A season, of Being, laid bare. Made overt and obvious for the purpose of rapid growth, if we are willing…(lay bare–third-person singular simple present lays bare, present participle laying bare, simple past and past participle laid bare) To make bare; strip. And laid those proud roofs bare to summer’s rain. –Byron. (figuratively) To expose to view, reveal, uncover…) That’s the type of season we are all in. Being made more obvious or overt in our growth, is another useful definition of this phrase!

People should never ask me deep questions when i’m just picking up an iced mocha for my wife, but since this fellow did….

My very brief answer when someone asked me this week what type of season things are in collectively, I had to answer: One of being laid bare, I said. People, cities and nations..we are seeing what parts are “in The Light” and which parts need to mature, or come home, as Henri Nouwen put it. “God is trying to bring us all the way home!”

Trees and people, cities and nations, are known by their fruit. What is not fruitful in us, is being uprooted and exposed for its certain growth, was my first response to this friend. It is good to know what is not mature or in growth in yourself, that’s Mercy, then you can tend and steward it!

It is mercy to reveal which parts of us are actually in and growing in Light and which parts are in flight from Reality; what’s home, maturing growing in us, and which parts still need to grow and be guided towards maturity. So things are in high contrast lately, being made obvious in their levels of maturity. So we can catch up with ourselves “in Him.”

This is kind, so we will be all the way “home” when greater storms, which are coming, come. A tree is known by its fruit. What in you is actually rooted and grounded in Love, as the good book puts it. The fruits planted at night, are now exposed by a searing Light. It is good to know which parts are truly rooted and which are still trying to find good soil.

This is a high contrast season, when what has been done in secret is brought into the light and interpreted. We are in a being laid bare season on earth. And that is Mercy. Was my quick response. It’s a great opportunity to renovate the whole heart-to catch up on growth, to come entirely or more fully home. Complacency is impossible in times like ours.

High contrast lighting reveals the actual present contours, so we can work on the overall composition of our lives! It is good to know what is mature and immature in ourselves and things around us. Love is the lens for interpreting what is what. Love is discernment, even of ourselves.

This is a season of potential rapid growth and maturation in every area of life, as we yield expectantly in Hope. And get usefully exposed in areas of weakness…which is compost for potential growth!

And then my friend had to go, so I stopped rambling about where we are now. But then, he snuck away to hear the end.

Lastly I said, Things are being laid bare, made apparent or obvious in every area of life, which really is a gift of Grace, so we can grow and catch up with ourselves in every area! Individually and collectively.

I asked my friend, as I ask myself daily: What needs growth now in yourself, what is immature in you? What needs to undergo transformation in each room of life?

For, we are in a time of opportunity to transform, a potential yes moment to growth and Life, in every area un-grown or immature-individually and collectively. Things, people and people groups are being grown up, being shown for what they are and will be. Matured and exposed. And the process is exposure or what may feel like over exposure at times. These are necessarily vulnerable times. It’s for our certain good to be exposed.

We are in high contrast times of potential transformation. And it’s a great gift to live in “such a time as this.” Not boring at least! And sheering lays bare character. It’s kind to be pruned towards our potential Glory. And that’s where the story is at now. It’s an editing moment, when the all the lights go up and expose the inner content of things. So we know, and can choose to grow.

We are, at the very least, in a time of character formation individually and collectively. Everything in us, must grow up or die. Our trees will be known by our fruits. And we are those who are meant to lean into Sky and Truth. The root or inner work is where to start, and do our part of yielded transformation.

When someone asks you a question, you need to answer it from the heart, thoroughly. This was part of mine, as I picked up an iced mocha for my wife yesterday!

Manchester after Dark:

My dream last night, was about Manchester, UK at night. Manchester after dark. After this recent tragedy, my heart’s been with her, even while asleep, it seems. It’s amazing still to me that we can pray in our dreams, or maybe through them.

I was just there in my dream, with the people of that city-being with. And I am, after all the cameras and lights of day go away, just as I was after 911. We are family, and stay connected in prayer, and heart sight. Thinking of you all at night friends. Know that the night watchmen stay awake after the cameras fade, which they do so quickly these days.

With so many traumas spotlighted daily, and many cameras pointing at times at the wrong things, it’s important to see through the lens of Love, behind the scenes, and choose where your heart and words and sight should lean. Which traumas are ours to tend, when we see so many daily. To govern the imagination of our hearts, and so our words, is the essential spiritual discipline of our times! Maybe our hearts know while we dream.

Mine was directed there this week, and again last night in my dreams. To watch from and in the night. A night watch dream. That’s what the dream seemed to be about. When the lights fade, and cameras disappear, the heart glows in its own particular sorrows. Know that we are near, and sitting with you.

