Category: Calling

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The Seat of Seeing

You know how I love that scene in Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings, in which Aragorn, troubled and unsure, diverts from the trail to sprint up the hill to sit a moment in the Seat of Seeing. In the story, what he sees mirrors his own uncertainty; all is murky and he winds up having to trust his heart for his next steps. For some reason the idea of a Seat of Seeing has always resonated deeply within me. I think the reason has to do with deliberate intention. When you choose to sit still in a Seat of Seeing, you are really asking to see, asking to know, asking to be led. And I know we can’t always KNOW…but I also know we can always be led, always hear our next right step.

So last week, while in Hendersonville, walking a mountain trail, I came to this rock formation and immediately I thought, a Seat of Seeing! I want to write about what happened next, what I felt and thought there, what it seemed to me You said there.

Like Aragorn, I was seeking direction. So I left the trail and walked up the slight incline to sit on the lowest of the rocks. There was a perfect ledge there, big enough for me to sit and even lay back. No sooner had I sat, wondering what will I see here (thinking maybe a bird would fly by or something), then I heard in what I have come to believe is Your voice speaking in my own mind thoughts I know did not originate in my own thinking. You said, “your future.” I did not expect that! That was startling and revelatory in a way I still don’t understand. Later in the week, I had a chance to sit on another rock, this one on flat ground with a tiny heart shape in its form. There, You said to me: You have need of patience. Yes, Lord. I know.

The whole experience, these two rocks, these two messages, a couple days apart, were connected in my mind and heart. Future…patience. I told someone recently what I read years ago: you can drive across country at night seeing only the next 50 feet in front of you. Sometimes (ok, all the time) I want to see way down the road. But You are calling me to trust. To trust, and to flow. That is what I believe You are saying to my life right now.

Look back at your own words above. Aragorn had to trust his heart. So do you. You have to trust that I Am speaking to your heart, yes. But you also have to trust your heart, in and of itself, for your heart is connected to My Heart. This is where your doubts arise. You question your decisions. And what have I told you about that?

You told me to choose from Love.

Exactly. If you choose from Love, you will never choose amiss, which is what Aragorn feared he was doing in the tale, choosing amiss. You cannot choose amiss if you choose from Love.

But what if things don’t work out?

You mean, what if the outcome is not what you originally envisioned?

Exactly!

If you hitch your choice to Love to a specific outcome or a specific set of circumstances that you plan out in advance, then you are not actually choosing Love above all. Remember, the choice to Love does not mean that you bow down to abuse or that you go along with others’ choices that are clearly not based in Love. Love will give you the courage to say yes, and also to say no. Love gives you the patience to wait, to be still, to listen, to be led. The important thing, the only important thing, is to choose from Love. Love’s flow will always, always move you in the right direction. Follow that flow, follow your heart, and you will be following My Voice, all the time, each and every time.

You also reminded me of that old hymn, He hides my soul in the cleft of the rock, and covers me there with His hand. I just remembered that, looking at the photograph. As I was getting back to my feet, sort of climbing back out of the wedge, the cleft, You brought that hymn to mind. And it was comforting and scary all at once.

Why scary, little one? Do you not believe I Myself Am choosing from Love?

Of course. But the world isn’t. And even in Love, people leave.

People die, you mean.

Yes. And it is hard.

You are still very earth-bound, and earth-bound is who I made you, all of you, to be. Remember, I created this earth, this beautiful earth, for you, as a gift–for a season. In this season you are in the body. After this season you will be in My Body, which is deathless, timeless, ageless. And healed. Healed of any manifestation that is not-Love. Imagine that! Who wouldn’t want that? Who wouldn’t long for that? That is your future, your destiny. But before that future, you have chapters yet to live on earth, in your body, choosing the Love that is Eternal. Living here, seeing Beyond. That is what I Am calling you more and more to do. To live both/and, remember? To see, to hear, to share both/and. Both IN the earthly body AND In My Heavenly one. To flow from My Spirit while in an earthly body. To feed the hungry heart, to quench the thirsty soul. You have so many ways to do just that! Some will receive in one way and others will receive in a different way. Lead and be led from Love. Always, always, from Love.

