Last weekend I attended a worship service that had its basis in Celtic spirituality. The music was wonderful…bagpipes, harp and drums….. and the poetry of the words filled me to overflowing. One line in particular from a song has stuck with me: "On the road we live as trav’llers, as pilgrims, as guests of the world." The words were adapted from the words of St. Columbanus, 543-615 A.D. a mystic of the Celtic tradition.

When was the last time you thought of yourself as " a guest of the world"? Isn’t it a lovely though? "Hello, my name is _________ and I am a guest of the world. " What would it be like to have that as an introduction? Instead of introducing myself as a wife, mother, minister, woman, sister, whatever…..say instead, and I would imagine with a certain bit of feeling, " Hello, I am a guest of the world. It is a pleasure to meet you." Perhaps, the words even need a bow of sorts.

Just saying those words makes me feel such gratitude to this world that has welcomed me. Saying them makes me want to sit up straighter, feel proud of being invited to this party, at this time, with all of these beautiful people,with such elaborate surroundings. Think of the differences in our behavior if we thought of ourselves as guests instead of residents or even citizens of the world. I think we might be more inclined to use our best manners, walk more kindly, dress ourselves up for being hosted by this amazing planet, this generous Earth.

Today is an especially exquisite day…fall colors beginning to emerge, sun shining brightly, geese flying overhead moving from this party to another, children playing with abandon outside. The gardens know that soon the clock will strike and that their time as guests will be over. And so it is with each of us.

And so today, at this moment in time, I pray that you are pleased that you’ve been issued an invitation, , that you have accepted with grace, that you feel as blessed as I do to be " a guest of the world."

"Finally, beloved, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is pleasing, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence and if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. Keep on doing the things that you have learned and received and heard and seen in me, and the God of peace will be with you."  Philippians 4:8-9

September 11,2001…just saying the date holds an ominous weight. It is one of those days that I can remember so clearly…where I was sitting, what I was doing, when everything seemed to fall apart. It is a day that people speak about in so many ways. Today, all over the country there will be memorials, worship services, moments of silence, the names of those who died will be read. Our prayers, today, will be different than other days just as they have been for six years.

Six years. Where has the time gone? Many questions fill my head about that day that has led to this day. Things like….what have we learned? Are we a better people today because of having lived through this experience? Are we a people more intent on peace, on understanding, on tolerance because of that day? Of course, the answers vary from person to person, from city to city, from country to country, from government to government.

But as people of faith…those who claim relationship with the Divine….are we a more loving, more open, more peace-seeking people?  Do we seek, as the writer of Philippians urges, to put our energy toward what is true, honorable, just, pure, pleasing, and commendable?

I recognize that this day and the memory of what happened six years ago is filled with unspeakable complexities. I do remember how it was impossible to get books from the library about Islam. Everyone, faithful and not, wanted to learn about this religion that was foreign to many of us. While recognizing that fanaticism and faith are not the same, schools and churches clamored to get speakers from the Muslim tradition to help us understand the ordinary and the extreme. And it can be said that many wonderful relationships, both individual and communal, were born from that seeking. Our understanding grew….and so did we.

How to pay homage today, that is my question, my prayer. How to remember the lives of those lost, the innocence we all lost, those who live on and are forever changed, those who were courageous beyond belief……"Keep on doing the things that you have learned and received and heard and seen….and the God of peace will be with you." Today, I’ll try to do just that…..and pray that the God of peace will be with us all.

"I, who live by words, am wordless when I try my words in prayer. All language turns to silence. Prayer will take my words and then reveal their emptiness. The stilled voice learns to hold its peace, to listen with the heart to silence that is joy, is adoration. The self is shattered, all words torn apart in this strange patterned time of contemplation that, in time, breaks time, breaks words, breaks me. And then, in silence, leaves me healed and mended. I leave, returned to language, for I see through words, even when all words are ended. I, who live by words, am wordless when I turn me to the Word to pray. Amen"  from Word by Madeleine L’Engle

As someone who also lives by words, or at least pursues them, I was saddened by the death this past week of Madeleine L’Engle. Her words have inspired me, challenged me, and given me great joy. From her poetry to her early novels about young actors making a life in New York City, I have identified with her images of the Holy, her raw, earthy way of speaking of the Divine. I have great memories of reading
A Wrinkle In Time to elementary students who begged for just one more chapter so they could find out what happens to Charles Wallace, a central character caught in time travel based on the concept of quantum physics.Then there was the account of her life as a caretaker for her husband Hugh, whom she adored, as he struggled with the battle he lost to cancer. I commend them all to you.

