The 60-Second Sabbath

The Start of Advent

Advent begins this Sunday.

Advent means "coming."

What arrivals
do you anticipate
this Advent?

What room can you make
for what is new?
    transformative?
    empowering?
    humbling?
    inspiring?
    wonder-filled?
    freeing?

You can invite this:
How about a bit more silence?
    a refreshed connection?
    a stance of vulnerability and openness?
    a spiritual discipline?
    some awareness?

In the now
find the new;
in the present
know Presence.

Text and image © 2017 by Dirk deVries. All rights reserved.
Visit PhotosByDirk.com for fine-art photography.
Visit The60SecondSabbath.com, where spirit and image merge.

Yet More T-Shirt Wisdom

Every fall
we are inundated with holiday catalogs,
most of which go directly into our recycling bin.

One up side to this onslaught
are the new, clever and often insightful T-shirts
that bear messages worth considering.

Here are a few of my favorites
this time around:

    People who wonder
    if the glass is half empty or half full
    miss the point.
    The glass is refillable.

----

    I run like a girl
    Try to keep up.

----

    Surely not
    everybody
    was Kung Fu
    fighting.

----

    I thought I saw
    A SPIDER,
    but it was just a
    piece of yarn.
    It's dead
    yarn now.

----

    Let's give a
    shout-out
    to all the
    LIBRARIANS!
    ...oh, I'm sorry.

----

    My decision-making skills
    resemble those
    of a squirrel
    trying to cross
    the street.

----

    BOOKS:
    Helping introverts
    avoid conversations
    since 1454.

----

    Hyphenated.
    Non-hyphenated.
    That's irony.

----

And this one,
so me:

    I stop for
    interesting
    cloud
    formations.

---

And finally, this,
sadly also true:

    I'm silently
    correcting your
    grammar.

I apologize.

Text and image © 2017 by Dirk deVries. All rights reserved.
Visit PhotosByDirk.com for fine-art photography.
Visit The60SecondSabbath.com, where spirit and image merge.

Christ and Christmas

Keep Christ in Christmas?
Just try to keep him out!

    Where there is wonder,
        there is Christ.
    Where there is joy,
        there is Christ.
    Where there is generosity,
        there is Christ.
    Where there is hope,
        there is Christ.
    Where there is love,
        there is Christ.

Christ is in the eyes of the child
    marveling at mall decorations.
Christ is in the laughter
    of a family playing Uno.
Christ is there in far-off lands
    where the name of Jesus has never been heard.
Without the Spirit of Christ
    there is no wonder or joy or love,
    no compassion, no hope, no peace.
Where these are known,
    Christ is present,
    and Christmas is kept,
    acknowledged or not.

You can't take Christ
    out of Christmas
anymore than you can take Christ
    out of humanity.
That Spirit enlivens and unites us all.

Keep Christ in Christmas?
How about:

    Open your eyes to the Christ in all,
    to Christmas always and everywhere.

Text and image © 2017 by Dirk deVries. All rights reserved.
Visit PhotosByDirk.com for fine-art photography.
Visit The60SecondSabbath.com, where spirit and image merge.

What Retailers Don't Want You To Know

The alchemy of gratitude
can convert what you already own
into more than enough.

Text and image © 2017 by Dirk deVries. All rights reserved.
Visit PhotosByDirk.com for fine-art photography.
Visit The60SecondSabbath.com, where spirit and image merge.

Thanksgiving Eve

This is what I'm doing today:

    ironing table linens,
    polishing silver,
    setting tables,
    baking dinner rolls,
    listening to contemplative music,
    walking with my friend Sue,
    running last-minute errands,

and loving every freakin', blessed moment of it!

A toast to Thanksgiving
and all things good and grace-filled!

Text and image © 2017 by Dirk deVries. All rights reserved.
Visit PhotosByDirk.com for fine-art photography.
Visit The60SecondSabbath.com, where spirit and image merge.

Giving Thanks

For what are you grateful
that rhymes with one?

    having fun
    a sit in the sun
    a gooey, cinnamon sticky bun
    a sunset run
    a groan-worthy pun
    a poem by John Donne

These things I like
that rhyme with one.

----

For what are you grateful
that rhymes with two?

    a hot pot of stew
    the cheese that is bleu
    a gnu
    paddling a canoe
    an epiphanic breakthrough
    possibly you...or you...or you?

These things I like
that rhyme with two.

----

For what are you grateful
that rhymes with three?

    that cute little dimple on your knee
    my trimmed goatee
    floating in the Dead Sea
    a shady oak tree
    sipping iced tea or a glass of chablis
    getting away from a screaming banshee

These things I like
that rhyme with three.

----

For what are you grateful
that rhymes with four?

    watching waves that lap at the shore
    finding cash at the back of a drawer
    an old bookstore
    a classic Dutch door
    an orchestral encore
    a traveling troubadour

These things I like
that rhyme with four.

----

For what are you grateful
that rhymes with five?

    that I am sitting here alive
    when clever rhymes I can contrive
    when into a swimming pool I dive
    a leisurely country drive
    a beehive
    happy hour when the clock strikes five

These things I like
that rhyme with five.

