the sweet mystery

a spiritual sister’s words resonate…..

The intention to live according to Buddhist precepts has had a profound effect & created a holding within which the spiritual has become integral to the everyday: an embodied, engaged spirituality. From a younger need for intensity & extreme experience I seem to have moved into a certain level of simplicity, where “chopping wood & carrying water” have become the staple of the spiritual life. Here, a place of needing less & appreciating more, deep experiences of interconnectedness take their place & are making sense of the Christian message as I am hearing it afresh going to my local church. While some of the language feels dualistic, the underlying meaning & experience is of untiy. I sometimes struggle with the forms Christian worship takes, & at the same time feel rooted by the sense of tradition & community in the Christian tradition. I would dearly like to find some gathering of friends where I would no longer need to ‘reinterpret’ the language of the Christian religion to make it possible for me to relate it to my embodied experience……Maxine Linnell

beautifully written & almost pleading…..where can we truly & gently find connection?….how do we choose gracefully? how do we engage with religion in community? ….a sincere wish to soften boundaries calls up our intent…

all of us have deeply personal stories centered around our ideals…our unique histories….our old souls ruminating….together…always together…

I offer a poem….

When the Little Bird Sings

This chromed edge of prayer

echoed under my breath,

has a yielding rhythm, centuries old,

a cadence not unlike

my grandmother’s rosary beads.

With intentional serenity of knees

under heart, my head bowed,

the hard shell of pity blossoms,

indescribable without sweet scent;

Padre Pio’s roses lift despair.

I imagine this is eternity’s gift,

a lilt in the soul, like morning glow

dissolving edges, reminding the weary

to look up with shadowed grace

when the little bird sings.

ode to the ineffable….