The Trees

Do you think of them as decoration?

Think again....

May I invite you to revise your thoughts about them?

Oh, Lord, how we are all for invention and advancement!

But I think it would do us good if we would think about

these brothers and sisters, quietly and deeply.

the trees, the trees, jut holding on

to the old, holy ways.

Today a couple of friends are coming over to home to help remove a fallen tree from our neighbor's backyard. This past Sunday, in our wooded back lot, a rotting snag fell over, luckily only hitting one wire fence.  The neighbor, whom we had not met before came knocking on our door asking me if we could clean up the mess.

The question comes up, who is responsible for the damage?  Do my spouse and I "own" the tree and it is up to us to repair damage and remove the broken log on their property?  Someone wrote us and said that if the tree had been alive and healthy, then it would be the resposibility of the neighbor to remove the downed tree, and not us.

Alas, it comes down to thinking of trees in terms of ownership, responsibility, and financial damage. 

So we walked our property line looking for any suspect trees that might cause damage, and discovered a plethora of downed trees on and near our property. While walking I noticed not just dead trees, but the skulls of several deer. What happened to them this winter?  Did coyotes take them down, the cold, or the lack of food?  What happened to the trees who will know no more green shoots, flowers, or the letting go of old leaves?

May I during the sound of chain saws today really listen to my siblings in the woods and wonder what their lives are and will be.

Who are your brothers and sisters?

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First Days in San Miguel de Allende

1.

The flagellated Christ

is being carried

to San Miguel de Allende.

He must be very heavy

yet the carriers persist

upon the sun flashed road

and the people follow

in the same way that people would seek

a river heard of but never yet found.

they are that thirsty...

2.

I have come, for the first time, to Mexico.

And what has happened

to that intense ambition

with which I always wake?

Soaked up

in the colors, stolen

by the blood Christs.

I am feeling something, incredibly,

like peace...

3.

the tops of the northbound trains are dangerous.

Still, they are heaped with hopefuls.

I understand their necessity.

Understanding, however, it not sharing.

Oh, let there be a wedding of the

mind and the heart, if not today

then soon.

Meanwhile, let me change my own life

into something better.

Meanwhile, on the streets of San Miguel de Allende

it is easy to smile.

"Hola," I say to the children.

"Hi," they say, as I pass

with my passport, and money, in my pocket.

For many years I lived with the shame of being able to come and go from Mesoamerica, while I left my friends behind. They suffered violence, poverty, illness, brokenness, alcoholism, and dying children.  I could leave and they could not.  Now some of them are dead.

It is for that reason, in part, that we took into our homes two young men from Honduras who came up through Mexico on top of one of the trains that Mary speaks of - the Death Train.

Yes I know that all of life is journey towards death!  Yes I know that I can't save every child, bird, and tree!  Yes I know that there are pretty flowers to view along the dangerous path!

I know much and can learn more.

But for today, let there be a wedding of my heart and head.

May I vow with every breath, "I do!"

What is your vow today?

Imagine

I don't care for adjectives, yet the world fills me with them.

And even beyond what I see, I imagine more.

Seeing, for example, with understanding,

or with acceptance and humility and

without understanding,

into the heart of the bristly, locked-in worm

just as it's becoming what we call the luna,

that green tissue-winged, strange, graceful,

fluttering thing.

Will death allow such transportation of the eye?...

Well, we will all find out, each of us.

And what would we be, beyond the yardstick,

beyond supper and dollars,

if we were not filled with such wondering?

To be human, is to wonder what waits for us in death.

Is it uber-human to wait patiently for what is developing into life, or decaying into death?

To see without seeing?

I see for instance, without understanding the behavior of myself and those around me.  We're a despicable lot, aren't we?  Bristly worms, locked into our narrow outlooks and self interests.

Then, when grace comes upon me, I see the beauty within.  I still don't understand.

So what is left to do?

Ah, yes.

Look

Laugh

Bow in humility

I wonder what you ponder?

Mysteries, Yes - February 14, 2011

Truly, we live with mysteries too marvelous

to be understood.

How grass can be nourishing in the

mouths of lambs...

How two hands touch and the bonds will

never be broken.

How people come, from delight or the

scars of damage,

to the comfort of a poem.

Let me keep my distance, always, from those

who think they have the answers.

