QOTD - July 27, 2010

Optimism is joyful searching; pessimism is a prison of fear and a clutching at illusionary safety.

~ K.A.Brehony (thanks to @CoachCecily)

Prayer/Verse (2010)

So, here's my first edit:

O Nameless One
who beckons me
Is it you whose silent whisperings
fill my ears?
Whose presence I sense
even alone?

Who are you?
What is your name?
Where can I find you?

I daydream/envision/imagine you
not as a being
but a state of being,

Not a being
but the power that gives us being.

I shall call you the Holy One
... the Holy One
Yes, the Holy One.

You are in all
and all is within you

You suffuse all that is
and was
and is yet to be.

The ordinary and mundane,
the profound and sublime.

You are the knowing beyond me
and the knowing within me.

How shall I see you, O Holy One?
O Faceless One?

Not a particle of matter but a wave of energy?
A neural network, countless pulsing points of life?
A boundless moving mesh?
A divine web, swaying in the breeze of eternity?
With your gossamer strands
fluttering throughout and in my life?

-- from our final retreat,
"In Your Own Voice," December 9, 1995, edited July 11, 2010

Prayer/Verse (1995)

Cleaning out a closet, I found the following prayer/verse. I'd like to change a few of the words, I think.

O Nameless One
who beckons me
whose silent whisperings
fill my ear
your silken sighs
touch my cheek ...


Who are you?
What is your name?
Where can I find you?


I imagine you
not as a being
but a state of being,


Not as a particle of matter
but a wave of energy


Not a person
but a person-filled power


I shall call you the Holy One
... the Holy One
Yes, the Holy One.


You are in all
and all is within you


You are the interconnectedness
of all that is
and was
and is yet to be.


The ordinary and mundane,
the profound and sublime.


You are the knowing beyond me
and the knowing within me.


You are a neural network,
pulsing points of life,
a divine web, swaying
a mighty moving mesh


With those silken gossamer strands
kissing my life.
-- from our final retreat,
"In Your Own Voice," December 9, 1995

The little things

Poking around the web, I learned of a poet and spiritual writer named Kathleen Norris.

Here is a quote of hers that caught my attention:

"The Bible is full of evidence that God's attention is indeed fixed on the little things. But this is not because God is a great cosmic cop, eager to catch us in minor transgressions, but simply because God loves us--loves us so much that the divine presence is revealed even in the meaningless workings of daily life. It is in the ordinary, the here-and-now, that God asks us to recognize that the creation is indeed refreshed like dew-laden grass that is "renewed in the morning" or to put it in more personal and also theological terms, "our inner nature is being renewed everyday". Seen in this light, what strikes many modern readers as the ludicrous details in Leviticus involving God in the minuitae of daily life might be revisioned as the very love of God. "
— Kathleen Norris (The Quotidian Mysteries: Laundry, Liturgy and "Women's Work")

I was contemplating adding Norris's book to my Amazon Wish List for a possible Christmas gift, but I found it on Google Books. Have I mentioned recently how much I appreciate Google? See it here. I think the book in its entirety is under 90 pages.