Jameswoodward’s Weblog

fresh life

and then my heart

pulled itself apart

and, filled to the brim

with a new light,

overflowed with fresh life.

now even the heavens

are thankful that

because of love

i have become

the giver of light

Rumi

watchful

If you value yourself

watch that self, carefully;

the wise should be watchful.

Self must govern self.

Who else would do this work?

If the self is well controlled

you have found a good master.

It is your self that does wrong

it is your self that suffers

it is your self that purifies;

no-one can do it for you.

the Buddha

Love

there is enough magic here

inside this one word

to change our world forever

mountain snow lying

across life’s pasture a

shadow reflected over

stone moss forest dream

man’s ability to under

stand nature’s living need

green comet seen in the sky

time’s gift, another

universe visiting our earth

there is enough magic here

inside this one word

to change our world forever

Love

from Joseph Mayo Wristen – magic to change the world

Don’t worry about saving these songs,

And if one of our instruments breaks,

It doesn’t matter.

We have fallen,

We have fallen into the place,

Where everything is music…

Today, like every other day,

We wake up empty and frightened

Don’t open the door to the study

And begin reading.

Take down a musical instrument.

Let the beauty we love be what we do.

Let the beauty we love be what we do.

There are hundreds of ways to kneel and kiss the ground.

-Jalal ad-din Rumi

Love after Love

The time will come
when, with elation,
you will greet yourself arriving
at your own door, in your own mirror,
and each will smile at the other’s welcome
and say, sit here. Eat.
You will love again the stranger who was your self.
Give wine. Give bread. Give back your heart
to itself, to the stranger who has loved you
all your life, whom you have ignored
for another, who knows you by heart.
Take down the love letters from the bookshelf,
the photographs, the desperate notes,
peel your own image from the mirror.
Sit. Feast on your life.

Derek Walcott,

Wherever we go exploring in the world around us, we find

mysteries. Our planet is covered by continents and oceans whose

origin we cannot explain. Our atmosphere is constantly stirred

by poorly understood disturbances that we call weather and climate.

The visible matter in the universe is outweighed by a much larger

quantity of dark invisible matter that we do not understand at all.

The origin of life is a total mystery, and so is the existence

of human consciousness.

Freeman Dyson, “How We Know”

We are not
human beings having a spiritual experience,

but spiritual beings having a human experience

-Teilhard de Chardin

Generous orthodoxy is aware of the need to keep listening and learning in openness to the Spirit and to the world for the sake of the gospel, it seeks to keep conversations going and not to end them. Generous ortho­doxy does not so much specify a particular point or posi­tion as it establishes a spacious territory defined by certain distinct boundaries in which there is space to live, move, and breathe while exploring the wonders and mysteries of the faith. In this context ongoing conversation is nothing less than the gracious gift of God through the work of the Spirit in fulfillment of the promise to guide the church into the fullness of truth.

So let us  not covet the last word, let us be  honest about our presuppositions and potential blind spots, and honest about our passions  and even forthright in our convictions. To do this we should be  willing to engage with the many voices found in the church and in our culture.

Let the Church be a place for  conversation for the sake of the Way, the Truth, and the Life.

We might be encouraged  to keep in mind the words of Hans Frei, who once commented on the term he had coined: “Generosity without orthodoxy is nothing, but orthodoxy without generosity is worse than nothing.”

(with gratitude  to challenges heard after reading

A Generous Orthodoxy

by  Brian D McLaren )

In our era, the idea that we should
lead happy, balanced lives carries the force of an
obligation: We are supposed to push aside our anxieties in order to enjoy our
lives, attain peace of mind, and maximize our productivity. The cult of “positive
thinking” even assures us that we can bring good things into our lives just by thinking about them…

There is something quite hollow about the ideal a life unruffled
by anxiety. It’s why I think that underneath our quest for vibrant health lurks a tragic kind of
discreet death: the demise of everything that is eccentric and messy about human life. Our society sells us the quick fix:

If you get a cold, take some decongestants; if you get depressed, take some antidepressants; and if you get
anxious, take those tranquilizers. But what are we supposed to take when we lose our character?”

From the Chronicle of Higher Education at:

http://chronicle.com/article/HappinessIts-Discontents/144019/

eyes

Love is the cure.

Your pain will keep giving birth to more pain.

Just let your eyes  breathe out love

as easily as a flower breathes out its sweetness.

Rumi, Love is the cure