Unfolding Light

What if in the end there is no law-giver
demanding obedience
but a life-giver offering life?

What if there is no seer
dispensing secret wisdom
but a friend, offering companionship?

What if there is no messiah
leading a crusade
but a presence who delights in you?

What if there is no savior
rescuing us from hell,
but a fellow traveler offering help?

What if there is no journey, no trial,
no mountain, no door, no key, but only
the Beloved, right here, offering themselves?

“Come to me, all you who are weary
       and are carrying heavy burdens,
       and I will give you rest.
Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me,
      for I am gentle and humble in heart,
      and you will find rest for your souls.
For my yoke is easy,
      and my burden is light.”

                                (Matthew 11.28-30)

__________________
Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
www.unfoldinglight.net
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While you are worrying about the state of the world
they are walking, while you are doing the dishes,
driving on the Interstate, unseen, hand in hand,
generations of them, singing in so many languages,
as you sleep, when you carry the little package
on its bothersome errand, they are all walking,
bearing their bundles of goodness and wisdom,
their powerful prayers, their scattered blessings,
as you read the news, marching over miles,
over fetid marsh, across vast wordless steppes,
through the cloven sea, courageous, walking,
between your house and the hardware store,
bearing the gifts of the Realm they come from,
their ancient knowing, down your city’s streets
and onward, a great river of hope and wonder,
defying Emperors and their armies, walking
toward a Realm we are only learning to imagine,
Wise Ones on the way to honor the Child,
myriads from every nation approaching the glory,
dreaming in each other’s languages,
(even now you can join them),
singing, remembering the dyings and risings yet to come,
without ceasing ever, bearing us all,
this whole world, onward, always….

__________________
Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
www.unfoldinglight.net
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You can be a flower by the side of the road.
You can be a fountain for whoever passes by.

You can be a lighthouse where the coast is uncertain.
You can be a handrail, a park bench, an umbrella.

You can be the voice that does not jeer,
that calms, encourages, or thanks.

“Whoever gives even a cup of cold water
to one of these little ones will not lose their reward.”

(Mt. 10.42)

_____________________

Weather Report

The sky’s the limit.
Led by favorable winds,
opportunities for grace will abound.
Though the world is partly cloudy,
expect to radiate warmth
and light.

__________________
Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
www.unfoldinglight.net
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As evening fell, an earthquake struck,
buildings toppled, and all through the city
people were crushed and maimed.
Into the streets came a medic,
even as the light failed, moving among the fallen,
through the evening and into the night.
He blessed the dead and tended the wounded,
giving his care, mending as he could.
In such deep and frightening darkness
by what light was he able to do such healing work?
Only because he was accompanied by a lad
who carried a lantern, who stayed by his side,
not out of great strength or courage,
not out of hope for a reward,
but because he loved the healer
and wished to stay by his side.

Friend, the Beloved
moves through this world
performing miracles.
You only need to stay close,
and hold the light.

__________________
Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
www.unfoldinglight.net
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          God said, “Abraham!” And he said, “Here I am.”
          God said, “Take your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love,
          and go to the land of Moriah and offer him there as a burnt offering
          on one of the mountains that I shall show you.”
                       —Genesis 22.1-2

Maybe it’s a story about God testing Abraham,
to see if he’ll be so loyal
that’s he’d do something awful for God.

Maybe it’s about how when we care about our beliefs
more than our relationships
bad things can happen.

Maybe it’s about how sometimes we’re wrong:
a confession that sometimes
we’re so blinded by our religion
that we do awful things,
convinced it’s what God wants us to do,
and God has to stop us,
which is why God says in Hosea,
“I desire mercy, not sacrifice.”

Maybe it’s not about Abraham
but the ancient Hebrew people,
the moment they realized that child sacrifice was wrong.
Maybe in the end what was sacrificed
was neither a son nor a ram, but a belief,
and our arrogant self-confidence.
Maybe it’s about how no matter what we believe
we have to keep listening.

__________________
Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
www.unfoldinglight.net
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I hear Dark and Light split up, went their separate ways.
Apparently Light had a thing going with God
and Dark was insanely jealous. He said,
“I thought God and I were close. I mean, we knew each other
long before she came along.” Dark got kind of stormy,
slunk off to make his own way in noir movies
and caverns and moody restaurants. Light painted a sunnier
picture, and found solace in deserts and Christmas carols
(even though those were dripping with darkness).
Their daughter Dawn took the split hard, felt like
they made her take sides, and pretty much went with Light,
but Sunset worked it out; she knew
she couldn’t make it without both of them.
Some therapists tried to get them to work together,
Rembrandt and the Impressionists and Edward Hopper.
But Dark said, “Look, still, I’m nothing, right? I mean,
everybody knows it’s all about the Light.”
Light, as light will do, remained silent.
Everybody expected God to move in
with Light, but God played it cool, and even said things like
“I dwell in darkness.” Kept people guessing.
Finally God said, “They’ll work it out.
Look at your hand. There is an inside and an outside, no?
So it is with light and darkness.”

__________________
Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
www.unfoldinglight.net
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You are freer than you think.

Some are less free than you, and you know it.

Some are less free, and you don’t know.

Someone sees how you are not as free as you think.

Not yet.
Somewhere someone is just now becoming free.

Our freedom is linked, all of us.
One’s freedom frees all; one’s oppression chains all.

We have more choices than we think.

God is the freedom that allows others their freedom.

__________________
Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
www.unfoldinglight.net
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          Those who find their life will lose it,
          and those who lose their life for my sake will find it.
                       —Matthew 10.39

A girl surmounts her fear of shame and failure
and finds herself singing.

What you cling to is your burden.

A fellow gives away his lunch,
and then his superiority,
and is strangely satisfied.

Ask the drunk:
what you know you can’t live without
is the lid of your tomb.

A lover, leaving herself behind,
has all of herself to give
to her beloved.

The life that is yours, yours alone,
is so small. Drop it
for the life of every being,
vast and delightful
as a field of poppies.

__________________
Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
www.unfoldinglight.net
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          Are not two sparrows sold for a penny?
          Yet not one of them will fall to the ground
          apart from your Abba God.
          And even the hairs of your head are all counted.
          So do not be afraid;
          you are of more value than many sparrows.
                                           —Matthew 10.29-31

They do fall.
But into the hands of God,
out of the sky that is God.

You will suffer.
But your sorrow is God,
divine consciousness,
mindful in you,

the love that has tended
every grain of your being,
every verb of your story.

Your pain is God,
divine vulnerability
alive in you.
That you are not a rock.

That you can fall
is God having woven divine light
into a body,

that you can drink the nectar of this world
and be filled,
that you can love at great cost.

Like God, who is also a sparrow,
unnoticed, in the open field.

__________________
Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
www.unfoldinglight.net
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           I have not come to bring peace but a sword.
                      —Matthew 10.34

The blade is not violence, but discernment,
separating truth from desire,
refusing to “go along to get along.”

The gospel of peace disturbs the powerful.
Someone will object. But you needn’t thrust.
You already have, with your upsetting mercy.

Be careful: how smoothly the knives come out!
It’s so easy to turn integrity into snottiness,
to defend truth by attacking people.

To take an unpopular stand, stand in it gently.
Disagree without defensiveness.
Uphold love with love.

__________________
Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
www.unfoldinglight.net
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