I secretly like the silent glow of winter, but I lean towards Spring myself-I’m a resurrection guy. Still as Robert Alter said, to know how to rest in what is most quiet, brings rest around you. Winter certainly teaches at least that Peace.
Or as Alter translated David, “Only in God is my being quiet.” (Ps 62:1) Winter knows that much. Only in Winter do i recall my name, as Rilke put it.
And perhaps rest, sabbath or quietness is one of the highest needs we have now. To know that we are known, in the way the live oaks know and receive and even host snow-have we gotten there with Love?
To let it rest on us-His Love, and it’s, light weighted, as named, nuanced, framed and known forever already named poems, us….Yet, it’s good to know snow can land on your limbs, but even better to rest in that knowing of being particularly named and known. That 200 year, live oak seemed to get the sermon today….
At least, that was my winter meditation today!
Let’s live alight friends! And let the right things settle on our limbs this year.

Fluency, what are you fluent in?
I’m…
Fluent in friendship and words
Fluent in love
In wine tasting and pouring,
Fluent in caring and kindness,
Fluent in animal talk
In several languages,
And gazing deeply into identity
Until it’s seen and safe to be.
Fluent in beholding listening,
Fluent in sky and tree talk
Fluent in mulch and types of dirt,
Fluent in morning walks
Fluent in gas station talks with strangers,
Fluent in treating homeless as if they already lived in their castles.
Fluent in late phone calls and contacts, at just the right time.
Not fluent in much else-
Engineering carpentry architecture
Plumbing medicine, marriage mechanics internet etc
Still learning those.
But at least fluent in Love-
The a priori language,
Which engulfs and covers, includes,
And creates fluency in
All our non-fluent parts!
At least, I pray.

We were bird watching this morning
Just earlier that bare cypress tree
was a play lot for a host of little wrens
darting back and forth to the lower fruit bushes
they returned to her peaks to banquet on berries in mid air
as if the tree tops were their table.
i watched them, as God watched me,
in wonder at what might happen next-
Suddenly, they all shuttered away
and it was just me and that bare tree
and the memory of playing with God,
and his friends,
while here on earth.

God knows i love creatures and has spoken through them to me since i was a kid. So today again was cool and chilling, as an adult barred owl flew literally three feet above my head (and I was praying, but that’s probably, beside the point). Owls are their own worlds (such silence they contain and restrain!)—had to, of course write a free verse napkin (or in this case paper receipt) prose poem about the moment, as i looked around to see what else was occurring. Creatures remind us to be observant and thankful i think—at least for me. Nature is one of God’s love languages for me. I don’t know if i know the language of owl, but hummingbird and coffee I’m sure i do…..and dusk and dawn are close friends of mine!

An owl passes over at dusk,
the old folk’s home, Elder Care, is empty across the street these days,
the next door neighbor’s daughter however, can now speak in yelps and sharper syllables, intoning by now, her dad’s name,
and some hebrew i tried to teach her so she could speak in tongues
to the birds and her mother- abba ima, her voice already said
cutting through all masks this evening, as Love’s
language itself continues to form in us just like that-across fences
and borders, cultures and tones of skin and evening’s colors again,
in, and through heart’s song alone.
And of course, coffee and,
the hummingbirds will return tomorrow in sync,
each hovering and darting in color through things– one as bird, another as bean fragrance of welcome to Day, i’m sure- along with Noah’s dove, we pray, may She find land soon, may we all find land soon…. and return with olives in our teeth..just
so this hummingbird can land (she barely needs a twig of Hope to hover on!),
and, plus, i’ll have a place to put my coffee forever-an eternal coaster
made of bone stone and star and stuff of daily us-ness-a branch of friendship extended forever;
as this flood recedes and we receive again
the sheer colors and definitions of the earth’s daily songs of glory
in small owl-like thanks which already occurred at dusk,
though this dawn is already dawning on us
may we recall who we are.

That is, just what it means
when an owl passes over us at dusk!

