Author: Steve

I dreamt in a green meadow
I held my life
the all of it a small nut
a pretty stone
all me not anything else
at the vague edges of my dream
monsters lurked or maybe fears
someone could take this away
I could lose this
then what would there be
what would I be
I held on in winds and torrents
in my dream I dreamt them
storms of grabbing hands
I still had it
but couldn’t see the stone
in my aching hand
under layers of earth
the iron of my hand
a hard shiny shell
then a new dread
it reached up for me

I threw it
and my hand as well I think

and then
empty at ease
the meadow was mine
the forest the sky was mine
was me
hands running leaping like deer
living wind
an opening
a joy

__________________
Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
www.unfoldinglight.net
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Solstice: the most unequal of days,
longer here and shorter there.
The more light we have in the north
the less in the south.
As we have day on this side,
they have night on that side.
The more we have the less they have.

So it is with daylight.
And in the human world
it is well to remember
some things we have because
they have been taken from others.
So it is with wealth, with privilege
But it is not so with blessing.
It is not so with justice.
With love, it is not so:
the more you have,
the more we have.
It a solstice of summer and winter.
But not of listening,
not of mattering, of belonging,
not of being beloved.

Do not be afraid to spill your light,
to squander your love,
to seek justice for someone else,
even to share your wealth.
The more you give away
the more you have.

Enjoy the light and the dark.
Even they, too, are equally for all.

__________________
Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
www.unfoldinglight.net
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It took a while
for the message of emancipation
to get all the way:
some folks didn’t want word to get out—
but some passed it on.
You alone can’t stop the tide,
you won’t save the world.
But you are part of the story,
part of what we tell each other,
one generation of the telling.
You choose what you pass on,
what silence you hold,
what truths you disclose,
what Realm you proclaim.
Choose well, trusting
even your little part
may set one person free.

__________________
Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
www.unfoldinglight.net
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God, your blessing
is the gravity that holds everything.
Your joy is the light that falls on everything,
making it beautiful.
Your grace is the darkness that enfolds us.
May I live by the radiance of your delight
in all Creation
and in me.
May I live by the music of your joy,
the strength of your hope,
the burgeoning of your love.
May I live in your delight.
Amen.

__________________
Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
www.unfoldinglight.net
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Holy One,
you who are in every place,
deeply rooted,
who are every place,
yet moving,
always on the move,
you who are movement itself,
bless those who are on the move,
moving in body or in heart,
moving to new places,
new realities, new challenges.
For all who are nomads,
their belovedness goes with them
in their little bags,
their true belonging in their painted wagon.
Your presence goes with them on the long road,
for you are the road, and the going.
May their leaving be gentle,
their journey be safe,
and their arriving full of joy.
Loving One, your Spirit knows no boundaries,
and goes with us always,
and always we give you thanks.
Trusting your grace,
we ask your blessing.
Amen.

__________________
Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
www.unfoldinglight.net
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Seventy times around the sun,
seventy times to see anew.

I am nearer now to the future
than I’ve ever been.

My past is more present than it used to be.
But more than ever, I am in the present.

Though I have let go of more than ever,
now there is more of me than ever.

Memories move inward. I care less and less
whether my house burns down.

Daily I acquire clarity of the precipice
I’ve been standing on all my life.

How much of the earth has become me,
and of me has become earth?

Bad knees are a small price to pay
for this journey.

Of all I have brought with me I treasure most
my gratitude.

All of it—the grave, the world, this life,
this day—is an opening, opening.

Every day can be
a birth day.

__________________
Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
www.unfoldinglight.net
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           Proclaim the good news,
           “The kingdom of heaven has come near.”
           Cure the sick, raise the dead,
           cleanse the lepers, cast out demons.
                           —Matthew 10.7-8

You are given power and authority and sent,
not to proselytize, not to enact “Christian” legislation,
but to heal.
In your workplace, in your community,
in your family.
How can you possibly do this?
Because you are given power and authority.
You are given love, which casts out fear—
slowly, to be sure, but it does cast out fear.
You won’t cast out all the demons of greed or racism,
or cure the whole epidemic of loneliness or despair.
But you will love, even one person at a time,
and maybe your witness will move crowds.
But remember you are an empty vessel;
it is not your power but God’s.
And though your vessel is small,
that power is infinite.
Go, then, and peace be with you.

__________________
Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
www.unfoldinglight.net
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Dawn enters
easily,
not shy,
just discreet,
then swelling,
light rising,
even on a cloudy morning
inevitable,
confident,
bearing an alreadiness
I covet.

She bends to me,
smiles,

whispers,

this rising is in you.

__________________
Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
www.unfoldinglight.net
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           “Go and learn what this means,
           ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’”
                           —Matthew 9.13 (quoting Hosea 6.6)

There are two religions in the world:
the religion of being right
and the religion of being loving.

They are incompatible.
Get it right and you may hurt someone.
Love, and you may break a rule.

We are always practicing one
or the other every moment,
always choosing.

This is Jesus’ faith in a nutshell:
not religious orthodoxy but loving behavior.
Not being right but being loving.

I know this, and believe it deeply.
Yet Jesus’ words stick:
“Go and learn.”

I’m not there yet.
I’m still right, and proud of it.
Still learning, still learning.

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