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Restart

Lord, I have been absent from here. I have trouble re-booting once I have let something lapse. So I need Your help with this. Was this just for a season? Stopping feels like failing. Consistency is key, and I am not being consistent.

You are being consistent—just not online.

Lord, what do I say? What I have been saying in my head is, it was easier, actually, every day. I shared everything. Now, having to glean, and decide what, is somehow harder, and I freeze. I froze, I stopped, I wasn’t sure.

You began to doubt—doubt the work had purpose, doubt the work had impact. You began to question whether I was in the sharing of it at all.

Yes, I suppose so. What to keep, and what to give away.

You made it too hard, too complicated. What was your aim here in the beginning?

To share how we are with each other. How I sit with this notebook and listen to each thought I have and there You are. How I am led to photographs meant for me, meant for sharing.

Then what?

Well, to try to inspire others to find and grow their points of contact with You. To say it’s possible. To say it’s wonderful.

This was never meant to be a Dear Abby column.

Well, no!

But you tried to make it so. Instead of coming to the page as you have done for years, just to pour your heart out to Me, you began this subtle shift, of wanting to somehow bridge the gap others have, or feel they have, in their relationships with Me. You began to ask what you imagine—in your empathy, which is a strong gift in you—that they all might be thinking or feeling. Slowly and subtly you moved away from what you think and feel. Your motives were good and pure, but the shift derailed you. I didn’t call you to be a stand-in for anyone else, to come to Me like an emissary and return with a dispatch for another. I called you to Come. Come for yourself. Come and see. Come and hear. Come and walk. And then, I proposed that you share the fruit of all those mornings writing, all those moments seeing and photographing, to invite others along on your journey—Our journey. Not to try to craft journeys for your readers. That is another task entirely—but to allow them to peek and eavesdrop on Our journey. Yours, and Mine. If you can say yes once again to this, then Now Through A Glass has purpose and reach.

Just be me? With You?

Who else should you be? All I Am asking you to do is draw back the curtain on this life, this shared life.

Ok, God, then okay. Yes. 

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Retreat

So, Lord, I have just spent the equivalent of two days—an evening, a day, a long morning—in a mini retreat, with eight other folks similarly engaged. There was such good material, most of which bubbled up inside each one of us as we individually and collectively responded to each other’s insights, questions, griefs, fears, longings. We were in “it”—this business of a daily life, spiritually centered—together, and in a way we don’t, or I should say, I don’t, despite my longing, often practice in the daily all by myself.

So my question, or one of my questions, is this: given a sense of calling, given experiences that feel to me like being invited into a deeper sense of Your Presence, why would I, why would anyone turn away from that invitation? Here is a follow-on question: despite what might be my fears around that invitation (what will others think? How will those I love react?), how can I live more fully aware and engaged? Our director said, over and over, Just Breathe. How do you feel right now in your body?

God, I think I know why I keep being drawn to bicycles. It’s the balancing act motif. Live connected to You, live connected to others—but not in a way that diminishes either Your Voice or my own—and live connected to myself. That is the challenge, to keep present, God, with all that is, and still hold to, or allow myself to be held by, and in, Your Love. That’s it, isn’t it! It feels like an aha. To allow myself to simultaneously be present to what is happening around me and at the same instant, to allow myself to be held by and in Your Love. Bingo. And I don’t. I mean, I do, but then I slip. I fall. I tumble into trying to fix everything around me (as if I even could, or as if it would be wise if I could), or I stumble over what is happening around me because I have closed my eyes and ears if it seems too painful or hard to bear, and neither one of those is the Third Way, of being present in a way that still allows Your Love to flow and center me in that Love.

All this is really heady, heavy stuff. But I love it. I love taking time to acknowledge it, and talk about it, and practice Your Presence, and write about it, and go out with my camera in hand, into a world I view as one You made initially, and look for evidence that You are still present here.

You said a lot this weekend, and some of it was beyond words. But is there anything You would say now, that I can share here?

