Category: Reflections

Open field.
Evening settles like snow.

Moon. Hard, shining as ice.
Only a sliver of the divine visible.

A hawk, gliding, greets me,
silent, noticing.

Stars, putting on their halos,
appear one by one.

The Great Stillness I can’t hear
says my name.

The cold deceives: I am not foreign here.
I am of this breath, sighing with clouds,

of this blood moving in the brook,
of these bones leafless above me.

The Great Stillness, who grants me
my umbilical warmth, holds me,

and sings her lullaby,
Rest and do nothing,

still as the trees. Let the snow fall.
You are mine. You belong.

__________________
Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
www.unfoldinglight.net
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We got our first snowfall today,
so of course I was out in the woods on my skis.
The way classical cross-country skiing works
is you kick off with the left foot
and then glide on on the right,
then kick with the right and glide on the left.
If your skis are right for you, and prepared right,
and you know how to use them,
you can both grip and slide, in turn. You can go.
There’s a rhythm to it. Kick and glide, kick and glide.

Sometimes you fall down. Not a big deal.

When we’re healthy we can engage the world;
we care; we honor our deep connection.
And we can also let go. We can move on without sticking
to everything that comes our way.
Kick and glide.
Both are needed, in the right places, the right times.
We can also fall down, and then go on.
Enlightenment is knowing how to both grip and also slide,
when to struggle, when to accept,
when to engage, when to let it pass.

Pray for the compassion to connect
and the wisdom to let go,
the grace of kick and glide, kick and glide.

__________________
Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
www.unfoldinglight.net
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           In those days Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee
           and was baptized by John in the Jordan.
                         —Mark 1.9


The Beloved of God
immersed in our river, our life.
Jesus, the Loving One,
swimming in your veins,
bathed in your tears.

His entry into oneness with God
is to enter our lives,
to be one with us,
baptized with us
in the flow of the world,
the mystery of life.
You who are baptized into Christ,
behold: Christ baptized into you.

Flow, then, with Christ.

            “Out of their hearts shall flow
            streams of living water.”

__________________
Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
www.unfoldinglight.net
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Beloved,
you have revealed yourself to the world in Christ.
Now reveal yourself in me.
May your grace shine in me.
May my love be a guiding star for others.
May my words and deeds show forth
the reign of your mercy and justice.
With humility and generosity
may I offer the gifts you have given me.
The treasure chest of my soul I open
to you and to the world.

As magi knelt and honored you,
I give you my life.
May I be a revelation of your strong, tender love,
your astounding grace,
your faithful presence.

Star of God, shine in me.

__________________
Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
www.unfoldinglight.net
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             “Flee to Egypt, and remain there until I tell you;
             for Herod is about to search for the child, to destroy him.”
                               Matthew 2.13

Who would choose grief
when escape was possible?

Behind them a voice in Ramah,
a field of tiny graves.

Gold spent, frankincense burned,
only the myrrh lasted, sweet aroma of death.

How could they possibly have known
where they were going, purposely lost
to avoid erasure, to stay real?

Little baby Jesus, carried on your mother’s back,
shoveled by sorrow
from childhood into this breathing grave
you spent your life climbing out of,
your daddy would know when it was safe to return.

When were you able to know
when it was not safe to return, and to choose
to return anyway?

__________________
Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
www.unfoldinglight.net
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         Magi came asking,
         “Where is the child who has been born king?”
         When King Herod heard this, he was frightened.
                                          —from Matthew 2.1-3

As he should be.
Jesus is a threat to any regime.
His empire is grace; his rule is justice; his power is love.
It unseats tyrants.

But before he changes the world he changes us.
We become his subjects,
forsaking all the empires of this world.
Like the magi, we spurn domination.
We kneel, surrender our willfulness,
let go our fears and desires,
and abandon ourselves to him.
We give him power over us—
and he gives us his power through us—
so our will is not to exert power
but to allow grace to happen.

The homage of the magi
is the fiercest kind of loyalty and courage
Herod can’t stand, and can’t withstand:
to submit to the power of love and grace,
and not to any empire.
Let this be your pledge of allegiance.

         Grace reigns.

         Kneel and allow.

__________________
Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
www.unfoldilight.net
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The eighth day of Christmas,
the eighth day of Creation,
the Next New Day,
New Years Day.

May every day be a new year’s day for you:
a chance to forgive and be forgiven,
to start again.
May you take courage to begin anew,
to become who you are becoming,
this and every day.

As you let go of the year past,
may you let go of all the habits and coping tricks
you no longer need or value.
Let go, and in your free fall find yourself held
by an eternal love that has come ages to be with you,
and will carry you all the way to the end.
As the future stretches out before you
on your journey toward God may you always know
you have arrived, and always will have arrived.

Every day may you trust your belovedness,
your freedom from having to prove yourself,
and receive the grace that is given to you.

May this year be a year of grace and hope.

__________________
Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
www.unfoldinglight.net
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           Herod sent and killed all the children in Bethlehem
                      who were two years old or under….
           Then was heard “Rachel weeping for her children;
                      she refused to be consoled, because they are no more.”
                                                          —Matthew 23.16, 18


A vulnerable God will upset insecure people.
Tyrants and bullies who fear how fragile we are
will lash out against whoever reminds them.

And the weak and poor, the vulnerable,
and the children, especially the children, will pay.
Rachel weeps for her little ones in a thousand Bethlehems.
In the notes of our carols, hear her wail,
beneath our jingle bells, her devastated silence.
Round yon virgin is dust; in her lap a blanket
with blood and the smell of a baby’s hair.

This is no intrusion on the Christmas story.
It is the story. God comes, fragile among the fragile,
poor and powerless among the poor.
And this child will die young among them.

Pray for those who mourn these days,
and for those who exercise power.
Sharpen the blades of your hope on the stone of grief;
temper your joy with thirst for healing.
Sit with Rachel. Trust that sometimes
the best way to “keep Christ in Christmas”
is to weep.

__________________
Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
www.unfoldinglight.net
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Wise one,
        you who have come far,

attend to that yearning within you
        that is given, as if from above.

Do not cease following that star,
        whose light you have seen at his rising.

It will shine in all darkness,
        and no darkness will overcome it.

Let no other glitter distract you,
        no tiresome journey dissuade you.

Fearful powers will try
        to make use of your pilgrimage.

Do not cooperate.
        Follow love alone.

In that light
        you will find the child, always.

You will kneel in unfamiliar places,
        you will uncover gifts.

And you will continue to journey, to search,
        to look with love-lit vision.

Under that star
        there will always be home,

always another road,
        and you will never travel alone.

__________________
Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
www.unfoldinglight.net
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           The light shines in the darkness,
           and the darkness can not overcome it.

                         —John 1.5


And the light is the life of all people.
In Gaza, in Ukraine, in Sudan,
the light shines and the darkness can’t overcome it.
In those who trust, who hope, who heal, who bear witness,
the light shines.
Even in those who fear whoever’s not White,
in those who despair of democracy,
or those who consider women as objects,
still, somehow, the light shines.
In days when our love falters and our hope loses its footing
the light shines.
In our deepest apathy and unbelief,
in our worst sin, still the light shines in the darkness.
The light that is the life of all people is our salvation,
shining in the unknown, shining in the unseeable,
now and always, still shining.
Still. Shining.

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