The 60-Second Sabbath

Romancing Life

"Life is my love,"
she said,
spreading her arms wide,
"all of it:
    those rolling hills,
        greening with oaks and pines,
    this aging body,
        groaning with aches and pains,
    the messy,
    the marvelous--
I embrace it all with shameless abandon.
I am poly-amorously, recklessly
giving up my soul
to all creation,
    to soil and sun and trees and rocks,
    to birds and beasts and odd humanity."

She closed her eyes and,
arms still outstretched,
slowly turned.
The house, the sidewalk, the hedge,
    the morning mist,
all came to her;
they signed and yielded and merged,
    happy,
    one,
    complete.

Text and image © 2015 by Dirk deVries. All rights reserved.

Trapeze

I'm on the trapeze,
and to grab the next bar,
I must release this one.

For a second or two,
I will hang in midair,
nothing to hold,
nothing beneath me,
    reaching,
    hoping,
        detached,
        disconnected,
        alone.

Do I know when to let go?

Text and image © 2015 by Dirk deVries. All rights reserved.

Guest Blogger: Amy Montanez

Amy was one of the participants in my Photography, Poetry and the Art of Healing workshop presented two weeks ago at the Kanuga Christian Formation Conference. Thank you, Amy!

This won't be easy for you,
but it would help if you let me cradle you,
    let me protect you.

You would feel me as the source
    of your strength and your vitality.

Simple, but not easy, God.
This could be my life's task.

It would be a worthy one, my dear.

 Text and image © 2015 by Amy Sander Montanez. All rights reserved.

Guest Blogger: Marge Hanna Zeig

Marge was one of the participants in my Photography, Poetry and the Art of Healing workshop presented two weeks ago at the Kanuga Christian Formation Conference. Thank you, Marge!

The pathway is not perfect,
    the journey unpredictable.

But there is beauty to be found,
    if we choose to see it,

And the promise of healing--
    if not for our body or mind,
    then for our soul.

Text and image © 2015 by Marge Hanna Zeig. All rights reserved.

Guest Blogger: Hall Brickle

Hal was one of the participants in my Photography, Poetry and the Art of Healing workshop presented two weeks ago at the Kanuga Christian Formation Conference. Thank you, Hal!

The Light Within...

Reach out, let your light shine and touch the lives of others, for when we touch someone’s life we pass along flames of love, hope and kindness onto them. Those flames live in their hearts for them to pass along to someone else. 

Each of us have thousands of these little lights shining in our hearts, and when shinning, they show us and others the way.  Through many of life's struggles, the lights in our hearts burn out and get extinguished by each little hurt. Each time love is lost they go dark, but they can never all die, because we can pass the light on to others. 

Like the Olympic flame that never goes out, the light in our hearts is the flame that lights the hearts of others. No matter how dark your heart becomes--and when all your lights are nearly out--remember that your light lives on in the hearts of others whom you have lit along the way.

So each morning, turn on two Lights... One for the extinguished flames in your heart and the pain that lingers in the dark (be kind to yourself and your heart), another for all the flames you have lit in the hearts of others. Remember how they shine on and light even more hearts. Your flames, still lighting or not, burn strong in the heart of someone you touched, loved, helped, were kind to, gave hope to. 

Let Your Light Shine...

Text and photo © 2015 by Hal Brickle. All rights reserved.

Guest Blogger: John Mark Parker

John Mark was one of the participants in my Photography, Poetry and the Art of Healing workshop presented two weeks ago at the Kanuga Christian Formation Conference. Thank you, John Mark!

Budding. Blooming. Fading. Dying. 
One vine. One cycle. Many revolutions.

Budding. Blooming. Fading. Dying. 
One heart. One lifetime. Many journeys.

  

 Text and image © 2015 by John Mark Parker. All rights reserved.

Guest Blogger: Allison Askins

Allison was one of the participants in my Photography, Poetry and the Art of Healing workshop presented two weeks ago at the Kanuga Christian Formation Conference. Thank you, Allison!

Wrestling with the life I have been given,
    I wonder, "Where to next?"
Dig deeper and stand here?
Plant seeds in new dirt and move there?
Step back to imagine something I have not yet seen?

And when I make my move, what to take with me?
Sandals and boots or running shoes and bare feet?
Travel light or lug my life's stuff along?

I'm aiming for a simpler load next,
a load buoyed by faith,
    sweetened by memory,
    and lessened by shouldering it alongside you.

 Text and image © 2015 by Allison Askins. All rights reserved.

Guest Blogger: Jerry Cappel

Jerry was one of the participants in my Photography, Poetry and the Art of Healing workshop presented last week as the Kanuga Christian Formation Conference. Thank you, Jerry!

There is a small, calm lake at the heart of Camp Kanuga that lies on its back and steams in the cool mornings, full of frogs and fish and other things that ripple its smooth surface.  The lake is an anchor point for all things quiet and holy for those at the camp. It is simply there, being its unhurried self and minding its own lake business. It has no designs on any of us, but we are drawn to it like moth to flame. We sit at its edge and breathe, and our breath joins the steam that collects at its surface; a vapor we in turn take in with every inhale, and all becomes one. 

The steaming is usually visible only in the coolness, but if you pause to ponder, you realize that the very same exchange continues, invisibly, in the warmth of the day as well.  It does not matter whether you can see it or not.  The lake is there, on its back, steaming both day and night.  We are exchanging breath, whether aware or not.

Even after the quiet is over and the parting is done; cell phone again active and news again flowing, the lake remains, being a lake, steaming in unhurried exchange with the life around it. Our breath is still there, as is the lake’s breath still within us.

At each Eucharist we remind ourselves that there are angels and archangels and the whole company of heaven, forever singing a hymn and proclaiming the glory of God:

    Holy, holy, holy Lord, God of power and might,
    Heaven and earth are full of your glory.

They do this whether we are paying attention or not. They do this whether we are tuned in or tuned out. The Sanctus declares they are always there, day and night, felt or not, visible or not, minding their business of praise.   

The lake steams, the Angels sing. Heaven and earth are full of glory.  And aware or not, it is also our very breath, joined with theirs in the eternal song. Breathe it in. Breathe it out. Join in the song and keep on singing.

Text and image © 2015 by Jerry Cappel. All rights reserved.

Guest Bloggers: Nina and Debbi Rodahaffer

Debbi was the organizer of  the Kanuga Christian Formation Conference. Her daughter, Nina, led the drum circles. Thank you, Nina and Debbi!

Come and play with me.
    No...I have no time for trivialities.

Come and play with me.
    No...I am an adult not a child.

Come and play with me.
    No...I would look the fool.

Come and play with me.
    Perhaps...for just one moment.

Come and play with me.
    Oh...I had forgotten the joy.

Come and play with me.
    Yes!

Come and play with me?

  

Text © 2015 by Debbi Rodahaffer. Image © 2015 by Nina Rodahaffer. All rights reserved.

Guest Blogger: Gaye Pappas

Gaye was one of the participants in my Photography, Poetry and the Art of Healing workshop presented last week as the Kanuga Christian Formation Conference. Thank you, Gaye!

Arriving on the island
    was the rising of my long awaited full moon. 
Having walked in the dark for so long,
    the sandbar now glittering reflections to light my path.
The slough became a tiny river
    emptying into the ocean of life,
with each drop of water being reborn again
    with the homecoming of the Atlantic.

Text and image © 2015 by Gaye Pappas. All rights reserved.