Praise Song
by Barbara Crooker
Praise the light of late November,
the thin sunlight that goes deep in the bones.
Praise the crows chattering in the oak trees;
though they are clothed in night, they do not
despair. Praise what little there's left:
the small boats of milkweed pods, husks, hulls,
shells, the architecture of trees. Praise the meadow
of dried weeds: yarrow, goldenrod, chicory,
the remains of summer. Praise the blue sky
that hasn't cracked yet. Praise the sun slipping down
behind the beechnuts, praise the quilt of leaves
that covers the grass: Scarlet Oak, Sweet Gum,
Sugar Maple. Though darkness gathers, praise our crazy
fallen world; it's all we have, and it's never enough.
Recently my daughter and I were hiking in a nearby park. The fallen leaves made a thick carpet beneath our feet. At first, the dying and diminishing seemed most evident, and I sighed in resignation. But very soon I was awed by the abundance of berries and seeds on trail-side bushes and vines - a feast for birds and animals! Tiny blue-black berries easy for human eyes to miss, brilliant red berries clustered and scattered, twisting vines sprinkled with orange-red bittersweet. And milk-weed seeds, attached to feathery "wings," now free and flying across the stubbled field with incomparable grace.
"We live in a world of theophanies. Holiness comes wrapped in the ordinary. There are burning bushes all around you. Every tree is full of angels. Hidden beauty is waiting in every crumb. Life wants to lead you from crumbs to angels, but this can only happen if you are willing to unwrap the ordinary by staying with it long enough to harvest its treasure." —Macrina Wiederkehr
I feel drawn to the paradox of autumn - the beauty and the dying - the letting go and the harvest - the abundance and the barrenness. I look around me and wonder how this might also be happening in my own life? How am I being invited to hold both abundance and letting go? Somehow they both belong, and autumn can be a wise teacher. The celebration of Thanksgiving invites us to pause, notice, and harvest the treasure of the ordinary in our lives. Gratitude and praise seem our natural response.
Online Advent Retreat: "Finding Light"
November 27 - Christmas Day
Recently I read this quote by John Philip Newell:
"At the end of my talk, a Mohawk elder, who had been invited to comment on the common ground between Celtic spirituality and the native spirituality of his people, stood with tears in his eyes. He said, "As I have listened to these themes, I have been wondering where I would be today. Where my people would be today. And I have been wondering where we would be as a Western world today if the mission that came to us from Europe centuries ago had come expecting to find Light in us."
This quote reminded me of how easy it is to see winter as dark, depressing, and dying. What if we could come to winter expecting to find Light? Isn't this the message of Advent? Expecting to find light as we travel through Advent feels exciting and expansive. Where might you find Light this Advent?
Each week of Advent we will share 3 posts. On Sunday we will open the week with a reflection on that week's theme (Finding Light in Hope, in Love, in Joy and in Peace). On Wednesday we will offer a prayer practice aligned with the theme, and on Friday we will close with a blessing. It is our hope that this Advent Retreat will not be one more burdensome "to do" in an already busy season, but will be a place of encouragement, inspiration, rest, and prayer.
The Advent posts are free and open to everyone. Please share with family and friends you think may enjoy them.
Donations of $25-30 towards Sacred Rhythms programming may be made at any point during the retreat. Please make checks payable and send to Donna at:
Donna Holstein
2917 Village Green Lane
Eagleville, PA 19403
(If you'd like to make a donation by PayPal, please contact Linda at lwitmer50@gmail.com.)
We look forward to having you join us!!
May you have a blessed Thanksgiving and a Light-filled, Spirit-led Advent.
Donna and Linda
Sources:
Crooker, Barbara, "Praise Song," www.grateful.org.
Wiederkehr, Macrina, "A Tree Full of Angels: Seeing the Holy in the Ordinary," HarperOne, San Francisco, Reprint 2009.
Newell, J. Philip "Christ of the Celts: The Healing of Creation," Jossey Bass, San Francisco, 2008.
Comments