Why don’t you write about what you saw and experienced when you went outside at sunset by yourself.

Ok, well, I think I saw the Green Flash. I had seen an afterflash of white light, once, just after the sun went down, and that was a couple years ago. But last evening as the sun disappeared, and there was a thin haze layer right at the horizon so the last glimpse was ever so slightly above it,I clearly experienced a shift of color in my perception from yellow to green and then gone. It doesn’t exactly show on the photograph; it looks more yellow, but if I desaturate all the yellow there is still a tonality present in the flash than in the streaks of color in the clouds above. And then, when I sensed it was time to go, and I got in my car, there were three deer that came out of the trees on the other side of the road and walked out into the marsh. One of those was a buck in velvet, with just-growing antler. Whether they would have come if I had stayed, I doubt. But it was a special treat to see them.

And what did you ask for at the beginning of your retreat?

Well, I asked for an experience of You. Not just words. Something beyond words, something sensory. I asked for clarity. I asked for Vision, as in Vision Quest. I wanted insight.

How do you feel right now?

Very calm. Relaxed. As if I could take a nap! Really, I feel drained in the best possible sense.

So why don’t you?

Why don’t I what?

Why don’t you nap? I cleared your calendar for the weekend, and that included today. That includes this afternoon. Do you remember the scripture, He gives to His Beloved even in sleep? Well, that goes for you too. All the while you were there to receive for yourself, you were also holding sacred space for those around you. You deliberately set about to do that work, to be a silent assisting partner. Now it is time for Eve to rest, and simply, merely, only receive. Not receive AND give. Just receive. You rarely do that fully awake, but in this semi-drowsy state, I can impart much to you—much healing, much insight, much strength. Everything you need, I can impart. Are you willing to lay down your need to appear strong and just receive? If you can answer yes, then go take a nap. And trust that everything in your world will be okay, while you rest and receive.

 

 

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The Sun Also Rises

So I’ve talked about the shop, the business, which I do a lot. Can I, may I, can we, You and I, talk about our country? God, we are so different. So diverse.

I chose 12 Disciples for a reason; actually, for many reasons. One reason was to ensure that among My followers were represented different walks of life, different points of view, different backgrounds, different talents and expertise.  What united them was each one’s individual commitment to Me, and their willingness to–gradually for some, more suddenly for others–be transformed into a team with common core values and common goals. Your nation has forgotten its founding and its foundation. You can celebrate and honor diversity while maintaining common values. What did St. Paul write?

There are varieties of gifts but One Body and One Spirit giving those gifts. Something like that.

What else?

That each part of the Body is necessary. No one part can say to another, I have no need of you. Oh! And when one part of the Body hurts, the whole Body hurts.

Yes, that is what your country has forgotten. It is what humanity as a whole has forgotten, not only in America, but all around the globe. It is what the Church has largely forgotten as well. Each seeks his own instead of seeking to be his or her own part in contributing to the health and beauty of the Body as a whole.

So God, there are some folks who say, in effect, oh well, things are getting worse just like God said they would, as if, I don’t know, as if we are supposed to just accept that. As if there is nothing anyone can do. As if it doesn’t even matter. So what can one person do?

You can stand. You can speak. You don’t have to shout, necessarily, although some may be compelled to shout. For your part, which is what you are really asking, your challenge is to not lose heart, not lose hope.

It’s hard, God.

I know, little one. But think of this–look out your window. Is the sun shining?

It is, Lord. In fact, it’s the solstice. The first day of summer. The longest day.

So as long as the sun rises on your world, this is your evidence that you are still called to love, called to pray, called to give, called to believe. Work while it is still day, as Scripture says. The Light is not vanquished–and remember what I said when despair threatens you. Light shines in darkness and the darkness will never overcome it. So Shine! Brighten the corner where you are!

Ok. But, God?

Yes?

What about those children? I know this whole situation breaks Your heart. You Who said, let the little children come to Me. You held them, and blessed them. Can You help us come to our senses, come to a place of compassion, and at the least, whether asylum is granted in individual cases or not, please reunite parents and children? And please heal their little minds from the trauma they are experiencing now, from the separation? We treat rescue dogs better than we are treating these little ones.

