Morning By Morning

 Yesterday I woke to a morning sky that brought a message of calm. The sun had not yet risen over the horizon, but pink-edged wisps of clouds were strewn across the morning's  blue sky, silently hinting of a gentle hand adding finishing touches just before the presentation of the day.  

This morning I spotted in the midst of the clouds a clearing that for just a few moments was heart shaped. I smiled, and gave thanks for these love notes from the sky.   

I  took no pictures of these brief moments. However, I leave you an offering of yellow and purple spotted on my morning walk, and a short verse from Nan C. Merrill's version of Psalm 105. My copy of her book is almost 20 years old, and no longer holds together. I find it difficult to replace a beloved old book that has seen much use. It feels like trying to replace your grandmother.  I am grateful for Friends of Silence who reminded me yesterday of this beautiful psalm.  Regardless of the translations or renditions, the psalms call us to trust. Yes, that is a call to faith. We need these reminders.

As spring and summer follow
autumn and winter,
so our lives have their seasons.
Help us to live in the eternal moment,
awaiting your perfect timing
in all things.

 from  Psalm 105, Psalms for Praying, Nan C. Merrill   

      

      

 image: Yellow and purple for the first day of July, San Leandro, CA       

The Brightness of the Soul

 "The human heart is a capacity for God. Prayer, then, is the development of the art of communion. We are called to develop the disciplines required for loving and open communion with God, the world, others, and ourselves. We need to recover the art of communion and so recover the universe as God's, and rediscover our roots in God, in the world, in one another, and in our inner selves." 

Rachel Hosmer and Alan Jones
   
When I first read this quote from Friends of Silence, I did not recognize these names although Alan Jones sounded vaguely familiar.  I searched the internet, and discovered that Rachel Hosmer was a nun and the founder of the Order of St. Helena. Alan Jones was an Episcopal priest and dean emeritus of Grace Cathedral in San Francisco.  I am finding that when I am researching a name on the internet, I frequently need to sort through names of basketball players, film stars, and CEO's.  Such are the times we find ourselves in. I am not entirely comfortable in these times, but I do not get a sense that God does not always call us to seek comfort; we are called to become aware. Sometimes that can be pretty uncomfortable. However, discomfort does not mean that we are doing something wrong. It means we are exploring what our souls long for us to know.    

          

    

image:  The Brightness of the Soul, June 2025

Thank you, Rachel Carson

 "Those who dwell, as scientists or laymen, among the beauties and mysteries of the earth are never alone or weary of life. Whatever the vexations and concerns of their personal lives, their thoughts can find paths that lead to inner contentment and to renewed excitement in living. Those who contemplate the beauty of the earth find reserves of strength that will endure as long as life lasts. There is symbolic as well as actual beauty in the migration of the birds, the ebb and flow of the tides, the folded bud ready for spring. There is something infinitely healing in the repeated refrains of nature--the reassurance that dawn comes after night, and spring after winter."

~ Rachel Carson in THE SENSE OF WONDER

Quoted in today's post from Friends of Silence 

If those in power would simply learn to view the world, not as a source of potential plunder, but rather as our sacred environment in which all live, much would change, and probably quickly. Let us remember: when Rachel Carson was working to stop the use of DDT, there were many who did not want to listen to the science, who did not want to risk change, who  feared the loss of profit. Yet, change did happen and because of her work, bald eagles, a majestic bird we in the US claim to love, still exist. As do all of us.   

 Today, on the day before summer begins, let us pledge to renew our sense of wonder and gratitude. Then in that Spirit, let us join those who are working diligently to protect national parks, open spaces, the air that all creatures breathe, and the water all creatures need. We are more than pawns of the propaganda that feeds only fear and the hunger for power. That is a hunger that can never be satiated, and it is deadly. 

Summer solstice blessings to you all. Remember, seasons do change. Take heart. 

