Category: Reflections

What is the movement of the Spirit? asks the sage.
Is it when the bee loses itself in the nectar?

No, says another, it is when the bee
slips out, its legs covered with pollen
for the next flower.

Ah, says a third, or is it the bee
saying to the others, “Hey, friends!
Nectar is this way?”

Perhaps, says another, it is
the comb of honey that grows in the hive.

Or, I wonder, is it the humming you feel
inside yourself?

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

           People who speak of faith make it clear
           that they are seeking a homeland.
                           — Hebrews 11.14

Beloved Dark Mystery,
among the places I have gone, the places I have stayed,
the places I long to see—
I am seeking a homeland.
A place of deep belonging, of rest and safety,
where my story is part of the story,
my life is part of the beauty.
Whether a native in my native land
or an immigrant still rooting or a ceaseless nomad,
I know my true home, my original soil, is you.
I am at home in you.
You are my womb, my earth, my people, my root.
You, Love that births all being,
you are my homeland,
and I am always coming from you
and traversing you and returning to you.
Here is my gratitude, my peace, and my belonging.
Thank you.
Amen.

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

You read a story once about a miserly king
high in his tower, counting his gold,
grudgingly generous only to his most noble courtiers—
someone said it was about God.
But they made that up. It’s not true.

Here’s what I’ve seen:
the Grandmother of the Realm,
so happy for her little ones,
she spoils them rotten.
The mother who will die to shield her children.
The father who moves into the single-wide out back
so you can have the house.
The Lover of Heaven
who is so smitten by you
he gives everything to you, everything,
spends it all for one evening with you,
so in love he gives his own self away
every morning and every night.
There is nothing left over, nothing held back. Nothing.
Whenever the Beloved finds a new treasure—
a sunset or forgiveness or the blossoming of the pear,
or the best seat at the table—
they can’t wait to put a bow on it and offer it to you.

           Do not be afraid, little flock,
           for it is your Mother-Father’s good pleasure
           to give you the Realm.
                           —Luke 12.32

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

           They neither sow nor reap,
           they have neither storehouse nor barn,
           and yet God feeds them.
                           —Luke 12.24

A congregation of crabs
dances gracefully en pointe,
moving their tiny chopsticks up and down
among the shreds and tatters.
They are feeding. They are satisfied.
Barnacles waving their wee fans
fetch sustenance out of the seawater.
Is this not a miracle?
The woodpecker typing away on a dead tree
finds food, food enough,
and the birds who swoop for bugs,
and the bugs who eat their tiny morsels.
We come up the aisle with outstretched hands:
a crumb of bread, a sip of wine.
We are given what we need.

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

The flames of perdition are not in hell.
God does not punish.
Punishing serves no purpose.
Punishment is about the past,
but God is in the present.
However, God does not protect us
from the consequences of our choices.
God asks us to see, confess, and repent.
Maybe these heat waves
aren’t “waves” that come and go,
but the state of our collective denial
of our part in climate change.
Maybe the real forest fires are inside us.
For once—for real—
we can stop complaining about the weather
and actually do something about it.
God forgives and waits for us to repent;
until then we swelter.

________________
Weather Report

Hellish
as the friction between our ego and reality
generates heat.
The vortex between our selfishness
and the rest of the world
will create storm conditions;
expect widespread destruction.

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

What if we are playing with God
and there is no score,
no winning or losing,
only playing with God?
Oh, the play is serious:
justice and healing and the mending of the world.
But what if God doesn’t want us to perform well,
but only to play?
What if it’s not about being good enough
but being with God?
Forget the score and play.

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

           God forgave us all our trespasses,
           erasing the record that stood against us
           with its legal demands.
           God set this aside, nailing it to the cross.
                           —Colossians 2.13-14

The good news is that everything is forgiven—
everything.
All you thought was demanded of you
is actually an illusion.
There is no account,
no thought of how “good” you are.
Only love.

Does the sun judge the tree,
or punish it for growing poorly?
No, it only shines.

How hard it is to trust
that God is pure light, pure delight.
How we want to hang onto judgment—
but it is crucifixion.
From Cain onward that has been our sin:
to judge and to expect judgment.

Salvation is not “qualifying” for something.
It’s trusting you don’t have to.

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

           As you therefore have received Christ Jesus the Beloved,
           continue to live your lives in them,
           rooted and built up in Christ and established in the faith,
           just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving.
                           —Colossians 2.6-7


You are not a potted plant,
dependent on your little cup of dirt for faith.
You are planted in Christ, the roots of your soul
tangled with the roots of a thousand saints,
like the million hands of a whole tribe’s memory
grasping deep earth, roots like a lover’s arms
reaching down into that love,
drinking water from underground springs
gushing up, roots wound like lovers’ legs
in fungal webs of trade and alchemy, each
providing what the other lacks, holding hands
beneath all that can be seen,
deep in the the earth of Christ.
You pray and praise with branches of the Spirit s hands,
passing news from bird to bird,
and life from sun to little mouths that sing.

Rooted in Christ you are not a tree.
You are a forest,
abounding.

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

Oh, Holy Mommy, Mommy,
Unimaginable but Here,
may our hearts revere you,
our lives name you who are Unnameable.
Your delight—unfold!
This world—be as you intend!
You are our life in this breath… and this one, and this one.
You who cancel our debts, real and imagined,
help us let go of everyone’s:
no one owes anyone anything. It’s all a gift.
Steer us past our desires and attachments;
save us from our selfishness.
Beloved, you are the only power;
you are the whole world;
you are the beauty of everything.
Wow.
Amen.



[Here is a collection of ten paraphrases of the Lord’s Prayer.]

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

You will not find the best from above.
Kneel in the bread-colored dirt.
Bow down among the weeds.
Draw your face near to the earth.
Lift their green hands, from beneath,
where they hold their offerings.

Let the smell enter you.
Let the wind lay its hand on your face.
Let the sun wrap its arms around your back.

Earth has no need to give you
what is not yet ripe, or already past.
Look for the pure red heart;
feel the gentle firmness.
You know you touch the light
of the first day of creation
slowly deepening in each little red sun.
Hear the soft “yes” as the stem snaps.
Like a child the fruit rolls into your hand.

This moment is really no different from all others.

They come to you one by one.
Imagine who might give such a gift.
In the silence of your own ripeness,
venerate the gifts on the altar of the afternoon,
genuflect with wine-red hands,
and receive your morsel.

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