The anguish and angst you are feeling right now is just a tiny fraction of what I Am feeling. Do you remember, Jesus wept? Not only over Lazarus. Jesus wept over Jerusalem, too, lamenting. How often I would have gathered you under My care, like a chicken gathering her chicks, but you refused. This is just one more example of that refusal.

You see, Jesus still weeps. Yes, I the Lord God Almighty, still grieve. I weep with those who weep. I grieve as individuals reap crops of bitterness and hatred and prejudice and war. My grief will not end until humanity’s grief ends.

Be assured I Am working and calling every day, calling each one to come Home to the best of humanity, to come take their places in the Light, to commit to a life of Loving. You cannot love God and hate your neighbor. So the first wave of change must come from those who say they love Me. Don’t pray just for your political leaders. Pray for this who call themselves Mine–no matter their style of worship. Pray that they will actually and accurately manifest My Heart. Call to the North, the South, the East, and the West. Call all My People to rejoin the Team of Loving Compassion. You know how to Call. Call forth Peace, call forth Love, call forth Justice, call forth Compassion, call forth Unity. You see, there is much good you can do, with a simple heartfelt Call.

Thank You, God. Thank You, Lord. Thank You. 

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Solitude and Service

God, I had an aha moment today. A friend halfway around the world and I were texting–have I thanked You lately for the technology that, first, allowed us to find each other after 40 years, and second, allows us to so easily keep in touch–anyway, we were texting and she asked me if I am an introvert. And I replied that yes, I am. Here is, basically, what I said to her, what led up to my eureka. 

I love people, I said. I love talking to people, getting to know folks, sharing with them, and I think I am a born storyteller. HOWEVER, all that being true, it is also true that I recharge in solitude. That is, in solitude deliberately spent one-on-one with You, and preferably, outside. I need time and space, I said. I need alone time precisely to fill up again so that I can go back into the world and give out, give-away. And then, depleted, I need to go back into solitude to recharge, and be able to go back to my public life. Finally, I noted that I always feel as if I need to apologize for wanting alone time, for feeling that I need it, and I don’t know how to really ask for what I want, what it seems I need.

Then I said how this whole conundrum reminded me of something Richard Rohr wrote about Jesus, how Jesus needed His time alone in communion with the Father in order to go out into the world and minister. That was my aha moment. If Jesus needed time “alone” — meaning, not with the crowds but not even with His disciples either — then surely it is okay if I do. No wonder I feel out of balance, or unrested. I am not honoring the process at all! It was exciting, actually, to have a door of understanding swing so easily open. What is not so easy is trying to explain it to all the people in my life who rely on me for so many different things–or whose life experience or personality is different enough from mine that they genuinely have no frame of reference to understand what I need, or why I need it.  So what would You say about that?

Richard Rohr goes on to write about creativity, about the need for solitude and recharge time as well as time immersed in the world for creativity to flourish. That is certainly true of you, and it explains why you feel stymied creatively much of the time. What I told you recently about healing and restoring the part of you that is a writer is tied directly to this need you have to both go within and without. This is the Way to find your path within prayerful solitude, the path that leads directly to the making a difference you so passionately want to do, in your world. It is a circular sort of path, not unlike a labyrinth, in that you will constantly be circling back through solitude and out into the world, as long as you remain committed both to Me and to the calling you sense so strongly, to share. You have thought these were opposites instead of two essential halves making up a whole, a whole life. Instead of either/or, this is another both/and, and the combination makes The Third Way. It is not selfish of you to need time alone; it is essential. I made you for this. Let that sink in. I made you, as you are. I made you to need, to crave, time apart, and I made you to long to give to others. Let the war within you cease now. Embrace the totality of who you are, who I have made you to be, and be. Be fully, deeply both/and.

