Sacred Play and Gestating Questions

I've just spent a nurturing day with playful, prayerful women. We practiced incorporating creativity and art into spiritual direction and pastoral ministry. I too suspect Jesus was out playing with the children more than preaching in the Temple! One of the gems I bring from the day is the following poem by David Whyte.

Sometimes

Sometimes
if you move carefully
through the forest

breathing
like the ones
in the old stories

who could cross
a shimmering bed of dry leaves
without a sound,

you come
to a place
whose only task

is to trouble you
with tiny
but frightening requests

conceived out of nowhere
but in this place
beginning to lead everywhere.

requests to stop what
you are doing right now,
and

to stop what you
are becoming
while you do it,

questions
that can make
or unmake
a life,

questions
that have patiently
waited for you,

questions that have no right
to go away.

-- David Whyte
from Everything is Waiting for You
©2007 Many Rivers Press

Earth Day

Our monastery grounds are gorgeous. Simply stunning with an abundance of life. Dramatic changes in season, from the stark barrenness of winter (which is no such thing) to the bursting forth of life in spring, to the emerging colors of summer and the beauty of the change of life in fall. The sunlight plays through our trees, and the stars at night call us to something more. And beyond ourselves.

Many people assist in creating and protecting and nurturing this beauty, from the mundane tasks of mowing and pruning and feeding. We have friends who have and continue to create: rock gardens, circular gardens, sacred paths of enchantment and the planting of annuals. Birds gift us with music and squirrels simply entertain.

Now all is not well in paradise. Deer eat. Raccoons, well, forage. Moles move dirt in directions we hadn't intended...

We humans are dependent upon creation for our survival. Yet also for growth. Creation heals. Creation gives hope. Creation fills our souls and suggests vision. Let us notice all that is around us, especially in the most unexpected places.