Let me keep company always with those who say

"Look!" and laugh in astonishment,

and bow their heads.

Ah, my spiritual practice for the day...

Look

Laugh

Lower my self

What will you practice today so that you may live the questions?

Just Rain

The clouds did not say soon,

but who can tell for sure, it wasn't

the first time I had been fooled;

the sky-doors opened and the rain began

to fall upon all of us...

and then the birds joined in

and I too felt called toward such throat praise. Well,

the whole afternoon went on that way

 until I thought I could feel the almost born things

in the earth rejoicing. As for myself, I just kept walking, thinking: 

once more I am grateful to be present.

How many times today will I say, "just?"

When I see the sun's light move the owl in the leaves into focus -

ah, it's just the early morning light that is a prayer

When my son awakes and trudges towards the coffee machine-

ah, it's just a young man, miracle of birth and circumstance,

and ah, yes, just love

When my spouse sings hymns in the shower,

ah, it's just a man who loves so much that he'll give his life just for me, and ah, yes, just for you too

When I write these words,

ah, they're just me aching to be present

Just for today

just for the next moment

Is there anything you take for granted for which you would like to sing praise for today?

Meeting Wolf

There are no words

inside his mouth,

inside his golden eyes.

So we stand, silent,

both of us tense

under the speechless but faithful trees.

And this is what I think:

I have given him

intrusion.

He has given me

a glimpse into a better but now broken world.

Not his doing, but ours.

I can hear my spouse speaking in my mind now, for over the last few days we have spoken about "needs based ethics."  This ethical process doesn't have principles, or categories of people., therefore there isn't blame or praise.  For example,  "animals have the same rights as human animals,"  Ethical principles are one framework for guiding our behavior, but in reality our modular brains, our emotional limbic system, and our other subconscious motivations for behavior influence our actions more than any cognitive framework. 

You might ask then that with such wild brains as ours and without judgment of what is moral, how do we heal the world and stop the harming and breaking?

In Needs Based Ethics (NBE) what we do is integrate our mind's conscious and subconscious functions by keeping our hearts open to the needs of all beings.  It is an ethic of com-passion in that we bring our feelings to the situation of ourselves and others so that we can empathize with others' needs. These needs aren't desires or strategies, but are universal and fundamental to the species in question.

So as in my reflection yesterday, we humans are not more "right" or "wrong" than the wolf, squirrel, or owl.  We do things to fulfill life and the basic needs of protection, security, connection, and creativity.  It's just that the strategy that we pick to meet these life fulfilling needs have tragic consequences. 

My tenets of the day:

We break relationships, bodies, and the earth.

We must meet the wolf our self-interests and mourn our choices.

We are not an intrusion upon the earth, but one of many beautiful beings.

We are worthy and so are others.

May my actions so reflect these understandings.

What are your tenets today?

I Want - February 10, 2011

I want to be in partnership with the universe

like the tiger lily poking up its gorgeous head

among the so-called useless weeds in the uncultivated fields

that still abide.  But it's okay if, after all,

I'm not a lily, but only grass in a clutch of curly grass

waving in the wind, staring sunward: one of those sweet, abrasive blades.

I wonder if Mary knows that the translation of the words lilies and grasses to English is very similar in the Christian Scriptures.  When Jesus then asks us to "consider the lilies" we are also "considering the grasses."

We have been trained all our lives to be the rising star, and the emerging lily. We know that there is something beautiful inside of us.

We have been trained all our lives to be the course, abrasive grass. We know there is something fundamentally wrong inside of us.

What if we are neither beautiful or wrong, and are both?

Today I saw a sick squirrel on our outside water bath. S/he looked weak and had a hard time walking.  We agonized in our family what to do besides throwing out some peanuts for the squirrel.  Do we take the squirrel into captivity, only to have its last hours probably interlaced with heavy stress as we do invasive and manipulatory procedures to determine diagnosis and implement treatment?  Or do we let the squirrel be in her/his home yard, with friends and home trees and nests, and let the owl take her/him hopefully quickly?

In the midst of such suffering and beauty, how can anything I do or not do be anything but wrong, for I cannot assure that beauty never dies or lessens?

But if I am wrong, then so too is the owl and the squirrel. 

I want to live in a world beyond wrongdoing and rightdoing, which means being fully partnered with the universe and all of what we are, and can be!

How do you wish to partner today?