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Runner

Well, this was certainly an interesting ten days. I am not sure what I expected, exactly, in the middle of a busy-busy stretch. Holiday weeks are always busier at the shop and this one included inventory deliveries as well as lots of folks to serve. I write that and I smile. It’s true, I really do think of the galleries as places of ministry as well as places of commerce, of sales. Art ministers. I watch it happen over and over. And I love that. I am so grateful that my commerce-life revolves around beauty and talent and investment in the gifts given. I love that.

So in a traditional sort of Vision Quest, the quester would debrief, so to speak. Come to the tribal or traditional equivalent of a spiritual director, report in, and seek feedback. Sometimes that feedback would be revelation, a new name, or confirmation of what the quester discerned. So here I am, coming to You. What stood out? That is the question first asked.

Well, one big thing unfolded over a couple of days. I went looking for the mama bear and four cubs, whom I did not get a clear view of, and instead was startled near dusk by a deer I obviously startled first, because she darted out from the brush in front of my car and then raced ahead down the road. Gosh, she was fast! Then she bounded off to the other side of the road and I lost sight of her. The whole thing made me recall a name I thought You spoke to me maybe 30 years ago–Running Deer. And a line from a poem that is from 2007, “footprints like hearts through my day”–because deer’s hoof prints are in fact heart-shaped. Maybe I will put the whole poem here. 

The Wood Between The Worlds

You are always

Breathing out

Largesse

I inhale hurriedly

The ten thousand things

Scarcely notice

Your breath, my life

You wait

Slow still center

I come to ground

Gently deciduous

Float leaflike

Your breath

CS Lewis says

Nothing much happens

Look again

Nothing

Much happens

The trees go on growing

I follow

Footprints like hearts

Through my day

You breathe out

I breathe in

Connected

There. That makes me happy.

 

Why? Why does that make you happy?

Because it’s the real me. It is how I feel, how I think.

This quest was all about authenticity, finding and owning your authentic self.

Yes, well, after that whole deer episode, a couple days later I was driving on the beach road, and up ahead of me was what looked like a school activity or athletic bus, pulled over, half on and half off the road. I skirted around it, no problem, but in huge letters across the back of the bus were the words Running Deer. THAT got my attention! So I have been trying to think, running from what? Running to what? And You said, running with whom?

And what do you think is your answer?

I think I am running from how I actually feel, a lot of the time. I am trying to be responsible and diligent and on top of things; I feel disorganized and frustrated and stressed, and honestly, I miss being outside. But You said this time was to help restore my writer. So what does Running Deer have to do with that?

You don’t write because writing is all about feeling for you. It is not so much about thought–it used to be, but not anymore. You have made a shift from what you think to what you feel, and because you are so used to hiding what you feel, you have put a straitjacket on your writing self. And speaking of thinking, you THINK no one cares what you think or feel. And you are so mistaken. You could not be more mistaken. I care. I, the Lord of the Universe, care what you think, and I care what you feel. You want so much not to offend anyone, and to be as loving as you can to everyone. That is what you feel. You want to give everyone, anyone, another chance, a break, a massive break. That is what you feel. You get frustrated, as you said, and then you take your frustration out on yourself for not doing more, not being more, when what is really the issue is that you see folks around you who don’t seem to care even half as much as you do. You see that, and you think, how could they waste this life? How could they waste this day? How could they waste this minute? And you have been reluctant to name your frustration, because you want so much to give them, all of them, another chance.

Don’t they get that, God? Another chance, I mean. 

Yes of course. Always. But that doesn’t mean you need to consume yourself with their choices. It is essential that you begin to name, to yourself in My Presence, how you really feel. That is not judging, that is not criticizing, especially if you never verbalize it beyond the page, the private page with Me. But you need to be more honest. It is not that you lie, it is that you are trying to hard to be who you think I want you to be, instead of just being the glorious creation you already are. What did you read this week?

Oh yes! That quote! So it came in an email from Richard Rohr, whose writing I like very much, but the quote itself came from Dr. Howard Thurman. “Don’t ask what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive, and go do it. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive.” And then, I was placing a re-order with ceramic artisans for lamps and plaques, and they had a word plaque with that exact quote! So I took that as a confirmation.