So i visited then last night, in the dark, in sleep, just to be with you strong hearted darling, tenacious creative city, overcoming city, during this hard time. In your parks i sat watching the candles glow, and tears flow. With you all this day and night friends, as I know so many are. We see and are with you friends, despite the times. The heart fortunately has a longer memory than the news.

Let morning last, for once!

Lord let the morning last forever,
so we can finish something clever.
I’m always running out of
morning time. Where we get to just be.
Let my time alone with Thee last all day.
Let the morning last forever for once
so i can see
something fully, in all its cadenced nuanced light story; like
that bear shaped tree on that hill right there, already leaning
over that sea into her glory,
which i tried to study all night, the story of just one hilltop.
We know the bear tree was left by natives here, as a sign
for someone to see. But it’s only visible in morning light.
And I need time to interpret it in Love.
The rest of the day, the military compound overshadows it
as it does us all somehow now. I want to be synced up with your song instead!
For God you are always singing!
God, you like to just see with me and listen, that’s how we are together, you and me,
We know most of the story already, You being so clever.
So let the morning light not run out today, switch some eternal lever.
I’m tired of running around begin clever, gathering flecks of the day, partial expressions
into my mere satchels of sight, which can barely hold marbles,
much less Your Light.
Just let me dwell in Your morning light for a while, a little longer…
until you see me, whole altogether already, stronger
as i know i also must be to Thee by morning light.
Until this all happens, Lord and old friend,
don’t let the morning light run out on me again!
Help me be a bear like this tree, leaning only into Thee.

God likes just to see with me.
//
After a moment of deep communion yesterday…wrote this on a napkin:
Note to self: My Jewish, Christian Celtic and Native American streams run together here in and from Him. This is my estuary! My source of words. Here is Christ. Christ is my Estuary. This is where I see from forever already.
//
Dreams, typewriters, and seeing things past their present, is what interest me most here and now.
//
Everything down here needs to be seen through a wide angled lens of Love.
//
God is The Story, it’s an autobiography, and we are the characters in it. Lord, help Him edit!
//
I notice when here, my Jewish, Christian Celtic and Native American streams all start to glisten, as I listen in well, in Love.

I notice out here my Jewish, Christian Celtic and Native American streams glisten more overtly, in listening. This one is from the more native stream (Cherokee in my case), on observing a sign some of my distant relatives left on a nearby hill. Enjoy a little poetic meditation friends! I did today with Him, thinking again of the whole human family, in light of current events.

So, on an animal, symbol, cultural deposits, and history related topic. The native Americans here left a bear-shaped tree on top the hill across from me, as a reminder for those who see, of all that was and will be. So, I turned to poetry to look backwards and forwards today…

(Viewing a particular “California” bear)

Bear Tree
On the tip of that hill there
a bear-shaped tree leans through this bay window all morning into glory.
I saw it my first time here; as, it seemed to be in longing to be seen, so
I finally looked into it. It’s a native american sign left
for us who would come later.
So, they left a bushy sea bear tree, if not their names, at least
leaning into winds unseen, whispering towards the waters of the sea.
Today we
took a picture of it for some reason, maybe just
to re-member
what was and will be.
Or to make it more permanent for ourselves, or
To practice bearing and being in the long story well, seeing monuments in wind…
Or just to gaze at bear tree clearly through a foggy morning window, dearly. Regardless,
They knew someone would see it eventually, with fog horn warnings,
in perceptual thanks, re-reading the signs before us, so we too may lean forwards again, from a nearby hilltop home…to see
the bear tree they hid in plain sight alone
atop that hill there still sheerly leaning into wind’s recall.
This bear isn’t laughing. She’s waiting stoically to be seen.

Taking internal snap shots all the time, this time at a particular corner cafe which is also everywhere…

I take pictures in my head all the time. I’ll see an elderly couple eating salad on a terrace on a corner cafe, by a park filled with children, and I’ll see their moment a hundred times as universal. Often i just have to stop and photo it, but usually i just do it my head. Just noticing things with Him.
The woman who no longer feels beautiful letting down her hair, as she used to when young. Letting her know she is still beautiful, maybe in my eyes even more so, as she is relaxed now in her own being. Dark eyes, dark hair, ancient peru i think somewhere in her background. Then the Jewish lady beside her, perhaps some czech heritage, eats no nonsense and stares out the window across the park towards her dog which someone is playing with so she can eat in Peace. The daughter with her father. The two don’t talk much, but have been across this table for many years, at the end he hugs her. She follows him out, when he is finished. The little gestures tell at least a 30 year story. The tall fellow, dutch i think; certainly northern european vibe, feels a little awkward in his body, but is really strong and striking and interested in the beautiful Jewish woman who sits by herself and owns at least two businesses in the neighborhood, judging from her stack of papers and eyes. And I and my gazing self with my funny yellow shoes and clown socks, talk to the old and young alike, and I am as welcomed into today’s drama at this particular corner cafe, as anyone.