I don’t know about you but I am always searching for a writer who can make my own thoughts clearer to me. It is a rare find….to read in print or hear spoken the words that make clear a thought or feeling that seems to float at the edge of our experience, not yet formed but spinning wildly trying to be born. But when it happens and we awake to the "ah-hah!’ of our own understanding of something, it feels like a mysterious gift from beyond. That was often my experience when I read Madeleine L’Engle. Her words cut through my own fledgling sounds and helped me come to a greater understanding, form words of meaning.

It was her words that my husband and I included on the birth announcement for our second son, born December 8th, during Advent. "This is the irrational season, when love bloom bright and wild. Had Mary been filled with reason, there’d been no room for the child."

The act of bringing life into the world is not the stuff of rationality, or reason, or common sense. Bringing a child into the world takes courage and hope and love…..all residents of the irrational world. And yet, aren’t each of us thankful for such irrationality? I was thankful to L’Engle who shaped the words meant to describe Mary’s irrational act that also spoke to that of all humanity.

Madeleine L’Engle, today, I honor your memory and all the beauty and richness you brought to the printed page. Thank you for giving words to those deep places that needed the inspiration of your spirit to find their way into the world.

"The blizzard of the world has crossed the threshold and it has overturned the order of the soul." Leonard Cohen

How is it with your soul? It is said that John Wesley, the father of Methodism, began his weekly Holy Club meetings with this question. Not ‘how are you?’ or ‘whassup?’ or even ‘what’s happening? but ‘how is it with your soul?’  It is a daunting question. How would you answer?

In the frantic, driven world in which most of us travel, it is often very easy to lose track of our soul…that center from which we move and have our being, that place where we connect with the Holy. Even in the church we spend a great deal of time and energy planning, preparing and doing and very little time nurturing our soul, listening for the Sacred voice, attuning our internal rhythm to the One who would bring us to wholeness.

Yesterday I spent time with a friend walking along the Mississippi River. We looked at the huge trees that grow on the banks, those whose root systems seem to be completely above ground, erosion has washed away the soil that had been their home. The trees, hundreds of years old perhaps, still managed to grow, bringing forth leaves and branches, homes for the many birds that use the river as a compass, and, in addition, oxygen for we fragile humans. How is this possible, we marveled? It seems the trees, though tossed about by wind, rain, snow and ice, are connected in some unseen way with their soul, the center of who they are in the world. Their fortitude gave me comfort….even when the ‘blizzards of the world’ toss our soul about, there is a strength that holds us fast.

So, how is it with your soul? Has heat, blizzard, drought, storm, taken its toll? Today I will rest in the image of those trees, still doing their work in the world, still mustering their creativity, their life-giving forces. Through my encounter with their soul, my soul finds refreshment.

"Listen, are you breathing just a little, and calling it a life? While the soul, after all, is only a window, and the opening of the window no more difficult than the wakening from a little sleep."  Mary Oliver

Have a blessed weekend………………….

"Enjoy the little things, for one day you may look back and realize they were the big things." Robert Brault

This message graced my colorful little desk calendar earlier this week. I tore it off as I was watching parents up and down our street as they waited for the bus with their children on the first day of school. I wanted to run to the door and yell "Enjoy the little things.…." But I didn’t, lest they think I had completely lost my mind. They didn’t need someone who had stood where they now stand telling them how quickly the time goes, reminding them to enjoy the little things….sticky fingers, toothless smiles, lost shoes, silly giggles. They were engrossed in preserving the moment with video and photos which will be treasured for years to come.

Our days, our years, are made up of little and big ‘things’….washing the dishes, making appointments, receiving accolades, delivered disappointments, driving in traffic, walking the dog, caring for an aging parent….the list goes on. Every day we take the small scraps of the fabric of our life and bind them together with the threads of patience, love, commitment, frustration, determination, hope, and perhaps faith. Each night we crawl under the weight and comfort of this crazy quilt of the little and big things that have happened that day. Under its warmth,some nights bring spectacular dreams and others, nightmares.

When I listen to people tell of those things, those times they most treasure, they are often the little things….walking through the woods, observing a hummingbird feeding, making mudpies, simply sitting with a wrinkled, weathered hand in theirs, snuggling with a small child reading a favorite story. Of course, big splashy vacations are fine, mountaintop moments are not to be dismissed. But for my money, I’ll take the little things, the ordinary tasks and gifts of every day that add up to so many big memories. The simple encounters of another person, a shared meal, a good laugh or a tender tear….little things in the scope of the universe….big things in the fabric of our lives.

Today may God give me…give you…the grace to recognize those little ‘things’ and to hold them dear.

