Bird Lore

Isn't it time to listen to the language of birds again! There is a thrill in recognizing our old friends who made themselves absent for much of the winter. Christian tradition can enhance the enjoyment of birds. For example, the robin has a heroic place in Christian lore.  At the crucifixion, the robin felt with Jesus in his agony, and went to pull out one of the thorns from the Lord's brow.  It was Jesus' blood that stained the robin's breast red.

April Fools

One of my favorite stories in the Bible is the one about Balaam, a false prophet hired to curse Israel, and his talking ass (Numbers 22:21-39) .  Balaam stubbornly beat his donkey repeatedly when it stopped on the path.  When the donkey asks Balaam the reason for the beatings, Balaam responds that the donkey has made a fool of him.  Really the donkey sees the angel of the Lord with drawn sword blocking the path,  God has spoken through the mouth of the ass.  Let us then, suffer fools wisely, and tolerate being one if necessary for the will of God.

Listening

This morning I checked out the wisdom of the Society of Saint John in Cambridge, MA and watched their short daily video.  Today's theme touched on the gift of listening.   The prophet Isaiah asks "what shall I cry" (Isaiah 40:6); and I ask the same, adding to it "what shall I hear?"  The Jewish affirmation of faith  comes to mind "Hear O Israel the LORD our God, the LORD is one" (Deuteronomy 40:6).  When I listen to another person with the knowledge of our universal human experience, our oneness in God,  I can be a channel of at-one-ment or atonement. Here is a prayer from  my book The Heavenly Body:

Prayer for the Ears

Creator of hearing, I pray for the healing of
__(name)__’s ears.   May __(name)__ hear the Good News.
May (he/she) listen for your Word.
Stop __(name)__’s ears to the sounds of destruction,
and open them to your love.
Amen.

Leaping and Dancing

Of all places, I was reminded at a high school performance of "Footloose," directed by my daughter Fran that dancing is part of the testimony of scripture, "there is a time to mourn and a time to dance (Ecclesiastes 3:4).  This morning I used my favorite Bible search site  BibleGateway to look at the other references to dancing and leaping in the Scripture.  A wonderful connection is that during the energy healing treatment in Brookline two days ago, the healer, a dancer was able to enliven the energy in my legs, and I expressed this to her by saying "I experienced the feeling of leaping."

Healing Vision

Yesterday during an energy healing session in Brookline, I had an image of a healing room where illustrations from my Heavenly Body manuscript were hanging on the wall, and the background sound was a recording of me reading poems, scripture, and prayers from the book. To act on this idea, I downloaded the iTalk App where I will make a short recording of a few of the Heavenly Body poems.

Lenten Wilderness

My Lenten practice this year is silencing the inner static. The root of the desire was to stop judging self and others.  After listening to Richard Rohr "On Silence" (check it out on Youtube), I discovered that there is more ease in a general inner silence than in confronting every judgmental thought as it arises.

New Beginning

My brother Len suggests that I return to writing this blog with the topic being my creative process.  I'm willing to try that.... He's had good ideas before.
He's wanting to make it easier for me to get my book project done; The Heavenly Body  has been in the works for 20 years.  I'm not sure who wants to hear about this.