is as it should be. But I hoped the graduates were savoring where they were right at that very moment. Not looking back, not looking forward. Just resting in a kind of time that will only come once for some. For those going to college a graduation ceremony may be in their future but it will not be like this first one nor, should it be. So my prayer was that they were taking it all in, the affirmations, the wise words, the sheer pride, the feeling of accomplishment, the joy of traveling these last four years with good friends and wise teachers.

Generally in our western culture we are much more focused on the future than the present. Yet one of the gifts of most faith traditions is the practice of being present to the breath of Spirit that fills us and moves among us. On this past Sunday we celebrated the gift of the Spirit to the followers of the way of Jesus. That Spirit, breathing in and through the people, allowed them to hear in new ways, in new forms of understanding languages they had not known before. The Spirit became the energy that bound them together, sent them into the world to be agents of change and transformation. The Spirit reminded them that, indeed, they were children of the Holy, made in the image of God and of God.

And isn't that, in so many ways, what we celebrated at the graduation? Each young person, filled with a unique spirit, bound together with their fellow travelers, on the brink of understanding new languages. Balancing their mortarboards was just the beginning of a journey that will call them again and again to the practice of being full present in a wonderful world that needs them for the gifts only they possess.

Regardless of age,the same is asked of each of us with the rising of the sun each morning. The Spirit still breathes, still invites us to open ourselves to new understanding, to new ways of hearing and being that bring change,transforming our world. The day is unfolding, inviting us to be full present. The good news is……we don't have to wear a mortarboard!

Gardening metaphors are abundant these days. Perhaps it is always true, but particularly in Minnesota after a long, cold winter, gardening takes on religious zeal and the language that connects life and the garden is not far behind. I guess I believe if we spend enough time with our hands in the soil, or at least watching the growing cycles around us, we connect with the Holy One. That's how it has worked for me. I sat yesterday and listened to one of my clergy colleagues use gardening metaphors for how we are called to be in ministry…..understanding the soil, spending enough time in the light, good use of water….you get the idea.

Last week, I held out of the papers headed to the recycling bin a gardening article entitled "5 rules to grow by". I realized as I read it that while I was thinking of my garden, I was thinking even more about how these rules pertain to being a parent.

I have been aware of parenting these last months as we prepare to celebrate the high school graduation of our youngest son. We have now reached the weeks full of 'lasts'….last track meet, last orchestra concert, last official day of school. As he marks these 'lasts', he is not fully aware that we are marking them too, but in different ways. Our perspective is also retrospective, taking stock of all the places we have seen him grow, the ways we've seen his personality and gifts emerge in surprising and beautiful ways,the challenges he has overcome.

So what about those 5 rules? No. 1 Be realistic in your planning. I believe we have tried to help this treasured young man see the importance of knowing himself and his values. This kind of planning will hopefully serve him well, helping him to plan for his life in realistic and responsible ways, knowing how he is connected to his community and the world,that his actions can make a difference for good or ill.

No. 2 Take time to prepare the soil. In all the ways we could, we have helped him to know that he is surrounded by a circle of people who love him, respect him and are there for him in good times and in bad. We have tried to model kindness and a pursuit of goodness toward others that is the basis of our faith, our soil. We are praying these roots run deep.

No. 3 Give 'em space. This is a difficult one for both gardeners and parents. We want to crowd too many lessons in their days, hover too closely. But in the end that kind of tending only stunts the growth of both plant and child. Instead of reaching toward the sun on their own, they wither in the shadows. So, we've learned to back off, even when its painful, and let the space between carry its loss and its gift.

No. 4 Don't love 'em to death. Ahh, yes, the hovering thing again. Holding too close or too tight, showering with too many gifts is never good for a child just as giving too much water or too much fertilizer will surely lead to a short life for plants. Loving unconditionally doesn't smother or spoil.

 No. 5 Keep up with weeding. From the first time a child is laid in the arms of any parent, the knowledge washes over you. 'There will never be a time when I am not a parent'. I remember the fear of that realization. But I also know that as we celebrate these 'lasts', there are also the seeds of 'firsts' that will surprise and delight us. First day of college, first new job, first blooms that are yet to imagined. And surely in those seeds that are already planted, as the growth happens, there will need to be weeding. My prayer is that this blessed young man will reach out to his parents so we can help him discern what needs to be nurtured and what needs to be pulled up and thrown away. And we will have the courage to weed our own lives so we can continue to be the soil that helps him grow.

"Train a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not turn from it." Proverbs 22:6

On Friday I was making my way on my regular walking route near the bluffs along the Mississippi River. As I crossed the High Bridge I noticed a young man in city working attire unloading and setting up a tripod that stood about six feet tall. At the top of the three legs stood what looked like a small flying saucer. I was curious but walked on down the hill letting the beauty of the St. Paul skyline, resplendent from the glow of the Cathedral, hold my attention. At the bottom of the hill I tapped the streetlight pole in usual fashion and headed back up toward the young man who sat texting on his phone.