"Apprehend God in all things, for God is in all things. Every single creature is full of God and a book about God. If I spent enough time with the tiniest creature-even a caterpillar-I would never have to prepare a sermon. So full of God is every creature."  Meister Eckhart(1260-c.1329)

A mid-July horoscope read: "With the right attitude, you can make almost anything happen. The key is having the patience to continue even when you don’t see results." For some reason, I cut the section out of the paper and stuck it in a book. Do you ever do such a thing? At the time, those words seemed important. Perhaps I was having a "bad attitude" day and needed a reminder to buck up. Today when I found the small scrap of paper tucked away I wondered what had been going on that July 21st that these words spoke to me.

Attitude. I often tell my children–and myself–that it’s time to make an "attitude adjustment"…..that re-thinking of a perspective on a situation or my behavior or the behavior of someone else.  Some people call it  "reframing". It is a helpful tool when I get stuck in being "right" or wanting things done the "way we’ve always done it."

The second part of this horoscope may be the most difficult…. having the patience to continue even when you don’t see results.…or at least the results you wanted to see. For me this is where faith comes in…faith that there just might be something at work that will bring about a greater good than I ever could have imagined. I have certainly seen times in my life where I have planned, worked hard, given my all, only to have things turn out much differently than I wanted, sometimes in ways that seemed like failure. Then, a few days or months or years go by and I see that the thing that didn’t happen really opened the door for the better thing to come about in my life. It is a strange and difficult life lesson.

Attitude. Patience. Faith. Three words packed with promise. Good words to walk into the world with today.

"Does one really need to fret about enlightenment? No matter what road I travel, I’m going home." Shinsho

"Releasing the separate one is a difficult knot. Finding yourself is something only you can do. Imagine yourself coming back 10 years from today through time, to help you where you must now be." Jim Cohn

And so it begins. Labor day is past and school begins today for most students. Another year of learning…both academic and life lessons….is ahead.  It is a day of possibility, of hope, of promise. It is a day that always fills me with great emotion.

A few weeks ago I was reading an article in the Sports section of the Star Tribune. It was the overview of high school sports with the statement…."every team begins the season undefeated." It was a great image. Every team, no matter the record of last year, no matter the size of the school, the skills of the players, begins the season undefeated.…the promise of becoming a team of winners is, at least for a moment in time, within their reach.

Our younger son has just left for the first day of school which is, at his high school, a day for freshman only. He is a junior and will participate in a wonderful mentoring program that welcomes those youngest to school, helping them find their way around the building, eating lunch with them on their first day, answering their questions, and assuring that, at least one person, knows their name. These fragile teenagers will be welcomed into the school by smiling faces, applauding them as they enter the school, traveling through a tunnel of well-wishers, calling out after them as if they were rock stars.

Many will arrive feeling nervous, anxious, overwhelmed, unsure of so many things….what they are wearing, who their friends will be, what is safe, the languages spoken around them.Others will arrive already bored by the prospect of classes they have no interest in and see no reason for. Still others will arrive excited at this new step along what has been a successful school career, sure of their academic abilities, provided with all the resources, financial and human, they could possibly need. This is a snapshot of public school.

In the sports world,everyone begins the season undefeated. In the academic world, we know this is not true. Many students come to school without breakfast, with limited sleep, without the supplies they need, without the support and nurture of the adults in their lives. They are already hounded by their past failures…their inability to read well, learning disabilities, behavior issues….so many things that can cause them to begin the new year defeated.

If I could I would send a blessing to each and every student today, from kindergarten through college, that they might begin this season of school undefeated. I would hover over every bus stop, in every carpool, at the door of every school and pray words of protection and inspiration, of hope and creativity, of belonging and being known. I would swoop down and whisper in their ear, "Remember, you are marvelous!" because you are a child of God.

I invite you to join with me in this prayer…..as you pass schools today simply extend a blessing toward the students and teachers inside that they may begin this season undefeated. Who knows, if we all join together, our collective and blessing and energy might help create a championship season.

"One day we will see God the Almighty, the Creator in every child and perhaps discipline the child as we wish to be disciplined…and forgive the child as we wish to be forgiven…and love the child as we wish to be loved…and uplift the child as we wish to be uplifted…and teach the child as we wish to be taught. For one day we will understand, we will know the Child is God recreated and God is the Child manifested in flesh. One day we will see God the Magnificent, the Beautiful, in every child."  Sonsyrea Tate

Today is a day to be savored…..it sounds as if the next several days will be similar…. beautiful sunshine, brilliant blue skies, grass freshly painted green from the recents rains, temperatures not too hot, not too cold. Camelot days…..days to savor. Of course, each day is a gift, we know this. Twenty-four wonderful hours to be held gently, to be experienced in all their fullness. But days like today are meant to be enjoyed slowly, with intention, with our eyes…and our hearts…wide open.

