Category: Reflections

Dearly Beloved,
Grace and Peace to you.
         
         
Today the wisdom I pray for
is no more than to pay attention,
the wisdom of unknowing,

to listen like the earth
listens to the rain,

to notice and attend
to the smallest bird of you,
the faintest whiff of you,

not to stare at the ground
but to look up,

to hear your silence
shining
in what is almost said,

hidden, almost,
in every one,

to be as open as a lover
to your presence.

____________________
Weather Report

Clearing,
though partly clouded,
as a calm air of attentiveness
burns through
the a mass of preoccupations
obscuring visibility.
Highs near wonder.

Deep Blessings,
Pastor Steve

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

To receive Unfolding Light as a daily e-mail,
write to me at unfoldinglight(at) gmail.com

          Now when all the people were baptized,                  and when Jesus also had been baptized
                  and was praying,
         the heaven was opened,
                  and the Holy Spirit descended upon him
                  in bodily form like a dove.
         And a voice came from heaven,
                  “You are my Son, the Beloved;
                  with you I am well pleased.”
                           —Luke 3.21-22

Chosen One, Beloved,
born of the water of Creation,
the river of a woman,

immersed in God,
plunged in human being:
submerge yourself in me.

Healing river of Christ,
wash over me,
flow in me.

Life-giving breath of God,
wind of first Creation,
breathe in me.

Holy flame of Spirit,
fire of love and justice,
burn in me.

Opening of heaven,
dove of light,
voice of mercy, speak:

“You are my child.
You are my Beloved.
With you I am well pleased.”

Send me on your wind,
flow me as you river,
breathe me into the world,

to love mercy,
to do justice,
to walk humbly with you.

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

To receive Unfolding Light as a daily e-mail,
write to me at unfoldinglight(at) gmail.com

Dearly Beloved,
Grace and Peace to you.
         
         
After the glut of sparkle and sentiment,
all that heavy gold and glory,
it’s kind of a relief to return
to an orderly house, a clean mantle,
a blue and white shirt, the regular dishes.

The world is plain, snow is crusted,
trees more bare than in November.
The marsh like the underside of a carpet,
the cattails bland and spent.
The asphalt road has nothing to say,
the gray sky shrugs and says, “Ditto.”

God stands there,
hands in the pockets of a drab jacket,
gazing at the brook’s blank of ice,
says, “Yeah, I like to hang out here.
It’s relaxing. Clears my head.”

I come home to a quiet house,
refrigerator humming. This too is holy.
I sit on the couch, gaze out at the yard.
“Huh,” I say. “What do you know?
Pockets.”

Deep Blessings,
Pastor Steve

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

To receive Unfolding Light as a daily e-mail,
write to me at unfoldinglight(at) gmail.com

Dearly Beloved,
Grace and Peace to you.
         
         
I suppose it would have been no different
had I followed a star with kings or philosophers,
consulted the heavens and the emperor.

I would have finally found an ordinary house
in a little hill town with a kid and his mom.
I still would have paused and wondered

if this were really the One, but then
not by the star overhead but the light within
wouldn’t I have known anyway?

So it was that I saw her, maybe forty something,
in the third aisle, comparing red and kidney beans,
no star above us but the cluttered grocery ceiling,

but the heavenly eye in me suddenly awakened,
the treasure chest in my chest slid open
by no wisdom of my own, and I saw, I saw

the Near One, the Beloved, the Shepherding Presence,
here, in this one, now, radiant and divine
in her perfect unknowing being,

God coming to flesh in unmistakable anonymity,
as only God always does, indivisibly near,
in the holiness of the real her of her, and of all of us,

how hidden in the heart of things,
how invisible and fleeting the light,
how dependable.

And without any more sure sign than that
I was changed, in numinous company,
and I went home by another road.

Deep Blessings,
Pastor Steve

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

To receive Unfolding Light as a daily e-mail,
write to me at unfoldinglight(at) gmail.com

Dearly Beloved,
Grace and Peace to you.
         
         
Twelve days is more than enough,
don’t you think?
We’re clearly done with it now.
We glitter it up, the startling birth,
costuming the unsettling nearness,
the marriage of dark and light,
the whelming, the danger.
We do our best to confine
the infinite ardor to the singular night,
the little manger.
As if the journey to Bethlehem,
or the cross, is longer than afterward.
As if love or an open grave
would only last a moment.
Twelve days seems long now,
even for the undoing of our kingdoms.