You have answered this before. It is time for you to answer this again. Not here, not right now. Over the course of the next week. Keep breathing in the question and breathing out your answer: what makes you come alive, Eve? You think you know the answer. Don’t just think. Feel. What makes you come alive?

 

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Come Apart

So, Lord, this is really strange, but I feel as if I need to talk to You about it. And maybe to everyone reading, too. Last night, at some point close to bedtime, I thought I heard You say, Take a break. And honestly, although it sounded like Your Voice inside, I dismissed it as just me, and I rejected the idea practically out of hand. I didn’t, I don’t want to take a break. I don’t want to let anyone down. And I certainly don’t intend to take a break from talking to You!! So it didn’t make any sense. Then this morning, without consciously thinking about it, I thought I heard those same words again, this time followed by, Regroup. So I have to ask: is this You? Why take a break? And regroup for what?

Yes, that was Me. You have been putting pressure on yourself I never intended. This wasn’t meant to be any sort of burden; this was meant to share the joy you and I have in our sharing together. And what have I counseled you to do, recently?

Well, you said to work on writing a creed. Write a creed with You. And You’ve talked before about writing out a Vision Quest, and I felt as if You were saying that again. Because, honestly, I never actually did that. Not really. Pieces and parts, maybe, but not in a total sense.

Even Jesus drew apart with His disciples, and drew apart for times of private prayer. I Am asking you to draw apart, a little while. Let Me re-engage your writer.

But aren’t I engaged already?

You are very sensitive to our dialog, yes. But that is only part of what I have to give you, and what you have to give the world. I never meant for you to neglect that part of you that writes beyond dialog.

Beyond dialog?

Yes. You photograph inspired by Me, but not directed by Me, as if you were a student completing an assignment. You write music inspired by Me but not composed or dictated by Me. You speak from your heart, inspired by Me, but not lip-syncing, not speaking from some Divine Teleprompter, or reciting a memorized speech written by someone else, even if that Someone Else is Me. Your photographs, your music, and your spoken words are all inspired, yes–but they are fully yours. One outcome of this work, this blog, that I never intended, is that you have once again laid down your writing self, thinking I mean only to dictate to you. No, dearest little one. I mean for you to even more fully develop your writing gifts, and to be willing to share, not only these dialogs, these moments of connection with Me, but also your own fully formed heart, through written words, with the world. And in order for that to happen, for you to feel fully comfortable in that role, you need to come apart for just a little while.

What is a little while, Lord? And to be very clear, I mean, I need to be sure I understand, You are saying for me to take a break from posting for this come apart time?

Yes, that is what I Am calling you to do. There is a time to speak, and a time to refrain from speaking. I Am asking you to trust Me, and to refrain from speaking for a brief time so that when you resume, you will resume from a deeper and stronger and more assured place. You will be able to bring more of yourself to everything you write, not merely this.

How long, Lord? How long is a little time?

How long after the Ascension did the disciples wait, before Pentecost in the Upper Room?

Ten days.

Can you wait with Me ten days? Can you go about living your daily life and let Me empower you and your writing in fresh ways? Can you resume after a ten day break?

Yes, Lord, I reckon. If it is You asking me, then yes. I can wait. So June 1st, then. I resume June 1.

Yes, that is what I Am asking you to do. But as with anything I ask, the choice is yours. I will love you no less if you say no. I will continue to speak to you day by day if you say no. But if you can say yes, and come apart from THIS work for an even greater work, then your reach will increase. It is no coincidence that we talked yesterday about the missing piece. There are still parts of yourself that are missing, missing in action as it were. The reasons for that are complex and stretch way back in years. But if you can give Me these ten days, I promise you, much will be resolved and solved within you.  You will emerge from this time even clearer in your purpose and more assured in your place. So come apart with Me.

What else can I say? Yes, Lord. Yes. So I guess I will be back here June 1st.

Indeed you will, and refreshed in heart and spirit and word. You shall see.

Ok, Lord. I trust You. 