   

image: I do not have a photograph of an eagle, but I celebrate these distant relatives.  Coyote Hills Regional Park, 2025 

 

     

Refuge

 As I read and reread the following quote, the more it brings me to acceptance. This morning I woke with the knowing that peace already exists, and it is eternal.  Does that mean that we humans are living peacefully? Alas, no. As much as we need the healing of peace, we often go in the opposite direction- creating more chaos, more strife, more separation, more grief.  

Yesterday, I stopped at a small Japanese restaurant that sits in a narrow strip mall. I had never been there, but despite the noise both inside and outside the restaurant, I found peace. I found a place to rest and be nourished. I also found a place where I could listen to two very young children talking to each other and the adults who were with them.  No, I could not understand them, but they seemed to understand one another. They were speaking the language of discovery. The parents were encouraging the children to speak familiar words because that is what generally well intentioned parents do. Yet, I loved listening to those children delight one another. I felt no need to hear words I already knew.   

As I was leaving, I told the parents that I so enjoyed hearing the children, and I gave them a blessing for a happy family.  Yes, that blessing surprised the adults, but I think these fortunate children probably understand the joy of blessings very well.  

"If two or more people love one another deeply, they may come to that profound level of awareness and mind-expansion in which no words are necessary because their intimacy is not built on words. And the stronger the love, the more profound will be the silence and the deeper will be the enlightenment. Furthermore, if this love goes to the core of their being, it brings a realization of something more than the people involved -- it brings a consciousness of the all; it contains an element of universality."

~ from SILENT MUSIC by William Johnston     

      

image:  "Beyond the Fence"  San Leandro

Room to Move

 "You must have a room, or a certain hour or so a day, where you don't know what was in the newspapers that morning, you don't know who your friends are, you don't know what you owe anybody, you don't know what anybody owes to you. This is a place where you can simply experience and bring forth what you are and what you might be. This is the place of creative incubation. At first you may find that nothing happens there. But if you have a sacred place and use it, something eventually will happen."

~ Joseph Campbell   

  

This quote came this morning from an email from Friends of Silence. There are indeed times when unknowing is more powerful, more healing than knowing. Allowing ourselves time to find the balance between the two states is essential now. For the past few days I have been pondering the Greek word, metanoia. It is often translated as change. Yet, I recently heard a short presentation by Kathleen Flanagan, Director of Franciscan Ministries, and her talk expanded my understanding of what metanoia means. Her premise was that when both Jesus and St. Francis experienced metanoia, they were led deeper into their ministries of serving the poor, sick, and dying. Our metanoias can lead us to more fully understand our own calls to serve. 

Too often, we try to harden ourselves against change. However, after reading Rupert Sheldrake's book The Physics of Angels, co-authored with Matthew Fox, I now envision our souls as fields of energy, and I do not believe these fields can be hardened, although our thinking and attitudes certainly can be. In her lovely book, The Yogi's Way, Reema Datta writes, "The Upanishads [ancient Sanskrit texts] describe our true Self as devoid of any fixed quality or characteristic." She goes on to explain that quantum physics has revealed that we are made up of cells that are made up of molecules that are in turn made up of atoms that are 99.9 percent empty space. Datta writes that again, according to her understanding of quantum physics, every object and person is a "field of pure potentiality" rather than fixed beings ( p. 106)."        

It is, of course, perilous to quote someone about quantum physics, or really, any subject, when you yourself know absolutely nothing about it. However, I love the phrase "pure potentiality". I once read that Stephen Hawking (1942-2018) contended that a better human was possible, and I have always believed, and will continue to do so, that humanity is headed in that direction. In a period that could truly be an exciting time of exploration and learning, I am sorry that the US voted to cling to a backward and solidified notion of who we are as a people. That decision, while by no means unilateral, is costly and disappointing, and is impacting not only us but the world. Hardened hearts and minds are seldom catalysts for growth and new understanding, but I will continue to hold the idea that at least some of our potential for good can be explored in this time.   

          

Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing,
There is a field. I'll meet you there.
When the soul lies down in that grass,
The world is too full to talk about.
Ideas, language, even the phrase each other
Doesn't make any sense.

Rumi, translated from Persian by Coleman Barks and John Moyne   

 

       

 

image: Half Moon Bay, a few years ago