My curiosity had now gotten the better of me. "What does it do?" I asked. He looked up. I could tell he was a little bored with his work. "It measures any movement that has happened. It checks for cracks that might cause trouble later."

I am still not sure if it was measuring the possible cracks in the bridge to which it was pointed or the earth in which the bridge is anchored. But I loved the idea that someone had created something no larger than a dinner plate that can measure such important things…….cracks that might cause trouble later. As I walked on I thought about how wonderful it would be if we each had a little invisible flying saucer following us, much like that bowl of Cream of Wheat used to in commercials, that could let us know that the earth around us was on the verge of splintering. Wouldn't it be a fine thing if we had a heads-up that what we thought was solid ground, indeed, had some cracks emerging and we could plan accordingly?

Of course there is no such thing. But it was a fine thought to spin out as I walked on up the hill and back toward home, thankful that, at least for now, the ground seems pretty solid.

"May my feet rest firmly on the ground. May my head touch the sky. May I see clearly. May I have the capacity to listen. May I be free to touch. May my words be true. May my heart and mind be open. May my hands be empty to fill the need. May my arms be open to others. May my gifts be revealed to me. So I may return that which has been given, completing the great circle." The Terma Collective

These past few days I have been captivated by the story of young Danny Hauser and his mother Colleen. Danny is the young man with Hodgkin's Lymphoma whose family rejected chemotherapy to ward off his growing tumor. They embrace a faith tradition that favors other means of controlling disease. I don't usually get caught up in news stories like this but the situation in this family will not let go of me. Danny and his mother are now missing and supposedly seeking help and sanctuary in another part of the country or trying to leave the country. This flight comes after the courts, who believe they also have Danny's best interest at heart, are demanding that he receive the Western medical care they believe he needs to survive.

This is a very complex and multi-layered situation full of faith, different understandings of medical treatment, and a deep love for the young man at its center. The media has helped fuel the debate about right and wrong and, as it often does, tries to pit groups of people against one another. While the story has been compelling to many of us, the newspapers, radio and television companies stand to make money out of our desire to know the facts of this very challenging tragedy. This is their business and I am really not faulting them in this.

I have been drawn into reading and listening because my heart is breaking for everyone involved. I cannot imagine knowing my child is in such danger. I cannot imagine trying to make sense of the legal system and its entry into the life of my family. I cannot imagine the fear, the pain, the confusion, the sheer need to protect your child that this mother must feel. I cannot imagine the courage it must have taken to do what she felt she had to do. I cannot imagine the equal courage it may take to turn back from that same decision.

What I can imagine is the love she feels for her son. On Wednesday I was in the chapel of the Sister of St. Joseph of Carondolet for a retreat. In a time of silence and prayer I found myself standing in the intimate alcove dedicated to Mary the Mother of Jesus. As I stood before her statue looking at her kind and lovely eyes, it came to me that while I could not understand what Danny's mother is feeling, Mary could. So, being the good little Protestant girl I am, I did the only thing that seemed sensible: I said a prayer to this holy woman who understood what it meant to be in fear for the life of her son, who to knew the powerlessness of that fear and the courage it took to stand by him.

It is my hope that all the prayers that are being said for this mother, this son, will hold them close and that they will know the deep love of the One who bore them both into the world. All the judgment in the world will not help these people but all the prayers we can offer just might.

I have been away from the computer the last couple of days participating in several events with an author I have mentioned a few times in this space. J. Philip Newell, Celtic theologian, poet, and teacher has been in the Twin Cities and I have been privileged to hear him and experience the gift of his words. His ability to invite people into an ancient expression of the Christian faith in new ways, with new insight, has been an special experience.

While what I have heard has been powerful, I think what has been more profound has been the overwhelming experience of the presence of kindness. This kindness has exuded not only from Philip but from all those who are present. It has been like taking a shower in hospitality, bathing in a pool of people offering their best selves. The kindness extends to the ways in which people look at one another, the ways in which they listen in deep ways. It has been nothing short of remarkable and I have been healed by it.

Even as I write this, I do so with a certain sense of sadness. Why is this experience so different? Why are the experiences we have in groups of people so often tinged with rudeness, negativity, gossip? Even in the church, sometimes especially in the church, people express themselves in judgmental and harsh ways over the simplest of things. Why is this?

So to be bathed in the goodness of these days seems a luxury. And yet it also seems simply 'the way it is supposed to be', a glimpse of the kindom of God. Perhaps kindness has been contagious over these days and those of us who have been in attendance will go back into our daily lives with the edges of what divides us softened somehow. We will see those who want to nip at the heels of others with more compassionate eyes and those doing the nipping will be transformed in some way. We will treat ourselves more generously recognizing God's image in our own mirror. This is my prayer. It is a prayer that is held in the utmost gratitude for being in the presence of kindness, for being healed.

"We stumble on the journey, O God. We lose heart along the way. We forget your promises and blame one another. Refresh us with the springs of your spirit in our souls and open our senses to your guiding presence that we may be part of the world's healing this day, that we may be part of the world's healing." ~J. Philip Newell, Celtic Treasure