The story's told of a woman whose friend, wanting to honor what she's learned from her, said, "when you are gone, people will remember the way God was present in your life." The woman smiled and said, "I hope that people will celebrate whatever way I've able to be present in God's life!"
Here's a 12th day gift, with an invitaiton to be present to God in the reading of it.
Tomorrow we'll turn to thoughts about conversation in the Gospel According to John.
I gave this day to God
Mary Oliver, from "Accompanied by Angels: Poems of the Incarnation
I gave this day to God when I got up, and look,
look what it birthed! There, up the hill, stood
the apple tree, bronze leaves, its fallen apples
spilling richly down the slope, the way God spilled
his seed into Mary, into us. In her the holy promise
came to rest in generous soil after a long
fall. How often it ends in gravel, or dry dust.
Blackberry patches thorny with distraction. Oh
I pray my soul will welcome always that small
seed. That I will hail it when it enters me.
I don't mind being grit, soil, dirt, mud-brown,
laced with the rot of old leaves, if only the seed
can find me, find a home, and bear a fruit
sweet, flushed, full-fleshed--a glory apple.
No comments:
Post a Comment