 

 

 

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The Missing Piece

Lord, you started to say something this morning as I was getting ready to leave the house, and I found it extraordinary, and I kind of cut You off, because I was so afraid I would forget it, and I wanted to write it down. So can we start that whole conversation again, please? I was trying to wrap my mind around uniqueness versus self-centeredness, and that is when You interrupted.

Yes, you were thinking, as you often do, in dualities. Selfish or self-centered versus self-sacrificing or self-denying.

Yes, that was it! And You said there was a Third Way! Please, tell me again.

I told you to think about a jigsaw puzzle. Being selfish or self-centered would be like thinking you are the most important piece in the puzzle. Being self-sacrificing or self-denying in this sense does not mean putting the needs of someone else ahead of your own, which you all need to do from time to time, but not always, or in every single circumstance. Being self-denying as it relates to the puzzle would be to say, my piece is not important at all. The puzzle doesn’t need my piece.

The truth is, every piece is important to the puzzle. Have you ever tried to complete a jigsaw puzzle with pieces missing? Isn’t it frustrating until you figure out that not all the pieces are in the box? And if you get nearly finished and then discover a piece is missing, don’t you feel a great sense of let-down, of frustration, because without that one missing piece, the puzzle is incomplete.

Further, by trying so hard to be inconspicuous, even absent, that missing piece actually becomes, in a negative sense, the first thing you notice when you look at the puzzle in its entirety. You notice what is missing, not all the pieces that are there, in their places. You notice the lack first. By trying to be of no importance, the missing piece actually becomes the most important.

But what happens when every piece is in its place? The whole puzzle fits together, no matter how many pieces there are, no matter how intricate the pattern or design. Each tiny piece is essential to complete the pattern and to create the whole.

If everyone simply accepted this fact, that every piece is essential and important, that everyone has a unique contribution to make, and gifts to share with the world, what a different world you would inhabit!! No one would be trying to occupy the wrong space. No one would be vying for a larger or more important position. Every piece would be revered if only everyone had as a goal completing the whole picture. There would be no war and no enmity, for the purpose of completing the pattern would predominate over every other concern.

So do not worry about taking up more space, or less space, or no space. Take your place, fit yourself in to My Grand Design, and watch everything fall into place, like pieces of a puzzle, all around you.

But Lord, what if some pieces won’t play? I mean, what if some demand a larger share of the puzzle, or refuse to be a part of it at all, even if their motives for refusal are shyness, or fear, or even, they have been told they mustn’t take any public place? 

Don’t worry about other pieces. Just diligently search to find your own niche, your own place, and your own shape there. Complete your part of the puzzle in real time, in the time given to you. Do your part in making the picture beautifully and wonderfully complete.

So, Lord…I had this idea, what photograph to make to accompany this, and it is a Lion puzzle I have, which I thought was neat, because of the Chronicles of Narnia, and Aslan, so I chose it, and set up the image and realized after I clicked my shutter that the gap formed shows a heart! A heart on its side.

Yes, that was My little gift to you tonight. Can you dare to believe that you, as an individual and as a stand-in, as it were, for every human on the planet, that you complete My Heart? It’s true. Every human, as each one becomes his or her best self, completes My Heart, fills in the gaps that My Love has created specifically for them to find and fill. My Love is fully complete, you see, when it is received and shared.

God, You are amazing. Thank You.

 

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Live Wire

This is my prayer today, Lord–a blanket of blessing. Our atmosphere reaches, surrounds, rounds the world. Sunlight, too. Let Your Presence be as Light, as Air, everywhere. Now the branches of the trees are moving, like Spirit moving, the message of Wind. Lord, there are years I was out on a limb, getting in trouble and needing rescue, by helping, by care-taking, by enabling. Today I am just blessing. Lord, help me hold tight to Your hand. Help me to shine steady. So, here I am. This is one of those times I just want–need–to listen.