----

Now it's your turn
using six or seven:

     like Lego bricks or or a friend named Kevin...

Or maybe you tackle
the eight or the nine?

    like a worm for bait or pickles in brine...

Which leaves, of course,
the number ten:

    a fancy new pen or a nap in the den,
    playing with words every now and again...

Happy Thanksgiving!

Text and image © 2017 by Dirk deVries. All rights reserved.
Visit PhotosByDirk.com for fine-art photography.
Visit The60SecondSabbath.com, where spirit and image merge.

    

Ah, Thanksgiving...

Thanksgiving is upon us,
and from what I see,
that for which we are most thankful
    is food;
Thanksgiving is the holiday of feasting.

We love to eat:
    turkey and stuffing,
    cranberries and pumpkin pie,
    three-bean casserole with fried onion rings...
And we all have our unique family traditions;
I have a friend who cooks only once a year,
making his mother's curried fruit for Thanksgiving dinner;
one year he walked in saying,
    "The oven was still set at the same temperature
    from when I made this last year."
Depending on ethnicity,
your Thanksgiving may also include enchiladas or lasagna,
    dolmades or spare ribs or herring.

Oh, the glorious culinary excesses
of Thanksgiving!

But I was reminded in church yesterday
that we have other feasting to do this season.
We are invited to dine
on that which broadens and deepens
    our spiritual life.
Yesterday's service felt like a celebratory meal
    (beyond the Eucharist).

I suggest that now is the time
to feed on our sacred writings--
    take, eat, digest.
Gobble up the anthems, the hymns, the chants.
Ingest the beauty of the stained glass,
    the woodwork gleaming from decades of touch,
    the passing of the peace,
    the warmth of hugs and smiles.

Once inside of you, all of these break down
    into essential, spiritual nutrients.
You have a Percent Daily Value* for them all:

    mystery            200 g
    eternity            150 mg
    balance            270 mg
    healing                90 g
    serenity            350 mg
    assurance            75 g
    wholeness        650 mg
    hope                  420 mg
    love                     150 g

Are you getting enough?
It doesn't only happen in church,
it also happens out in nature,
    or while in the garden,
    when reading great literature,
        listening to fine music,
        talking with friends and family,
        singing a lullaby to a child,
        embracing,
    in the pause that brings you into the present moment,
    in silence and solitude.

Eat and live;
eat and thrive;
eat and know joy.

Look at you...
you're too skinny!
Eat! Eat!

*Percent Daily Values are based on an hour-a-day diet.
Your daily values may be higher or lower
based on your spiritual needs.

Text and image © 2017 by Dirk deVries. All rights reserved.
Visit PhotosByDirk.com for fine-art photography.
Visit The60SecondSabbath.com, where spirit and image merge.

All Our Stories

Your story
is an integral part
of God's story.

God needs your story
to complete the bigger story.

God knows and remembers
    all our stories,
makes meaning of every detail,
weaves the threads of our stories
    into the stories of our families, our friends,
        our neighbors, our communities.

If God so owns (embraces, honors) your unique story,
perhaps you can own it as well,
    the sweet and the bitter,
    the lofty and the muddy,
    the memorable and the lamentable,
    the smooth and the jarring.

All our stories
are sacred stories.

All our stories
are one story.

All our stories
are God's story.

Text and image © 2017 by Dirk deVries. All rights reserved.
Visit PhotosByDirk.com for fine-art photography.
Visit The60SecondSabbath.com, where spirit and image merge.

 

Wisdom

The people gathered around him.
"What is wisdom?" they asked.

He closed his eyes,
inhaled, exhaled
and smiled a smile
of warmth and affection.

"Wisdom is our sister,"
he began.

"She is openness and receptivity.
She is patience.
She is community.
She is persistence.
She is courage."

He opened his eyes,
    looked around the crowd.

"She is here,
and she waits to be welcomed,
    embraced,
    embodied.

"She is here,
eager to live with and through you.

"Wisdom is your companion on the way,
    in the truth
    bringing life."

Text and image © 2017 by Dirk deVries. All rights reserved.
Visit PhotosByDirk.com for fine-art photography.
Visit The60SecondSabbath.com, where spirit and image merge.

So Who Is Sophia?

For several years
I've blogged about my friend, Sophia,
who pops up at various times and places,
often surprising me,
and always leaving me
with greater insight and peace.

"But who is she?"
a friend asked.

The best I can do
is quote you a bit
of holy writ:

    She is radiant and unfading,
    easily discerned by those who love her,
    found by those who seek her.

   To fix one's thoughts on her
    is perfect understanding,
    and one who is vigilant on her account
    will soon be free from care.

    She goes about seeking those worthy of her,
    and graciously appears to them in their paths,
    and meets them in every thought.

I wish we ran into each other more often.

Text and image © 2017 by Dirk deVries. All rights reserved.
Visit PhotosByDirk.com for fine-art photography.
Visit The60SecondSabbath.com, where spirit and image merge.