Daily Reflections and Worship Resources
Daily reflections by Steve Garnaas-Holmes.
In winter the buds hugged themselves
to the twigs.
In spring they opened their arms
to the light.
Through summer winds they clung
to their branches.
In fall they threw themselves
into the air.
Now, embracing the ground, they murmur,
“This, too.”
__________________
Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
www.unfoldinglight.net
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When the foolish took their lamps, they took no oil with them;
but the wise took flasks of oil with their lamps.
—Matthew 25.3-4
You who wait for the Bridegroom of Peace,
who wait for the Feast of Justice
late into the night,
bring extra oil for your lamps.
The wait will be long.
Don’t be tempted by the promise of “soon.”
Don’t be tricked by your impatience.
Light will fade,
evening’s vine will grow up around you,
the sheet of night pulled up over you,
and the wait will go on.
Bring oil,
and go on. Keep your lamp trimmed,
your little lamp of hope,
little flame of trust and goodwill.
The night will be long,
rumors will precede the bridegroom
yet the bridegroom will not come,
and you will tire.
But do not fall to either sleep or despair.
Love is changing the world,
but you will not see it for a long time.
Let your oil be plentiful enough to last and to share.
No matter how long it takes, keep the flame.
Illumine the little circle where you are.
Light the way.
__________________
Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
www.unfoldinglight.net
Listen to the audio recording:
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:47 — 2.5MB)
The quiet of the ocean
is not the dampened sound
of everything being far away
but the silence everything has come from
but not far, no, not far, the silence
of the sea still in us,
the quiet of the beginning
before the first word,
only the presence, not the word,
the primordial still holding us,
the darkness still giving birth,
the tide in our veins,
surging quietly,
that all our sounds go into
and rest at the bottom,
noiselessly becoming eternity,
the quiet not of death
but of being held.
__________________
Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
www.unfoldinglight.net
Listen to the audio recording:
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:00 — 1.4MB)
The quiet of the mountain top
is not the muteness
of having been taken from the world,
but the quiet of all of it, gathered:
the embrace of sky and horizon,
the murmuring of cities and rivers below,
the world and all its little stories,
the ages and generations,
the wars and tender moments,
all you look down on,
seen and unseen,
and what you have left
and your climbing,
all gathered together
in the quietness of this gaze,
the gaze of God,
who does not think or judge,
but loves without words.
__________________
Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
www.unfoldinglight.net
Listen to the audio recording:
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 0:58 — 1.3MB)
The quiet of the desert
isn’t harsh or punishing,
not lonely or lacking, but pure,
the quiet of everything to be said
having been said
and now there is the sitting with it,
the quiet of stones and their stories,
and even the storms, who bear witness
without words, and then pass,
the quiet when all has been sanded away,
the removal of everything but this,
and the presence that fills the silence
with silence, the stillness of this,
and its being enough,
as are you.
__________________
Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
www.unfoldinglight.net
Listen to the audio recording:
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 0:58 — 1.3MB)
Woods
The quiet of the woods
is not your regular quiet,
not empty-room quiet,
but a full quiet, still to the brim,
quiet held in soil grown over ages,
filtered by leaves and feathers,
a quiet fermented by eons of rain,
the quiet of birdcall and snowfall
and snowmelt and sun,
a stillness shielded by trees
even whose young ones
are older and wiser than we,
whose roots silently ponder
what is below, and know
without saying,
a quiet held in the owl’s gaze,
who sees your quietness
which flourishes within you
hugely, agelessly,
growing in you
as silently as a mushroom.
__________________
Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
www.unfoldinglight.net
Listen to the audio recording:
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:11 — 1.6MB)
The greatest among you will be your servant.
All who exalt themselves will be humbled,
and all who humble themselves will be exalted.
—Matthew 23.11-12
The worse you feel about yourself
the more you need to be encouraged, right?
Those who seek greatness
are starving for themselves.
But the Beloved died
humbly pouring himself out.
One can be no greater
than to serve beside him.
The less your opponent listens,
the louder you shout, right?
Those who exalt themselves
are only trying to convince themselves.
But a much quieter voice, truthful, absolute,
has spoken calmly: You are worthy.
No need to say more.
The rose unfolds, at peace in its unfolding.
__________________
Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
www.unfoldinglight.net
Listen to the audio recording:
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:19 — 1.8MB)
Mindful of the world’s dangers
and sorrows I walk.
I could go straight down to the pond
but I take the long way through the woods,
the yellow trees, apostles of the centuries,
holding their arms out over me,
the little brook sewing its way through them.
My path is narrow, made by walking it
over and over, in all kinds of weather.
The water in the pond is at peace,
and will find its way to the sea.
A few geese rest there, stopping by.
They too will find their place.
The yellowing grasses lie down,
folding their million fingers on their chests.
They will sleep for now but they will return.
My breath, a thread that has gone in and out of me
—how many times?— goes in and out.
It is not mine alone.
The winterbent pine by the pond
raises its arms in benediction.
The rising moon, so steadfast, holds her thoughts to herself
watching me make my way back up the field,
like all of us, wandering home.
__________________
Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
www.unfoldinglight.net
Listen to the audio recording:
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:37 — 2.2MB)
I walk among trees.
The conversations of their falling leaves.
A little breeze moves among them casually.
I think of how long they’ve been here,
and their favorite stories.
They know where every branch is,
mindful of every root hair and what it touches.
Under grey sky, not really cold yet,
they stand in faithfulness.
Little birds work up and down their limbs,
and sometimes sing.
Like my soul, they know things
they don’t need to tell me.
But we both like it
when I walk beneath them.
_____________
Weather Report
Quiet,
as an occluded front of words
passes by overhead
and out to sea.
__________________
Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
www.unfoldinglight.net
Listen to the audio recording:
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:16 — 1.7MB)
Infinite Love,
you who love me into being each moment,
let me this day flow freely with that love,
for it is not my love I give but yours.
I seek in all and above all to love,
to appreciate, to forgive,
to encourage, to comfort,
to listen, to make room,
to thank, to assist, to bless.
May I choose to be loving
rather than to be right,
to be gentle rather than tough,
to be curious rather than judging,
to meet all with reverence and humility and delight.
And with those whom I cannot love easily,
let me hold and protect with all my being
room for you to love them, even through me.
O Spirit of Love, you who love me infinitely and perfectly,
breathe your love in me.
__________________
Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
www.unfoldinglight.net
Listen to the audio recording:
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:22 — 1.9MB)