Right now what you are listening to is memory, is your remembrance of Who I Am. I AM indeed Powerful–and patient. Playful–and serious, profound. Gentle–and Ginormous. Nothing too tiny, nothing and no one too huge for My touch of transformation. All My resources are yours, are available to You.I want you to move into a new way of thinking. You have thought of Me like electricity, and thought of yourself like an instrument–a radio or a blender or an iron, and thought of others as distinct and separate instruments, each one with a designated pre-determined function.

Yes, like the verse says, I have given some as prophets, some as teachers…

I want you to think of yourself more like the wire that carries the electricity, but that can be attached by the Master Electrician to any appliance, any outlet, as needed. You are not stuck in any one ministry, any more than you are stuck in any creative expression. Prose AND poetry AND song AND photography. Prophecy AND healing AND discernment AND gifts of giving. Go with God takes on this meaning: Go in God. You are wire, wired. You are Live. You are connected to the source. You are also grounded–the grounding is grace, is mercy, is your growing understand of Who I Am, that I do not intend for you to be attached to a bomb, but to anything that blesses, that builds–whether that is building esteem with a word or building community.

No one–except the Electrician–really thinks about the wiring, unless it is shorted out, or frayed, or cut. Everyone focuses on the device. Devices are useless without electricity and they need wires. Be the Wire. Be available to “plug in” whenever I lead you. It is My job to take care of the wire–to refresh you, to make sure you are carrying full voltage. I Am doing that now. You’ve had a voltage drop, like a brown-out in a storm. I am re-igniting the Grid for you. That might mean bypassing certain sections. Not every need is yours to address. Wires are color coded for a purpose. You are yellow for joy. You are green, for gentle growing. Let Me energize you and let Me be the Master Electrician. You don’t have to figure it out. Just receive, and flow, and let the Spirit move very naturally in you.

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Touchstones

Earlier this morning, God, I was thinking about Touchstones. Touchstones are kind of like keywords, like shorthand in a physical object sense. The rocks I carry, they are touchstones. They connect me back to the place or the person I received them from. The fox statue at the entry to Yellowhouse, that is a kind of touchstone, too, and it connects me back to my life with our mother fox at “old Yellow” years ago. That lost-and-then-found butterfly earring. Photographs can be like touchstones; they are visual reminders and connectors back to experience, to moments that were amazing or precious or extraordinary. These pages, these conversations, they are hearing-based, not touch or sight based. But they function sort of like touchstones, too. I come to the page in a routine of what has become expectancy. Not the expectancy of taking for granted, at least I sure hope not, but in a kind of glad confidence born out of love. Actually, now that I say that, that is what touchstones are for me. What makes those objects special isn’t magic. It’s the sense of loving connection each one represents. Is that why the word Touchstone resonated so much with me this morning? Is it a keyword?

 

Connection is a keyword for you. You are like a powerful magnet. You have chosen to magnetize yourself in particular ways, ways that attract into your world experiences that help reinforce what has become your life-view and your life-purpose. You have heard, opposites attract. This puzzles you. You fear it means that you will attract into your world people or experiences that are your polar opposite. But I say, you are attracting that which mirrors your soul. Let Me ask you a question. Would you rather be in the presence of Love or Fear? Of Peace or War? Of Kindness or Cruelty? Of Calm or Agitation? Of Friendship or Enmity? You see? You are attracting the very qualities of My Nature and My Kingdom. In some cases you are transforming situations around you. The goal isn’t to balance fear with love, or to balance cruelty with kindness so both exist in a kind of push me/pull you dichotomy, where neither is more influential than the other. The goal is to build My Kingdom Come. The goal is that Love overtakes Fear, that Peace defuses War, that Kindness softens Cruelty, that Calm envelopes Agitation and that Friendship transforms Enmity.

My Cross is a Touchstone for many. Bowls of Water are Touchstones for many others. Because you view nature as a doorway into My Presence, all of nature has the ability and opportunity to become a Touchstone for you. And because you view the world in this way, nature itself has the opportunity to be elevated to a higher place and purpose than many allow it to be. Because you don’t look at nature merely as a collection of resources to be consumed, but as a living playground that reveals My goodness, nature responds in kind by showing you the best of itself. If you expect the best, you tend to receive the best.Touch