Now we can move on, can’t we?—
pretending to be sad as we return
to our accustomed darkness,
packing the stars away in boxes
somewhere in the basement of us
where still, all year,
they shine.

But here on the bus
don’t I hear angels?

On this drab morning
at the office
isn’t that you
breathing me,
curling around me like fog,
like morning,
like light?

.
.
Deep Blessings,
Pastor Steve

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

To receive Unfolding Light as a daily e-mail,
write to me at unfoldinglight(at) gmail.com

Dearly Beloved,
Grace and Peace to you.
         
         
Sometimes when you fall in love
you plan your journeys with sly intent,
the clever happenstance, over and over
until the chance encounter.

Sometimes when you fall in love
you abandon all your absolutes,
leap from the porch
and follow the Beloved.
“Where are you going?” they panic.
But you know.

Closer.

         
         
Deep Blessings,
Pastor Steve

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

To receive Unfolding Light as a daily e-mail,
write to me at unfoldinglight(at) gmail.com

Dearly Beloved,
Grace and Peace to you.
         
         
A blessed eighth day of Christmas to you,
the eighth day of Creation.
God is not a retired Creator, you know:
God is still active, still creating.
The Holy One breathes you into being
with each breath, creates you new.
You start today.
All your sins and shortcomings are forgiven,
all your accomplishments
are now simply part of your new story.

God is incarnate in the world,
grace emerging as flesh.
Are you a spiritual being
now entering the physical world…
or a physical being entering the spiritual?

The new year
will bring you abundant grace.
Trust it.

Enter,
you and all the world.
Begin now.

Deep Blessings,
Pastor Steve

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

To receive Unfolding Light as a daily e-mail,
write to me at unfoldinglight(at) gmail.com

         

         
                  
I am ready
when a voice has spoken,
a path opened its arms,
ready to resolve and to follow.

And if not I am ready to be still,
and more still yet,
to wait,
to shed my wants and fears,
my wishes and words, and even
the words I have for the silence
and for you,
until not I but you speak
and I follow.

And when I have resolved,
and I am sure of myself,
and my wishes reappear
in the costume of devotion,
help me to return
to be still and listen again.
Another New Year’s Eve.

I yield to you fully,
and ask you only
to help me to return
and to return
and to return,
to be still and ready
each day.

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

To receive Unfolding Light as a daily e-mail,
write to me at unfoldinglight(at) gmail.com

         

                  
Holy One,
as a new year approaches
I seek to become not a new person
but more myself,
more aware of what is infinitely good in me,
more attentive to you in me,
who you become in me to be.

I am grateful for your presence,
in awe of your glory,
open to your grace
in me.

Unfold your light in me
and I will become you.
Unbind your compassion in me
and I will shine with you.
Be in me;
I will be in you.

______________________________
Weather Report

Light
today and tomorrow,
emanating from within.
Visibility will be mixed
as some hide the light and others glow.
An atmosphere of glory will prevail
as God moves through us all.

Deep Blessings,
Pastor Steve

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

To receive Unfolding Light as a daily e-mail,
write to me at unfoldinglight(at) gmail.com

Dearly Beloved,
Grace and Peace to you.
         
         By the tender mercy of our God,
                  the dawn from on high will break upon us, 
         to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death,
                  to guide our feet into the way of peace.
                           —Luke 1. 78-79

         Pay attention to this
                  as to a lamp shining in a dark place,
         until the day dawns
                  and the morning star rises in your hearts.
                           —2 Peter 1.19

         We have seen his star, and we have come to honor him. 
                  —Matthew 2.2

God, lead me.
Your love is my morning star— awaken me;
my north star— lead me from what enslaves me.
I navigate by the star of your love.
I set myself for the long journey.

Give me courage to be led,
wisdom to let you lead me,
to follow and not stray, not turn back,
not go my own way.
Oh, pure star, save me from my own way.

I name those times I followed my own way…
and those times I followed your love…

May I see your star in my sky
and set my face toward it always.
Set my compass, God,
and keep me from straying.
I let go of my need to know the way,
my pride that I do,
my fear that I don’t.
You lead me, and I trust, give thanks and follow.

In stillness I listen for your whisper,
I feel for your nudging,
I give myself
to follow.
Love, lead me.

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

To receive Unfolding Light as a daily e-mail,
write to me at unfoldinglight(at) gmail.com