Month: May 2021

He is the strangest pickpocket
steals things from the deepest inside
but leaves the ones
that are just lying around
because he knows
you can let go of them on your own

sometimes he’s a reverse pickpocket
every once in a while
stopping carrying around your secret for you

and some day
you think you’re reaching out to him
and accidentally
how in the world does this happen
not knowing not meaning to
you’ve picked his pocket
and come away with it

or even sometimes by surprise
oh his sleight of heart
you find it in a pocket
you didn’t know you had

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

May 17, 2021

         He was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight.
While he was going they were gazing up toward heaven…
                   —Acts 1.9-10

Sometimes empty sky
is what we get,

loss and absence
our only version of the Beloved,

the fact of lack of tact
our faith, for this:

the One has exceeded now
one flesh and is flesh

with all flesh, the Body
raised into all bodies,

your place no longer there, but here,
in love, even when borne as grief,

the emptiness in us
your shape.

Even your absence
hosts your presence,

our yearning
is you.

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

May 14, 2021

         He was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight.
                   —Acts 1.9

         God raised Christ from the dead
         and seated Christ at God’s right hand in the heavenly places.
         The mystery of God’s will… is to gather up all things in Christ.
                                 —Ephesians 1.20, 10

Christ, risen and ascended,
you are no longer one person, but the whole.
Christ, you are raised bodily,
and your Body now is us,
and all Creation.

Loving One,
may I live this day
as your body, your flesh and blood.
As the only purpose of my hand
is to be my hand, to move as I will,
so my only purpose today
is to be your hand, your eyes,
to touch and to bless,
to create and to heal, as you will,
as your Spirit moves me,
one with my whole Body,
gathered in your grace,
the flesh of Christ,
the flesh of Creation,
the body of your love,

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

May 13, 2021

         He was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight.
While he was going they were gazing up toward heaven—
                   —Acts 1.9-10

Ah, Mysterious One, you befuddle us,
you laugh at our small minds scratching
at treasure behind glass.
The child, impossibly, forgives.
Through the tiniest crack in the dawn
a tenderness reaches that takes up
saint and derelict alike.
No one understands. We guess.
If we are wise, we wonder.
We belong to a universe, to a God,
stranger than our knowing,
more infinite than our imagining,
more wonderful than our fear.
Lay down your compass and ruler.
Kiss the sky.
Just tell the story.
Love has risen to the top.

_________________
Weather Report

Light,
falling at all hours of the day,
neither adorned nor diminished
by our knowledge.
100% chance of sunrise,
somewhere, every minute,
unaffected by the thin layer
of what we’re sure of.

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

May 12, 2021

I want to say the oak is patient
unfolding its little parasols of leaves
so gradually
even as the birches rush ahead,
but it is not patient,
any more than light is patient
taking 100,000 years
to cross the Milky Way.
It is simply in the present moment.
It is I,
who think of schedules,
who think in this spring chill
of shade on a hot day,
who must be patient,
who must surrender
thought of slow or fast,
who must
without thought of elsewhere or elsewhen
be at peace in this moment
and receive without judgment
what is.

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

May 11, 2021

Not the image you seek,
that’s the idol to avoid,
but the paying attention,

not the voice
you want to hear,
but the listening itself,

not the answer but the waiting,
this is prayer.
Here we meet the holy.

Not the object
but the love,
this is God.

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

May 10, 2021

Sometimes as if a gentle breeze
a lambent hand
presses on me:
“Come.”

Sometimes as if a scent of lilies
a quiet song
comes to me:
“Listen.”

There is no piety
in this leaning in me
more than a child’s hunger:
“Yes.”

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

May 7, 2021

A long line of pilgrims makes its way
toward the gathering place,
rich and poor, young and old, many kinds.
At the rear, a wounded one—
face ruined, legs mangled,
deeply disfigured— comes alone,
whom no one pities, no one guides.
They fill the hall,
the experts and the initiated,
the seekers and the curious,
until not a seat is left.
Finally the officials and the powerful
come and take their places at the front.
There is no more room.
Then the wounded one,
quiet, joyful, bringing up the rear,
enters and comes to the front
and begins to speak
to all who would learn from their master.

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

May 6, 2021

         The circumcised believers who had come with Peter
         were astounded that the gift of the Holy Spirit
         had been poured out even on the Gentiles.
                   —Acts 10.45

O Spirit, loosen my heart
to stop being so surprised
when you color outside my lines,
when you bless those I curse,
you embrace those I exclude,
you empower those I put down.
Starched with expectations
I’m least able to catch your wind;
cemented by certainty
the pious are least likely to catch fire.

Still, this is what you do best,
to make the incombustible
burst into glory.

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

May 5, 2021

“As God has loved me, so I have loved you.”
         God, your love for Jesus—all its depth and fullness—
         flows to me, to all of us.

“Abide in my love.”
         Not beside Jesus, but inside him,
         his love flowing through me.

“I have said these things to you
so that my joy may be in you,
and that your joy may be complete.”
         Not in fear or obligation, but in joy,
         complete joy.

“This is my commandment,
that you love one another as I have loved you.”
         Not with a similar love but the very same love,
         your love, flowing through me, through all of us.

“No one has greater love than this,
to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.”
         To live for the sake of others, in joy.

“You did not choose me but I chose you.”
         Not my will, but yours.

“I appointed you to go and bear fruit, fruit that will last.”
         Your love, flowing through me.

“God will give you whatever you ask in my name.”
         Only to receive your love,
         and to pass it on.

“I am giving you these commands so that you may love one another.”
         Your love, flowing through me.

         Breath Prayer: Your love … in me

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

May 4, 2021