Flamenco
Author: Bill Schulz
shame & guilt
Jesus was concerned with the healing of human shame and human guilt. He was always taking away people’s shame, always taking away their low self-esteem, and reintroducing them to the village, the temple, the priesthood, and their families. He was healing relationships even more than just healing bodies. And now many would say that we (the Church/Christians) have ended up being the chief purveyors of guilt and shame, instead of healing it and transforming it into life and light. We have decided, for some reason, that it is better to remind people of their unworthiness and brokenness, instead of their potential to be temples of the Holy Spirit. It became taught and learned helplessness in far too many cases. – Richard Rohr, OFM
Just honor fully what you meet each day and you will find it drenched with grace and divinity.
when the wind stopped…
#1063 – after the wind, day 2
the wind
#1062 – after the wind
Christianity stands or falls
Christianity stands or falls with its revolutionary protest against violence, arbitrariness, and pride of power, and with its plea for the weak. Christians are doing too little to make these points clear … Christendom adjusts itself far too easily to the worship of power. Christians should give more offense, shock the world far more, than they are doing now.
– Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Buttoned Up
“Whoever has no house by now will not build.” – Rilke
so many houses
all buttoned up
mid-October
late afternoon
kitchen lights on
silence in the barn
each tool hung
on its proper peg
I know these people
I’ve never met
every autumn I long
to be them but
I’ve walked away
from every home
I’ve ever owned
lights off tools forgotten
dark and exposed
winter in the wind
beauty is…
When you love something like reading — or drawing or music or nature — it surrounds you with a sense of connection to something great. If you are lucky enough to know this, then your search for meaning involves whatever that Something is. It’s an alchemical blend of affinity and focus that takes us to a place within that feels as close as we ever get to “home.” It’s like pulling into our own train station after a long trip — joy, relief, a pleasant exhaustion.
If a writer or artist creates from a place of truth and spirit and generosity, then I may be able to enter and ride this person’s train back to my own station. It’s the same with beautiful music and art.
Beauty is meaning.
What saved me was that I found gentle, loyal and hilarious companions, which is at the heart of meaning: maybe we don’t find a lot of answers to life’s tougher questions, but if we find a few true friends, that’s even better. They help you see who you truly are, which is not always the loveliest possible version of yourself, but then comes the greatest miracle of all — they still love you.
– Anne Lamott, from Stitches: a handbook of hope, meaning, and repair
Edge of Atlantic 