Falling into Fall, Falling into Splendor

A favorite author says it well. 

"God empties Godself into creation, and then we humans spend most of history creating systems to control and subdue that creation for our own purpose and profit, reversing the divine pattern." (Richard Rohr).

To control and subdue creation is like trying to control and subdue God. It can't be done. Not without a huge price to pay to the wellbeing of creation and all depending on it. Controlling and subduing only ends up making a mess of the life-giving work of the divine pattern and alienating ourselves from God. 

But a new vision of history is emerging for humanity in this age of global warming and other environmental crises. And that vision, as old as the first "God said", is union with the divine pattern of Godself.

The divine pattern is perhaps best described by science as the water cycle, nutrient cycle and energy flow, those natural processes constantly attending life, death and resurrection throughout the earth. My task is to begin where I live, right here in Spokane, Washington, U.S.A. - to join these natural flows and cycles as Gods' creative movement of life itself. And so my alignment with God-emptied-into-creation begins now, in this rain, this Fall, a time when leaves can either create a waste problem and be a chore to be done with gritted teeth, or a time when those leaves covering the lawn become an opportunity to feed soil and soul.

Soil. Harvesting the leaves to make compost rather than carting them off as waste to the dump, will mean harvesting a whole season's worth of nutrients which can fertilize the soil of my Jerusalem cross raised beds. Healthy soils will mean healthy vegetables, will mean a healthy Roger and Carla.  Spurning such a gift would be like spurning love itself, wasting God. I don't want to do that anymore. And so I begin. My first step is to harvest the leaves in as simple a way as possible. Turns out the lawn mower is perfect as a tool most of us already have.

An added benefit of the lawn mower is that it does a wonderful job of shredding the leaves and also mixing them with the grass clippings, helping with an appropriate ratio of carbon to nitrogen to enable the composting process. (See photo on right).

Then it's a simple step to add the season's bounty of shredded leaf mulch and grass clippings to a growing compost pile. I will cover the pile with a tarpaulin to protect it from too much rain and then watch the nutrient cycle of Godself  as the rich, fertile soil emerges for my Jerusalem cross raised beds.

 Soul. God really does empty Godself into creation every Fall, and this in a kaleidoscope of beauty and color carpeting the green lawn. There God lies in all Gods' autumn splendor, waiting to be harvested as part of the divine pattern of self-giving love.


Falling into Fall this year it feels like I'm falling into a carpeted splendor - the splendor of love that promises healing for soil and soul. And all the world.

July 5th. The Morning After.

Her words touch me deeply on this morning after. 

July 5th dawns in America. The rocket's red glare - from thousands of backyard celebrations last night, stirringly visible across the waters of Puget Sound for hours on end from our Seattle hotel balcony, and sounding like the raging battle that inspired that hymn to America's fight against tyranny so many years ago - no longer flares.

It is time, again, after the celebrations of all that is good about America, for the deeper things that promise to make her, and all nations, truly great. 

Joan Chittister words? 

A spiritual path that does not lead to a living commitment to . . . the Kingdom of God within and around us everywhere for everyone, is no path at all. . . . It is a dead end on the way to God. . . .

And the image that encapsulates these deeper things of God is this one...

 

The image speaks of things, not of "men", or even of "America", but of God, and God's Kingdom, which all people everywhere are invited to embrace.

Today, on this July 5th morning, it is time, again, for that "living commitment to...the Kingdom of God within and around us everywhere for everyone," and, we might add, "for every thing" in this exquisitely connected world we live in.

Tomorrow Carla and I witness the return of the Elwha River on the Olympic Peninsula to it's wild state (after the removal of two dams whose power generation is no longer needed), the restoration of a life-giving ecosystem with wild salmon runs whose connections run far and wide throughout the Puget Sound bio-region. (The number of fish returning each year plummeted from 400 000 in the early 1900's to just 3,000 after the dmas' construction blocked much of the river and its tributaries).**

It is time! Time to walk on holy ground again and to witness the God of abundance and generosity at play. Time to experience the "invisible hand" of the Creator's Provision visibly gifting enough for all People through a living Planet.*

It is time to see the Master Gardener "of soil and soul" at work again, time to see love win.

* The Triple P's of People, Planet and Profit (or Social, Natural and Economic Capital) helpfully anchor a Pattern Map that provides a framework for navigating toward "an ecologically restorative, socially just, and reliably prosperous society" approximating Kingdom values. See the the Pattern Map here.  

** Return of the salmon on the Elwha River

It's Thyme to Dance. With the Trinity*

Quite simply, it's time! And thyme will serve as both symbol and daily inspiration.

The driveway of Hougham Park, our home in Spokane, WA

Firstly, time. It's time to join the divine dance of the Trinity, something we Westerners have been missing out on for far too long - living as friends, with God, with people, and with all creation. The words relationship and unity (within diversity) will be key to putting such friendship into practice during a time of climate change and tribalism, both of which are threatening the wellbeing of the entire planet and its' people.