(Creature callings…towards a spiritual ecology…from a dream i had last night!)

Animal dreams: The whole world is a dust bowl now!

I’ve been dreaming lots about the creatures lately. I’ve thought lots about a spiritual ecology for years, as I was shown there were three neglected areas of Christ Lordship in His church: sight (imagination), soil (our relationship to the earth), and skin (our proper relationship to our physical bodies). I’ve seen the gaps in all three areas, especially within Christianity, as it’s been lived out. And I’ve felt Christ’s Heart to enter more deeply into each of these three areas! So this dream was welcomed! It was about how the animals are confused now.

Animal dreams! After seeing a Marin county beaching of the largest types of whales in the world this week during the day, this one evidently hit by a cargo ship, i had this dream at night…

So, here’s another thing my dreams were talking about last night. Nothing I hadn’t heard before, as someone connected to the animals my whole life, but a good reminder:

Care for animals is close to the heart of God. Not everyone is called primarily to creatures, but God is always there with them. Concerned and hovering over and with them. In my dream, there was a sheer presence and atmosphere of care around the many displaced and confused animals in the world. It was tangible Presence.

In my dream, the animals were confused by our chaotic global behavior. Whales and sharks were in the wrong places. Horses running through city streets. Turtles on rooftops. The dream was surreal in its displacements. The geometry of the animal kingdom was eschewed by our poor governing. They were living signs of our rebellion against the actual nature of Reality. Our authority trickled down over them into a shattered expression.

After the flood, my dream reminded me, God also made a covenant with the earth itself. He has direct relationship with it.

Especially in our times of so much human displacement. He leans into what is uncovered and weak. Those with a calling to the creatures are near to God.

In my dream, I saw many animals wandering untended during all these global crisis. Wandering in bombed city alleyways, and sleeping in abandoned trucks along our borders. Some were ravenous for lack of food, others just confused by lack of order. My dream said that need some Noah’s now to haven the creatures in love and order, and kindness. Good dream reminder! I’ve always wanted to be a Noah, which is probably why we have way too many rescued animals, and I walk around talking to birds often. Nice to be reminded that God does too.

One character in the dream, a hawk tender, said to me: “It’s not just to feel guilt, and act from that motivation, rather it is to find and see The Face of God in the creation. We don’t merge with them, we merge with God. And when we do our motivation is not guilt, but to love what He Loves.” Great quote. I wrote it down even in the dream! Keeps us from earth worship.

There’s a poignant photo taken by Dorothea Lange of a white horse running through the dust bowl. It captured what happens when humans are displaced and can’t tend the creatures. My dream was like that but the situation was amplified to the whole planet. Time for some Noah’s in the midst! Nice dream reminder! “Care for the weak, God is always there,” as one monk put it. Creatures included. For, the whole world is a dust bowl now!

Stewarding the animals in the midst of our chaos is a calling now my dream said to me last night. Noah and St Francis were whispering through this dream. Good reminder! A single sparrow is never forgotten. Not to mention a hawk or horse, fox or tortoise, or even us.

Arm into Person, a shift in metaphors of God…just midrash-ing today from da book of Isaiah: such a richly dense book of prophecies! Fun meditating today on the images God uses about Himself in Isaiah 53.

Reading Isaiah again: one quick take away from passage 53: The Arm of God becomes a Person. Nice metaphor shift at that point. Two types of images of God’s relation to earth. His outstretched Arm becomes His incarnation as a whole Person. The passage is very complex, but that much is clear in the poet prophet’s imagery-Arm becomes Person by the end of the passage. And then the Person is described in detail. The prophet poet starts with implying that he has seen the Arm of God, and then shows that He also saw the Person of God, which enters into humanity as weak ugly and bruised, and completely misinterpreted. Isaiah places the two images in the same vision, like a progressive image that God is revealing. An Arm becomes a whole body of a person. Body imagery is used throughout the passage-faces, arms and whole bodies. Fascinating passage to say the very least.

About the many faces (face speaks of the part of God which He reveals to humans—like when someone looks you in the face etc; Arm of His sovereignty etc; arm and face are used throughout this great book, one of the most erudite of the prophets) of God in relation to humanity. And the changing creative metaphors of His relationship to the world. Arm to Person is the simple version—like the whole shift from old to new stories or testaments. Nice two progressive metaphors in the big story God is telling about Himself. History is God’s autobiography, and He uses certain metaphors to express Himself. A Face, An Arm, and then a actual human Person. Cool progression. In this one, we trace the Arm into a human form to come. And it appears that nobody understood either of what the prophet is “reporting”. Hence the tone of lament in this passage. The prophet’s endless tears.