The fact that we will be receiving these beautiful days on a holiday weekend seems we are, as some of my friends from the South say,  "twice blessed." The beauty of the weather and the extra time to enjoy them. Twice blessed…..what a wonderful statement.

When I was a senior in high school I became spellbound with the poetry of e.e. cummings. I loved his writing and the fact that he wrote using only lower case letters. This was not, however, taken lightly by my English teacher when I began handing in papers following his lead. But it surely must have been a day like this that led E(dward) E(stlin) to have written the following famous words:

i thank You God for most this amazing
day: for the leaping greenly spirits of trees
and a blue true dream of sky, and for everything
which is natural which is infinite which is yes

(i who have died am alive again today,
and this is the sun’s birthday, this is the birth
day of life and of love and wings: and of the gay
great happening illimitably earth)

how should tasting touching hearing seeing
breathing any-lifted from the no
of all nothing-human merely being
doubt unimaginable You?

(now the ears of my ears awake and
now the eyes of my eyes are opened)

I offer these words to you….perhaps they can be a prayer to begin your morning or end your day. These are days to savor……may we take hungry, thirsty, intentional, grateful bites.

Have a fabulous weekend…………

I picked up a recent issue of Women’s Press, a local newspaper dedicated to women writers, women’s issues and advertising targeted toward women’s products and services. One of the columns featured the question: "What pulls you off center?" I found it to be a compelling question. What does pull me off center? What is ‘center’? What gets me back to that center?

I have noticed that the rhythm of my week often begins ‘off center". Mondays….this is probably true for most people…may begin fairly centered but as the day progresses, the centeredness I may have achieved on Sunday becomes clogged with lists, details, things to be done, and I can find myself starting to spin off center. Monday flows directly into Tuesday which, for me, usually holds lots of meetings in which my lists grow longer, the details thicker, until by Tuesday evening I can feel as if my head is twice as large as it was on Sunday…I’m ready to topple over with the weight of it. Does this ever happen to you?

Over time I have come to know that this is just how it is, how it will be, and have adopted some self-talk to "let it be". I rest into it, not fighting the flow of it. Wednesday becomes the day when I can make my way systematically through what needs to be done and usually, by day’s end, I have waded through the piles and righted myself. Ahhhh…..

That feeling of being off center can come at any time….when things don’t go as planned, when illness strikes, when ‘things’ are lost or misplaced, when children are upset or disappointed,and on and on. Deep breathing always helps…..getting in touch with my life Source….slowing down my accelerated heart rate in the process….and coming to rest in the Great Land of Perspective. In this land, my center is calm and steady, sure in the words of Julian of Norwich that "all shall be well, and all manner of things shall be well." Perhaps not how I planned….or how I wanted….but well.

"Heal our inner sight, O God, that we may know the difference between good and evil. Open our eyes that we may see what is true and what is false. Restore us to wisdom that we may be well in our own souls. Restore us to wisdom that we and our world may be well." J. Philip Newell

"This being human is a guest house. Every morning is a new arrival. A joy, a depression, a meanness, some momentary awareness comes as an unexpected visitor. Welcome and entertain them all! Even if they’re a crowd of sorrows, who violently sweep your house empty of its furniture, still, treat each guest honorably. He may be clearing you out for some new delight. The dark thought, the shame, the malice, meet them at the door laughing, and invite them in. Be grateful for whoever comes, because each has been sent as a guide from beyond." Rumi

Lately, I have been a part of several circles that have been discussing the concept of hospitality, of welcoming, particularly as it relates to the church. If you are a part of a church community, you know that, like most communities, they are often organized around similarities rather than differences. We tend to hover with our own kind. It helps us feel safe, right, and is, frankly, less messy than inviting everyone to the party. There are less arguments over theology, less conflict over how finances are distributed, fewer questions about who gets to do what, and most importantly, we all agree on which hymns are best. This arrangement makes life simpler.

Unfortunately, this may not have been what Jesus had in mind. At least for those in the Christian church who find our model for leadership in this radical proponent of hospitality, we are missing the mark by sticking with sheep whose fleece is just like ours. If we follow his lead, we’d be opening our doors to the lepers, the prostitutes, the outcasts, the poor, the homeless, the odd, those possessed by all manner of demons. It was his way…or some might say, The Way.

Welcoming is risky business, but then again Jesus was about risky business. Inviting every person into our community brings both gift and challenge, but ultimately an opportunity for a fuller picture of the face of God. Inviting every experience into the ‘guest house’ of our lives opens us to growth, to a new way of encountering the Holy, to becoming the person we were meant to be.

What kind of newness is knocking at your door this day? What unexpected visitor has come for tea? The invitation is to welcome them in…..all of them…and be open to their guiding. To do so may lead to ‘some new delight’!