Secondly thyme. Thyme, will sign my new commitment to joining this divine dance. The planting is done. Into the cracks between the concrete slabs of our drive and path, a space too often preoccupied with annoying weeds, sprigs of thyme have been planted. Already they are taking root, greening up, even starting to flower. All that is needed now is some regular weeding and watering, and soon beauty and fragrance will welcome guests, and all things divine, on their approach over the Thyme Drive and Thyme Walk to the front door of a home striving to live in friendship with all things.  

Thyme takes root in the cracks of
drive and path

Planting thyme, however, is Act One of this time of new beginnings. Act Two will be to design and develop a potager garden (a French term) on the south west of our property. A potager garden's purpose is to produce food - local and organic - cultivating flowers and herbs alongside fruit and vegetables to enhance the garden's beauty. Once the deer proof fences are up, the "gardening of soil" will begin.

Sabbaticals are wonderful gifts, and I am so grateful to my congregation for allowing me time to explore how to truly join the divine dance in order to live in FRIENDSHIP. 

Well, this blog entry is done. It's "thyme" to dance - time to go do some gardening "of soil and soul."
                                      ____________________________________

*As inspired by Anton Rublev's Trinity icon and reflections by Fr. Richard Rohr, Henry Nouwen and others. More can be read about the icon here.

Christchurch. Responding with Holy Mischief.

Through my study window I see the spot!      

                           

It's still covered in snow, but this Spring, I'll get my hands gloriously dirty again, planting my Jerusalem Cross Garden in this new place in north Spokane that we call home. And through Jerusalem-cross-gardening, the "gardening of soil and soul," I look forward to surrendering again to the way of the cross. It is the way that helps us through events like those of Christchurch, New Zealand. 50 Muslims murdered, 50 wounded as they prayed. And all live-streamed as poison to the "it is good" of God.

How do we get through such times and still believe love wins?

In worship this Sunday we were invited to join Father, Son and Holy Spirit around the Lamb (the chalice in the icon to the right). Rublev’s icon of the Holy Trinity encouraged us to take our place with the One-in-Three, the Three-in-One, in the circle of love around the altar, and to dwell there in the house of love rather than the house of fear. There is a space left before the altar for each of us. And it is here, in joining the circle, that we are loved into loving like Jesus did, by surrendering to the Trinitarian flow. Living constantly in the house of love makes a Jesus-type witness possible. And the witness our Lenten journey reminds us of again this year is that there is no circle of love without a cross. From the fullness of our place in the circle of love, the Spirit helps us respond with holy mischief, even though it costs us, to say, “'No’ to the way of the sword, ‘yes’ to the way of the Lord,” and to act boldly for love in Christ's name.

During worship we hung a green crane (photo to right) for Christchurch beneath the white and red ones to remember the dead and wounded. We hung this green crane to mark our deep sorrow that Christendom still has not learned that we follow the Prince of Peace who told Peter, with no equivocation, "Put away your sword.” 

And as the shadow of the Lenten cross suspended above the altar falls over the circle of love projected onto the wall (see photo), we quietly hear Jesus' loving words, “Father forgive,” as he chooses to gift his own life rather than take the life of another.

Jesus did it. We can too. And love wins. Again! - as we learn to pray compassionately even for perpetrators, and follow prayer with courageous action, the Christ alive within us, to love like Jesus and Paul, and Bonhoeffer, and King, and Ghandi, Romero, Kolb, and so many other unsung heroes. 

How do we get through these times and still believe love wins? We become Christ's church, loving as Jesus did.

Grace is Found in a Garden

The Sacraments¹

I once spoke to my friend, an old squirrel, about the Sacraments—
he got so excited

and ran into a hollow in his tree and came
back holding some acorns, an owl feather,
and a ribbon he had found.

And I just smiled and said, "Yes, dear,
you understand:

everything imparts
His grace."

I daily divide the sacred and profane by the way I eat - buying industrial food in a cold cash transaction from the clerk at Fred Meyers with no thought of the farmer who grew it or the farm s/he produced it on. 

And so I miss out on the grace imparted by, not the acorn, owl’s feather or piece of ribbon brought by the squirrel visiting Francis, but the soil teeming with life; seeds miraculously sprouting; plants growing, seeding and fruiting to feed me in body. I miss out on the grace too that nourishes my soul because soil, seed and fruit is also about the gift of friendship with creation and Creator. 

It’s all one.

Dividing the sacred from the profane results in what humanity is faced with today – a soulless, progressive destruction of the very creation that, if lived with in unity, would care for us for generations to come. And we humans are diminished because of it.

It’s time to live gracefully again. This Spring I begin my own Garden Granary where all is holy, and I take my place alongside the Master Gardener for a gardening of soil and soul on the sacred ground of my own backyard and heart.

I daily divide the sacred and profane. St Francis does no such thing. We shouldn't either.  ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________

1St. Francis of Assisi, translated by Daniel Ladinsky, Love Poems from God: Twelve Sacred Volumes from the East and West, copyright © Daniel Ladinsky 2002, Penguin Compass.