“You don’t find candles in frenetic houses; you find them lit in houses where people are trying to pay attention”

- Lauren Winner (Mudhouse Sabbath)

I want to live every second of every day of every year I have to breathe. I want to absorb the Divine in the everyday. I want to remember.

Who I am.

That hope lives.

How big God is.

That Grace abounds.

How to love.

Who needs healing.

All the things that are sacred, all the things that are true.

My personality is naturally poetic, naturally relational and naturally reflective. It is not naturally still (I’ve written about this struggle before).

It does not naturally remember.

For year, fighting my impulses -wrestling a soul that thrives on people, touch and words into times of silence was nearly impossible. I spoke when I had nothing to say and clung to others faith in storms. At the time it was permitted -but authentic faith must grow with the follower.

God allowed a storm.

And, in the aftermath – when words ran from me – I began to learn the necessity of silence. To paraphrase Emerson;

Let us be silent, that we may hear the whispers of God.

There are some lessons God only teaches in the tears, in the rain. Some truths can only be heard when we are silent, waiting with upturned faces. When we find ourselves walking barefoot, in the dark on an unfamiliar path. God is there.

Spiritual rituals remind me of truths learned in the storms.

They weave spirituality into the everyday. They strengthen my soul and remind me why (my heart’s greatest question).

Why I love.

Why I write.

Why I speak.

Why I breathe.

Why I must cry.

Why I grieve.

Why I can heal.

Why I have hope.

Why I am free.

Rituals hush me. Symbolism stills me.

They force me to remember all the significant things I so easily forget. They open my heart to the whispers of God who gives me courage to love despite fear of loss. To keep walking on bleeding feet.

To love more not less. To hope.

By reading the scriptures I am so renewed that all nature seems renewed around me and with me.  The sky seems to be a pure, a cooler blue, the trees a deeper green.  The whole world is charged with the glory of God and I feel fire and music under my feet. 

- Thomas Merton

Today, my hope is that your day, that my day, is filled with the whispers of God. That our moments, whether full of rain or full of sun are Divine.

May our lives be rich with wonder.

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This is a beautiful piece to listen and reflect too. Enjoy.