Also explains why all great gospel songs have lots of suffering and redemption, and even pre-praise (praise in advance of the fuller incarnation; praise ushers in, just as the Levites cross over the Jordan first, artistic praise and symbol, precede fuller incarnation… God symbolizes Himself first, then incarnates into that symbol!) side by side! Who believed the prophet’s report, which included both God’s Arm and His Personal incarnation into human form. What a packed passage from da Book.

I love spinning from the book, and a blast and a reckoning re-reading the major prophets this season! Isaiah is so subtly poetic as well. But Arm into Person makes total sense of the two big metaphors of God in history….

Living ironically: the burden of prophetic awareness…

Most places I have to interact with ironically. It’s rarer when the place itself is aware of its own irony. Then i can interact with it straight. When a camera shop, for instance, is aware that it is selling a metaphor of human perception, i can just enjoy it. When everything is just a product, i have to put on other lenses to enjoy the treasures of that shop. Perhaps its like this for all artists, or ironic participants in life’s drama.

A church building for instance, is also a metaphor, and a teaching about beliefs around the sacred. Specific beliefs. We “read” architecture to get to the theology of that particular church building. Just a thought. Maybe also with people, if we really do think we are just our external roles and not eternal poems of God, it’s harder. When we realize we are these poems, temporarily behind a counter serving coffee, everything changes in the depth of interaction. We have an I-Thou exchange rather than an “I-it” in Buber’s language.

Going back to the church building metaphor. When the true church is meeting in a church building, it’s interesting. It almost makes the building redundant, or just an echo of the actual Voice in the rooms. Most artists experience this when they go to a church building, if the true church happens to be gathered in that building.

Perhaps, its just being hyper aware of the symbolic meaning of things, even while participating in them. Maybe that’s one thing the artist brings to the table—the awareness that the table itself is also a metaphor of communion and community. Hum, some ironic food for thought, anyway today!
Maybe that is the burden of prophetic awareness.

Walking in the way the truth and the life…

Simple insight from a dream i had last night: we need truth, a way, and the life to live well, and in order to make it through coming storms. My dream had huge storms on the horizon, and many were simply not prepared. There was a moment when it was too late. I won’t go into the dream now, but wanted to share from what it was teaching. Knowledge, a map, and empowerment are all needed. And people are seeking all three. Some in better places than others. (Some of the life jackets in my dream for instance, simply didn’t work! It’s good to pick the right knowledge and safety equipment before jumping into the water!)

From that dream last night I’m thinking we each need both a spirituality and a theology of our own spirituality to start! To keep us mored in Love’s Ways and our truer selves. We both need to have spiritual practices and to understand our thinking around our spirituality, what it is founded in. This feels basic to survival. I won’t go into my own dream, but many were drowned int he coming storms for not having both a spirituality and a sort of theology of their spirituality. If we are unmarried or un-mored spiritually, it effects the whole. Knowledge alone doesn’t save, just like those guys in that town who knew about Jesus, but hadn’t gotten da Spirit yet. They had info without power to enter it. We need the whole package these days. Sacred information, a sacred pathway, and sacred Power to walk it out and live it!

I guess that we need is the whole package to make it—the truth, the way, and the life, as the Man taught. The information, the actual path prepared beforehand (Eph 2:10; at least a partial view of where we are heading long term), and the Life energy and empowerment to Live it out. Those are basic. And my dream was talking about them symbolically last night. I found it helpful. I realize some people and even cultures tend to emphasize one of these aspects: the truth parts (greeks) the way parts (more intuitive cultures) and the life parts (sort of power encounter cultures, like much of Africa). But it seems we need all three to be whole now and mored in Love’s Ways and our truer selves.

In my dream, some where blown away or drowned because they had no knowledge or truth (or just even simple reasons for their own spirituality; they hadn’t considered to articulate what and why they were grounded in ultimately. An unconsidered spirituality, can be deadly, as we are all spiritual as humans, and so mored in something!), others because they had no sense of their life’s whole story and where they were in it (“the path prepared beforehand to be your unique way!”, your part in the grand narrative; still others drowned, because they simply didn’t have the power to empower them to live well. I would guess that in helping others or ourselves, it’s good to look at which area is weakest and develop there!. Cool dream anyways, sort of a discipleship dream for lack of a better term. Or just how to be more whole, and help others do the same. Felt like sharing from it anyways. I love how dreams teach us to live.