Where is Home?

In the east and in the west
Every bird will seek its’ nest
Everyone will seek its’ home
Home is where the heart grows
And the moon will rise and fall
And the light will touch the tide
Are we holding hands and never feeling?
All around the world we sing
Like a penny in a spin
Always looking for the way
To get out, to get in
CHORUS:
Love is the groove in which we move
Love is the groove in which we move
Love is the groove in which we move
In the alleys of Marseille
In the streets of Katmandu
On the high roads of Peru
People meet and touch and go
But the wind of change will blow
And another dance will start
And I’ll finally get the point
Like an arrow to my heart
Chorus
Look back where’s the sea
Who brought this mystery?
Deep in another world
Someone is listening
And they as with night
And we keep asking why
Look back there’s the key
Deep in another life
On this ship in which we sail
Everything is possible
Keep on turning like a star
Till you get to where you are
If I promise not to laugh
Will you promise not to cry?
Will you promise not to let this life
Slip by?
Cher

Sometimes understanding love hits me like an arrow.  I have not listened to this one in a long time, but since I heard it this morning I have found myself infused with joy, love, and understanding that everything will be ok.

One of the truly magnificent things about life is choice, and our own ability to heal ourselves and find love.

Find your love for yourself and you will discover a never ending well of love for others when you realize there is no separation between the world and you.

If you do not at some point find this deep insight life may slip by you as in a day dream. Look for it and it will come… you are worth it and you deserve it.

Confession Ultimately Begins Healing

Why is confession so important to repentance and healing?

I am not talking about the abstract confession that comes to mind, like you in a box, with a priest on the other side of a screen. I am talking about you telling the person you hurt, or even just someone else the hurt you have caused.

It is important because it is the beginning of the journey that corrects the pain of skewed action.

Picture this; the universe is a skyscraper. In this skyscraper every person has a room with four walls. This is the inner us. This is the place of our minds, emotions, and spirituality. No one can forcibly tell us how to decorate this room, how to be while we are in this room, or our choice of how and when we might leave this room to visit with another person in their room or let another into ours.

So now imagine that someone invited you into their room and you spilled something on their floor. You imprinted their room by your actions and they are hurt because of it. You immediately retreat to your own room because it hurts you to accept that you have hurt them.

While in your room you pace around. You change the décor a couple times to adjust for this uncomfortable feeling of “messing” someone else’s room. You begin to feel uncomfortable in this special place that is only you, and suddenly you are changing the décor over and over again in an attempt to find comfortableness.

Then it dawns on you, you will pace in this room forever unless you reach out to this other person and show them your room, and you should help them clean the mess you left.  So you open the door between your rooms and knock on theirs, leaving your door open. They answer, but they are unwilling to fully open the door and let you in because they are still looking at the mess you left and wondering how they can clean it up.

When do they let you into their room? How do you cross the threshold?

Bingo! When you make your confession to them.

You accept that you hurt them and you ask for forgiveness, and you take positive action to help them clean their room. If the other person is open to repentance and ultimately forgiveness a wonderful and exciting thing happens. You and them can turn the mess you left into a new and possibly beautiful decoration in their room. It gets better too. Suddenly, a part of that decoration is now also in your room, and you like it. You have shared the inward you with someone else. You have discovered that you do not have to be alone. You have also discovered that it can feel good to let a person come into your room now and again and sign your wall.

Life is a journey, sharing it deepens it.

When my time comes to pass through death I hope to be able to look at the walls of my room and see innumerable signatures of other souls adorning my walls.

“The confession of evil works is the first beginning of good works.”
Saint Augustine

 

 

Tonight is the Easter Vigil…

The darkness of the tomb will be annihilated by the light…

Good Friday Morning….

I am a Christian, and so today marks a time of great victory and also sadness. I have always felt very responsible for my sins and imperfections which contribute to the suffering Jesus submitted himself too.

Like the women on the road during the crucifixion who wailed and wept. I feel the burden of my human imperfection. Thanks be to God for my salvation, for comfort  in times of duress, for the undeserving title- Child of the Creator.

I am called to imitate Christ and love all people, care for all, and take the sufferings of others upon myself in true empathy. This is the path to freedom. This is the way of love.

No judgement. No righteousness. Just a simple and humble commitment to recognize my place in Creation.

 

Palm Sunday Reflections

It is Palm Sunday. This starts the most important week in a Christians year. I always feel reflective during the Lent and Easter season. I was raised Catholic. I still identify religiously with Catholic Christians, but my spirituality is developing in a much more eclectic way. I study many types of religions and their ideas about spirituality because I always thought no one group has all the answers.

Growing up my mother was our church organist. Every year on Palm Sunday she had the choir sing a wonderful piece written and published by a School Sister of St. Francis religious nun. It is called “Hosanna to the Son of David“. It is so beautiful, and when it is done in 3 part women’s voices only it seems to expand throughout the church and transcends into your body sending little fissions of electricity up your spine and down all your extremities. Music that can draw your soul out and wrap itself around you is unforgettable to me.

Just thinking about it gives me the shivers.

Has spiritual music ever affected you like that?

My mom is passed away into Heaven now, and it is days like today and memories like Palm Sunday church that both hurt and heal at the same time. How crazy is it that memories can bring sorrow and comfort. What a paradox this human life is, I have so many questions all the time due to paradoxes.

What music draws your soul and wraps you in grace? It is an amazing balm to the heart when you find them.

“Hosanna to the Son of David.Blessed is He that cometh in the name of the Lord!”
Sister Cherabim