Today with Nature and God..

I never feel lonely
with all these creatures around
each playing in their own way
I could listen all day, to say,
just the birds in my yard, and be endlessly
convinced, entranced, and in wonder at all
that God is.
The world is filled now
only with friends.
Since childhood, where it begins, the robin and blue jay and the wren
spoke to me of God. And i listened, even then.
Later the hawks talked mostly to me. They taught me
to see and how to hunt with articulation
the things of The Spirit.
Now even some of the creatures of the deep
teach me from their mysterious silent distance. God is always talking
through them, at least to me.
So i never feel lonely
with so many friends around.

Every person is
a poem to me
every conversation we have
i know more of God.
i am listening through you
into a bigger and louder Love Song
of which
we are notes sung out loud.
We are trembling treble clefts
in the grand Score.
I already hear the chorus
through the outer roar of you right now, my love.
So how can i keep
from singing, and us
from being sung! Inside of me
we are part a new song already begun-thats
all i hear, my dear!
We are songs being sung!
I’m just a listener
trying to listen well to All
I hear.

How conversations and being with others can become part of our spirituality:

I try to be with Him
when I’m with you;
to pray, that is
without ceasing,
to see you
with that view
of our backdrop.
My time alone with God
includes my time
with you.
I’ll try to treat you
in that context.
Then maybe
we’ll know
Love as our
atmosphere
friend.
When I can’t see Him
I stop, until i do
and then look back
at you.
That’s how i try
to stay in Love
with you.

How I hear things:

God surrounds me.
I see Him in everything-
especially the birds
and people’s eyes
and their stories
they share with me (their inner songs are what i hear);
because I’m here
and listening through them to Him.
Their inflections
are syllables in His Mouth
about to be
pronounced.
God is never silent
even in silence. To me
He comes as speech
as living Word,
and He is always here
if you can hear.

The word friend
is my favorite word,
when God speaks it.
I am friends with Him
and everyone who is friends with Him
is my best friend.

A prayer
May every word i write, every thought i have
every photo i take, every poem i write, every person i
truly see today, every city i pray for, every great conversation i have, every
project i do, every coffee I drink,
every party i attend, every ending and
beginning, every book i write, every art gallery i start, every breath i take
lead me and others deeper into You God.
That will be enough for me. For
everything leads into You in the end,
my Friend. There are two directions for everything-towards and away from You.
So may even these scribbles on facebook
lead us, or magnetize us deeper into God. So,
let everything i do, lead to You Lord, my Lover
My best Friend, My God! (A modern monks prayer)

A prayer
May every word i write, every thought i have
every photo i take, every poem i write, every person i
truly see today, every city i pray for, every great conversation i have, every
project i do, every coffee I drink,
every party i attend, every ending and
beginning, every book i write, every art gallery i start, every breath i take
lead me and others deeper into You God.
That will be enough for me. For
everything leads into You in the end,
my Friend. There are two directions for everything-towards and away from God.
So may even these scribbles on facebook
lead us, or magnetize us deeper into God. So,
let everything i do, lead to You Lord, my Lover
My best Friend, My God! (A modern monks prayer)

On overcoming a “pornographic vision” of life from a favorite spiritually enlightened art writer:

“God made every beautiful thing you’ve ever seen. Reflect on Him, when you see something beautiful—that’s the job of true aesthetics. To develop appreciation and thanks. Beauty is meant to lead us into a thankful encounter with God.

Conversely, porn (or a pornographic vision of things) uses beauty, and makes it about us, true aesthetics draws us towards and into it’s Source, and makes it about Him! Beauty is a witness about Him. When you see something beautiful, trace it into God, that keeps vision pure.”

Like the idea of beauty as a witness and something which is meant to draw us into God. Nice theological aesthetics!

When you look at a person, try to see them as a little kid and as an elderly person. It helps to tune into them where they are now at in their journey. Identity is a journey, a series of chapters in a longer novel. To counsel, you need to think of their whole story. To help people you need to at least glance at their trajectory, and consider your own. We get to help one another better pronounce each chapter of our lives!

Let Him Occupy, possess, and then cultivate the lands we are, and are becoming!
The prophetic teaching from the book of Joshua about patterns of spiritual growth: occupy, possess, cultivate. In each of us, He must first occupy, posses, and then cultivate us in each area of our lives, for us to become fruitful. The map set out in the book of Joshua is one towards wholeness and unity. There are battles for each city or part of self, but in the end, we are meant to be whole and fruitful. Prayer and priesthood comes first, then we get a map of spiritual formation to live out!