Napkin poem after seeing one of many of these little wonders (green chested hummingbird-wonders contained and unstrained!) today:

a little friend-florescent green hummingbird
came by again today, or suddenly appeared- darting here and there as always at will;
how many decisions you make
in an instant
which take me so long
to consider friend…and you
left an impression
on the cherry tree early blossoms-
parting them windlessly in discernment of your unexpected ways-
and me too. Thanks, decisive tiny one,
in motion in all directions at once-like a sheer imploded streak
on sky’s canvas today. A mini-firework for pleasure, you are.
May i be a color blade or sudden streak like you one day
growing grass in sky in all directions at once
at will. Until then
thanks for being you
little friend.

Certifications, i received in the mail this week (for ascending to Jerusalem repeatedly -from their mayor no less- and planting an olive tree in the land: gotta be certified for something! Therapy is easy, ascending while you’re planting is hard! As I’m sure someone must’ve said by now. But life’s that type of tight rope!

To plant an olive tree may be practically more important than to have ascended to Jerusalem, but I’ve been blessed to do both, and am thankful. I think that city and that olive tree will certainly out last me, and hopefully provide peace and shade to many, eventually!

Of course, with Jerusalem, i did more than ascend, i worked and lived there for a season, and have returned often. So I’m a return pilgrim, having ascended often.

But, still happy that I’m a certified pilgrim, and olive tree planter, as it turns out! I’m ok with that. I’ll put that on my cards.

He was a creative pilgrim and planted an olive tree or two among the nations, would be a fine tombstone. Although it may cost too much to put all that on there. Alas, just put, he loved many deeply. And planted some trees along the way.

Regardless any certificate of authenticity is fine by me! I’ve tried to live authentically! And happy to receive titles noticing my attempt. God seems to like us when we’re just being ourselves!

Noah in the ark:
I’m waiting, for this bird to return-
the one i sent in hope this morning; my wife’s nervous, and
we are fragile in here-cooped up and tired
but drinking wine, we made together.
i’m hoping to plant next-got some young vines in the cellar (some Beaujolais which will surely become vintage!), writing poems, and alive still…38th day on unseen waters…
and my wife is more lovely than ever in this deluge lighting-brings out her blue curves;
and my kids, well, they’ll make it
if this bird ever returns! I’m sure it will, it’s just a question of when at this point.
In the meantime, i’m feeding animals, got to know all their names by now!
And I’m, getting ready to plant my vineyard
when it all recedes. And God is still good
and these animals are wonders i keep
learning life from. And my family, well
i never loved them more than now.
And my wife, well, that’s a poem God
put in my hand, or slipped into my pocket,
before all this, and my own birth, and all these
endless floods of waiting.
And I think i know the Torah
by heart now, so we should be fine.

The speed of my dreams lately:
These days, I have lots going in the Spirit, and my dream life- it’s like a sped up animated Chagall painting. I have to interpret the symbols as fast as they are produced. Like watching a painter, paint in “real” time! Good art interpretation practice though. I’m getting in creative shape these days, at least! It’s like accelerated dream interpretation (for dummies, evidently!)

Believing is seeing, but also seeing well is believing! If we see things as they really are, we find ourselves loving them! Today’s hypothesis.

“Believing is seeing.” St Augustine said. You have to believe in order to see, as in fairy tales, which is why kids usually know more-that is, they see the context behind the text, more of what is really around us! The prophets were the same—they saw the angels in the sky as they looked at the normal day.
But I would also say, that you have to see well to know something. Or, as Martin Buber put it, “seeing is in the “I” of the beholder! To what degree I engage with you, i will encounter you.
If i see you as you truly are, i will certainly love you, or as CS Lewis pointed out, if we really saw one another in our glory, it would be like seeing angels all around us. Good vision leads to good knowing. Love of course is the ultimate inner camera lens, I always try to carry with me.

“At the end of his life, he only wrote poetry!” My favorite line today. The fellow had disappeared into his own lines….or become them!