Category: Reflections

In the garden I grabbed a handful of dirt
          but it jumped out of my hand—living!
                        It was a toad, dirt-colored, dirt-still.

I knelt there a while and we looked
            at each other and for a moment
                        no thoughts passed between us.

We were just two clumps of dirt,
            two sizes, two stories,
                        two distances from words.

I was amazed at what I’d thought was dirt.
           How often had this happened?
                        He had no such thoughts.

I returned to my gardening, then looked,
            and he had vanished. Only clumps of dirt.
                        The woods were full of him.

I got up and walked down the street,
            practicing believing everything
                        is more full of life than we know.

__________________
Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
www.unfoldinglight.net
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          What woman having ten silver coins,
          if she loses one of them,
          does not light a lamp, sweep the house,
          and search carefully until she finds it?
                                           —Luke 15.8

God the homemaker, the house-sweeper,
searches
for your lost coin.

It may be a grief swept under,
a shame covered over,
a gift denied.

In her hand it’s worth something.
She will find it, and rejoice.
You be her lamp. Help her look.

And when she finds it (even maybe
her love for you, that you’ve
forgotten behind something),

join the celebration
as she holds it up to the light
and dances.

__________________
Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
www.unfoldinglight.net
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You may seem in the minority
while so few hold all the power.
Don’t let that fool you.
You may feel small and alone,
standing against selfishness and cruelty.
But you are vast.

Those who deny our unity
draw only from the dry cisterns
of their own fear and self-serving.
But you bud forth from our oneness,
a branch of one vine.
You flow from the infinite ocean
of grace that is God’s energy,
the power that orders the universe.
They have only the strength of their own anxiety,
but your breath and veins flow
with the ferocious life force of all living beings.
It rises through the earth,
overflows you, and warms the world.

Even when you stand alone
you hold us all in your hands,
you are one with countless others.
Even when you fail
you are a root hair of heaven.
You are immense.

__________________
Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
www.unfoldinglight.net
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          Which one of you, having a hundred sheep
          and losing one of them,
          does not leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness
          and go after the one that is lost until they find it?
                                           —Luke 15.4

None of us, of course.
We cut our losses and guard what we have.

But God, well, they have different math.
With God it’s all about the whole.

With God a hundred minus one is zero,
like a marriage minus one.

God doesn’t have a hundred.
God has ones. Many of them. They all count.

So of course God seeks the one.
There is no one God doesn’t seek.

The ninety-nine complain,
as if they’re somehow slighted.

Affirmative action, they say—
it’s reverse discrimination.

But ever since Eden there’s been
the One Law of God: that we all live together.

Until we’re all included
even God isn’t whole.

__________________
Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
www.unfoldinglight.net
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Where can I go from your spirit?
        Or where can I escape your presence?
If I sit in church, you are there;
        if I find myself in prison, you are there.
If I go on retreat in the desert,
        or stand in protest and face soldiers,
even there your hand shall lead me;
        your steady hand shall hold me close.
If I say, “I’m afraid this chaos will consume me,
        for fear wraps itself around me,”
even the night is not dark to you,
        for you shine as bright as the day;
        your light changes even the darkness.

__________________
Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
www.unfoldinglight.net
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          “Whoever does not carry the cross
          and follow me cannot be my disciple.”
                                  —Luke 14.27

Romans nailed them to it, regularly.
It wasn’t jewelry. It was doom.

It doesn’t mean you belong.
It means you’re willing to die.

Think not of what you must accomplish
but what you will surrender;

and by that cross
great things may be accomplished.

__________________
Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
www.unfoldinglight.net
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Our strange friends, those Egyptian mummies,
were buried with necklaces and fancy hats,
pots, an axe, some onions, often gold.
Rich ones got furniture.
In their luggage Viking warriors took
swords and amulets and bags of coins.
A great one would get a boat.
So what would I be buried with?
I think I’d like nothing but me.
No tools for labor or riches for commerce,
no trinkets for some mindless dalliance,
no fidget toy for under-stimulation,
no costume, no clothes at all: naked,
at my least presentable, received
into the Kingdom of Belonging.
I’ll lie still, not needing to go anywhere,
at peace with my surroundings,
attentive to the soil I lie in,
and marvel at my flesh
as it falls away layer by layer,
my faithful bones that sustained me all those years.
I’d prefer nothing to distract me from
really hearing that pure silence down there,
sensing the tug of earth
and how it moves a little in its sleep,
feeling the grit between my fingers, getting to know
the dirt I came from and am becoming.
Maybe watching as root hairs
make their mysterious way through me.
And if there enter worms:
more wondrous beings to behold—
more complicated than I thought!—
to watch their squirming, and their patient work.
Maybe without all that hardware,
without past or future,
after years of practice,
I might become fully present
to where I am.

__________________
Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
www.unfoldinglight.net
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          First sit down and estimate the cost…
                       —Luke 14.28

What might I have to be willing to sacrifice to follow Jesus?
Money, possessions, claims, attachments
     that shield me from full and perfect generosity.
Status, privilege, social acceptance, belonging,
     that tempt me to compromise my love.
Comfort, having my life the way I want it,
     that prevent me from risking for the sake of others.
Safety, security, staying out of jail—
     for such is the cost of standing up for justice
     when tyranny descends.

__________________
Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
www.unfoldinglight.net
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          “Whoever comes to me
          and does not hate father and mother,
          wife and children, brothers and sisters,
          yes, and even life itself, cannot be my disciple.”
                                                 —Luke 14.26

Generally there’s nobody we love like our family.
Jesus asks, Why not? What if we did?
What if we didn’t spend any more on our kids
than we did for every kid in the world?
Some say that would sure be mean to our kids.
Well, Jesus says, if you think of it that way,
then go ahead and be mean to your kids.
If you think of caring for strangers
as much as you care for your family
as hating your family, then hate your family.
Draw no lines around your love. None.

Turns out this isn’t really about hate at all,
but unlimited love.

__________________
Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
www.unfoldinglight.net
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From an old trunk mysteriously bequeathed to me
I received a strange instrument, archaic artifact
with strings and keys and cranks, or depending
on how you hold it, an ancient bone flute.

I wonder what part of me was meant to make it sing.
I fiddle with it, but I have no idea how to play it.
I tend it, keep the strings taut, keys dusted, mouthpiece clean.
Mornings I light a candle, sit for a while
and hold it in my lap. Silent.

Late some days,
not often,
I hear music.

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